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EducationAtlas University
Question: If the pursuit of happiness is one of our goals, what if a person enjoys being altruistic?
It's an interesting one. My first reaction is to say, 'If being altruistic makes you happy, then you're doing it wrong!'
Here we're using the term 'altruism' in its philosophical sense; other-ism, altru-ism. It's a moral theory that says the other is the standard of value, not the self; and whether it makes you happy or not, benefits you or not, is entirely irrelevant to the morality of the action. Only the benefit to the other is important, and strong versions of altruism say you should be selfless in the literal sense. The self is of less importance. You should be self-sacrificing, and sacrifice doesn't mean just paying investment costs hoping for a larger return. It means suffering pain, giving-up, losing in the long run.
And so altruism then, as a philosophical theory means that it has to be done as a matter of duty and against yourself-interest, and that is precisely what Objectivism is opposed to.
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