“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals”–Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937.
Note the use of the word “heedless”. Heedless (non-rational) self-interest would dictate that the extra money in my pocket be spent on a new electronic toy. Rational self-interest would dictate that I put that money to savings for my child’s college fund. I would still be acting in my own self-interest, since it is in my best interest to ensure that my children (who are my responsibility until they come to majority age) attain the best possible education. It is a case of “doing the best job possible”.
I don’t consider myself an Objectivist; I do not walk in lock-step with the official Objectivist party line. I do find most of Ayn Rand’s philosophy rationally derived, and unlike most systems of philosophy it is internally consistent with human nature. It is easy to derive workable rules of living from it.
(I’m particularly intrigued with her system of aesthetics; I’m particularly disgusted by her abject misuse of that system to label art “pro living” and other art “anti-life”. Stating that Beethoven had a “malevolent sense of life” is absurd.)
