Virtues or Vices?: Kindness, Generosity, Charity by Tara Smith

A thorough understanding of the Objectivist ethics requires digesting not only the major virtues that Ayn Rand identified, but the implications of rational egoism for other types of action traditionally praised as virtuous. This lecture considers three such conventional virtues: kindness, generosity and charity. Are they lesser, subordinate virtues? Are they incompatible with egoism? Can generosity violate the virtue of justice? Under what conditions is it appropriate to be kind or generous or charitable? Addressing these questions will prod us to confront remnants of altruism that may continue to infect our attitudes.
Lesson 5 of 5 of Objectivism’s Approach to the Virtues: • Objectivism’s Approach...
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[@rgon3t]

"Kindness towards appropriate persons is a way of valuing your values." That's stuck with me since first listening to this lecture. Thank you, Dr. Smith.

[@jedimaster128]

Please tell Dr. Smith that she is my hero and inspiration. What lecture was this at? I love that she gives handouts. 😍

[@rgon3t]

I was wondering too, so I looked it up. On Dr. Smith's CV, she has "Virtues or Vices? Kindness, Generosity, Charity," Objectivist Conference, Wintergreen, VA, July 2004. The book she speaks of writing has got to be "Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics", which has a chapter on this subject.

[@marius6086]

Virtues are not blind to context, why do you keep saying that these aren't virtues without being universally applicable?

[@davidste60]

We can say they are much less universally applicable than the major virtues. A good example is justice, which actually contains all of these minor ones in the way that they're explained here. You can be kind, when it's deserved. You can be generous, when it's deserved. You can be charitable, when it's deserved. We could continue this pattern for every concept of human action but to understand and validate them requires identifying the common denominators e.g. justice.