Quote:For example, what if I wanted to pay higher taxes for more nationalized charity? Say someone or myself needed it at the time or might need it in the future. This is being altruistic for selfish reasons, but it is altruism none the less.
Yeah, that's actually not true. It isn't logically possible to be altruistic for selfish reasons (one of the synonyms for 'altruism' is 'selflessness'). Altruistic behaviour requires that you help someone and not only receive no benefit, but actually lose something in the process.
In your tax example, for instance, your wanting to pay higher taxes for social services would only be altruism if you rejected those services for yourself. Sort of like giving the medicine you need for your own health to someone else for the sake of their's.
Ayn Rand has a lot of problems, but (as Mister Agenda ably pointed out) a conflict between egoism and altruism wasn't one of them.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
