"What, then, are the right goals for a man to pursue? What are the values his survival requires? That is the question to be answered by the science of ethics. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why man needs a code of ethics." Ayn Rand, in The Virtue of Selfishness
Até aqui, Rand sugere que a verdadeira diferenciação entre o bem e o mal é se é bom ou mau para a sobrevivência do indivíduo. O código de ética a que ela se refere é egoísta, no sentido de colocar apenas a pergunta: em que medida é que esta opção me beneficia. O suicídio, por exemplo, só é compreensível se for mais favorável a quem escolhe terminar a sua existência. O sacrifício da minha vida em benefício da de outros não faz sentido do ponto de vista natural. David Hume escreveu, referindo-se também à escolha individual de cada um, "I believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping".
Mas Rand explica muito melhor do que eu:
"Now you can assess the meaning of the doctrines which tell you that ethics is the province of the irrational, that reason cannot guide man's life, that his goals and values should be chosen by vote or by whim - that ethics has nothing to do with reality, with existence, with one's practical actions and concerns - or that the goal of ethics is beyond the grave, that the dead need ethics, not the living.
Ethics is not a mystic fantasy - nor a social convention - nor a dispensable, subjective luxury, to be switched or discarded in any emergency. Ethics is an objective, metaphysical necessity of man's survival - not by the grace of the supernatural nor of your neighbors nor of your whims, but by the grace of reality and the nature of life." Ayn Rand, in the Virtue of Selfishness
