Objectivism and Empathy

A few days ago, I posted the following comment in an entry about an example of human kindness:

But sometimes, it's really not a conspiracy to slow us down and inconvenience us. Sometimes, people who mean no harm just don't function as well as they once did, and make little mistakes. And ya know what? Whatever Ayn Rand might have thought about it (and I say this as an objectivist, though not necessarily an ARI-approved one), it really IS okay to show a little compassion, to track down their shopping cart, and switch with them, and convince them no harm was done -- really.

Even if it costs you a little time.

My friend Sean emailed, and asked me to explain that comment. More specifically, he asks why I think Ayn Rand would disapprove of compassion, and what made me single out Ayn Rand (of the whole universe of people who might exemplify lack of compassion).

My answer is: I don't know if Ayn Rand would disapprove of compassion, because she wrote so little about it! I don't mean that as flippantly as it may sound. With the comment "Whatever Ayn Rand might have thought about it," I quite literally meant to suggest that I don't know what Rand would have thought about Callie's experience -- and then followed that with what I thought about it.

Ayn Rand literally filled reams of paper with arguments why a person is not morally compelled to sacrifice one's self in the service of others. That's one of her most important contributions. But what about those actions that come at some cost to one's self (i.e. time and trouble), but give pleasure even though they only directly benefit others? I don't recall Rand ever addressing that situation in a context similar to the one described in my earlier entry.

With that entry, I think I was getting more at the place of empathy in a moral framework than the place of compassion per se, even though I used the term compassion. Rand didn't say all that much on the place of empathy, whether it was because she didn't place much value on the topic philosophically, or because it didn't fit her carefully constructed system (scroll down to Jaffo's "Parting Thoughts" in this old journal entry for an elaboration). Like Jaffo, I do place some value on it, and I always liked his formulation. And I do think that one of the perils of Objectivism is that many of its new adherents tend to deny the (emotional) value of such transactions.

As to the question, why did I single out Ayn Rand? Because she's of interest to me, as someone who thinks quite a lot of her philosophy (if not the ideology of Objectivism advanced by some). And I know a fair number of post-Objectivists, quasi-Objectivists, and maybe even an occasional plain old Objectivist (something Hanah called me a while back *laugh*) who visit the site. It's almost an esoteric way of fostering interaction with those (you) folks who care. And it worked!

[Posted at 23:11 CST on 08/25/02] [Link]