Words and their Meanings: Ayn Rand and the "exact meaning" of "Selfishness."
Thesis: Ayn Rand only has herself to blame if people misunderstand what she means by the word "Selfishness," as used in her phrase The Virtue of Selfishness.
Ayn
Rand’s title The Virtue of Selfishness is very off-putting and
has resulted in widespread misunderstanding concerning her views. This is
because it is assumed that by the word “selfishness,” she meant what that
word usually means. That is not, however, the case.
To some
degree she only has herself to blame for this misunderstanding. In the
introduction to that book, Rand asserted that “the exact meaning and
dictionary definition of the word ‘selfishness’ is: concern with one’s own
interests. This concept does not include a moral evaluation.”
That
simply isn’t true. Rand made this statement in 1964. At the time one
of the most authoritative dictionaries of the English language was the Merriam-Webster’s
Third International Dictionary (1961), which defined “selfish” as
“concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating
on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others,” and
“selfishness,” as “a concern for one’s own welfare or advantage at the expense
of or in disregard of others.” Contra Rand, there clearly is an
inescapable “moral evaluation,” in the “exact meaning and dictionary definition”
of “selfishness.”
Actually
the word “selfishness” has always involved a “moral
valuation.” It appears to have been coined by Presbyterians during the English
Civil War of the seventeenth century (John Hacket, [Scrinia Reserata] A
Memorial Offer’d to the Great Deservings of John Williams, D. D. Who Sometimes
Held the Places of Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Part II. [London:
for Samuel Lowndes, 1693], 2.144). And from that time forward in English as far
as it has been discovered by the editors of the Oxford English
Dictionary, the word has always had a bad connotation, carrying a negative moral
valuation. I include for my readers’ interest the first known
page where it appears from William Bridge’s The True Souldiers Convoy (May
1640), 75. There we read that “a carnall selfe-ish spirit is very
loathsome in what is spirituall" (top line of p. 75).”
For a selection of quotations of Ayn Rand's reflecting her understanding of the term "selfishness," see the entry "Selfishness," in The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z (The Ayn Rand Library IV: ed. Harry Binswanger; New York: Meridian, 1988): 446-452.
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Philosophers love to redefine words, that's their profession! I had no idea that's what Ayn looked like. That amusingly clears up some things for me.
ReplyDeleteYes. To be sure you're right. But it's one thing, is it not, to redefine a word and another to simply misrepresent how it has generally and historically been understood. I would agree that Philosopher's often often do the latter as well, but I wouldn't go so far as grant that it is part of their profession. I would rather say that it is a bad habit to which their profession might be particularly prone.
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