| | Joseph Funk writes, [W]e should continue to ask "Why?" until we come down to what I suppose we could call (an) axiom(s). I feel silly asking, but I can't come to a satisfactory answer. I suppose an effective response would begin by answering the "Why should we do what is in our rational self-interest?" and answer all the "whys" that stem from that.
I can effectively answer why a rational being does that which (it believes) is in its self-interest, but not why it SHOULD. I feel silly because of the simplicity, but I can't explain it in a way that satisfies me. The concept "should" presupposes and ultimate end or value, which one is seeking to satisfy. To say that one "should" make certain choices simply means that if one does, one will gain that which one (ultimately) values, namely, one's own happiness. The reason we should do what is in our rational self-interest is that if we don't, we won't be happy. It makes no sense to ask why we should pursue our own happiness, because there is nothing beyond our own happiness for the sake of which we should pursue it. In other words, there is nothing for which our own happiness is worth pursuing as a means, which there would have to be if it made sense to ask why we should pursue it. Our own happiness is self-evidently a value; it is valuable for its own sake, and is not a means to any further value.
Allow me to quote a passage from Rand's novel Anthem which expresses this point beautifully and succinctly: I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
-Bill
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