The Journal of Ayn Rand
Studies 17.1 is now available. I received my paper copy
very recently. It contains my article “The
Beneficiary Statement and Beyond.” A link to the abstracts for it and the other articles is here.
It also contains my reply to Roger Bissell’s article about volition in an earlier
issue. If you are not a subscriber and don't want to pay, then you will need to see a payer’s
copy or wait about 5 years when it becomes freely available on JSTOR.
From the SEP entry “Leibniz’ Ethics”
ReplyDeleteLeibniz thus makes the insightful suggestion that, though we do everything we do out of an inclination whose satisfaction gives us pleasure, this is perfectly compatible with desiring the perfection of another without any other end in view, which actually occurs whenever the object of our desire is another's perfection or happiness. “In truth,” Leibniz concludes, “the happiness of those whose happiness pleases us turns into our own happiness, since things which please us are desired for their own sake” (PW, “Codex Iuris Gentium,” p. 171) (for further reading on Leibniz's conception of disinterested love, see Brown 2011b).
Genuine altruism, then, does not require complete selflessness. Indeed, selflessness, even if it were possible, would not be desirable (W, “Letter to Nicaise,” p. 566). After all, according to Leibniz,
One cannot envisage in God any other motive than that of perfection, or, if you like, of his pleasure; supposing (according to my definition) that pleasure is nothing but a feeling of perfection, he has nothing to consider outside himself; on the contrary everything depends on him. But his goodness would not be supreme, if he did not aim at the good and at perfection so far as is possible. But what will one say, if I show that this same motive has a place in truly virtuous and generous men, whose supreme function [degré] is to imitate divinity, in so far as human nature is capable of it? (PW, “Meditation on the Common Concept of Justice,” pp. 57–8).
Imitate divinity—this is the overarching imperative of Leibniz's ethics, if not the guiding principle of his entire philosophical system. For him, God, not humanity, is the “measure of all things” (PW, “Opinion on the Principles of Pufendorf,” p. 69). Our chief task therefore is to make perpetual progress toward the ideal of divine nature, for each of us is like a little divinity in the City of God (PE, “Monadology,” §83 & §85, pp. 223–4; T §147, pp. 215–216).
Thank you. I agree with Leibniz's meaning of altruism in your first two paragraphs. Of course, his doesn't match Rand's.
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