“The Virtue of Selfishness; Individual Rights” by Ayn Rand

Excerpts from the Paper

"The Virtue of Selfishness; Individual Rights" by Ayn Rand
The Objectivist ethics, in essence, hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself. -
Ayn
Rand
Ayn
Rand was a philosopher of Objectivist ethics. Objectivist ethics is founded in the belief that the end of humanity individually and collectively is in man himself. The end is not found in the welfare of others. The end for man is found in man living for his own sake and not sacrificing for others before himself. Man must live for his own sake which means for his own passions, achievements, happiness and it is in doing so that man attains his highest...

.....on a person’s individual rights; the majority has no right to vote the rights of the minority away. Government’s role in protecting the individual rights of man disallows the rights of the minority to be oppressed by the majority.
An individual’s rights are abrogated. By abrogated Rand means that there isn’t a way of determining who is entitled to what individual right just like there is no way to determine justice in terms of man’s claims, desires or interests. For Rand the only way for man to survive is to value his own right to survive and place that before the rights of others to survive. A system in contrast to Rand’s ideals would be filled with hate, fear, destruction, plotting, conspiracy, deals, favors, betrayals and bloody warring.