Rand On Rational Ethics

Ayn Rand, on Page 14 of her book, The Virtue of Selfishness, poses the question about ethical code to be irrational or rational: "Is ethics the province of whims: of personal emotions, social edicts and mystic revelations--or is it the province of reason?" My response: Obviously, the good person is rational more than emotional, and logical more than whimsical, but sentiment and mystical revelations are not to be bracketed off, excluded from the ethical conversation. Rand continues: "In the sorry history of mankind's ethics--with a few rare, and unsuccessful, exceptions--moralists have regarded ethics as the province of whims, that is: of the irrational. Some of them did so explicitly, by intention--others implicitly, by default. A 'whim' is a desire experienced by a person who does not know and does not care to discover its cause." My response: people are complex, and truth, even moral truth, is multifaceted and moderate. Therefore irrationalism, which is most of the human psyche, must have a place at the table of ethical discussion. Our reason should guide or whims, feelings, desire and passions, but they can be moral and worthy, not just dangerous, hateful and extremist. Rand is mostly right, as usual, but her all-or-none totalistic characterization of things is overstated.