Great Randian Points

On Pages 16 ane 17 of her book, The Virtues of Selfishness, Ayn Rand writes of how she regards humans as possessing free agency, to be expressed as they establish and pursue goals to maintain their existence: "Only a living entity can have goals or can originate them. And it is only a living organism that has a capacity for self-generated, goal-directed action. On the physical level, the functions of all living organisms, from the simplest to the most complex, from the nutritive function in the single cell of an amoeba to the blood circulation in the body of a man--are actions generated by the organism itself and directed to a single goal: the maintenance of the organism's life." My response: Life is a supreme good for Rand, and so be it as far as she goes. There is no god, no afterlife, as she would refute my addition that the love of life is to live the good life, the noble and holy life, in this world and the next. Still, she is right as far as she goes. Value and life-affirmation should be tightly linked and she has made this connection eloguently.