Egoizm – instynkt samozachowawczy – indywidualizm. Idee Hobbesowskie w etyce absolutnej Ayn Rand
Egoizm – instynkt samozachowawczy – indywidualizm. Idee Hobbesowskie w etyce absolutnej Ayn Rand

Summary/Abstract: The topic – connections between the thought of Ayn Rand and of Thomas Hobbes – results from the fact that on the one hand, Ayn Rand is one of the most important representative of libertarianism (one of varieties of liberalism) and on the other hand, Thomas Hobbes is – in some respects – a precursor of liberalism. In the first instance, a concept of egoism, the key idea for both above mentioned thinkers, is analysed. Ayn Rand tries to disregard the traditional, pejorative connotation of this word and to base on its semantics. Egoism has got the equally fundamental meaning in Thomas Hobbes’ views, although Hobbes – in opposite to Rand – does not hesitate to give a moral assessment of it. The problem of the instinct for self-preservation is without a doubt the Archimedes point both in Rand’s and Hobbes’ philosophy. In Rand’s system as well as in Hobbes’ one the most essential frame of reference is a human life, which every human being – thanks to his/her reason – knows how to protect, to maintain and to make secure. A human life is a general pattern, an abstract principle that is filled with its own, characteristic, individual existence. Rand’s absolute ethics is based on this conviction. In Hobbes’ doctrine the extreme individualism demonstrates with all its might in the state of nature where the basic value is the self-preservation. This type of individualism also returns in a state when a human life is in danger. As far as I can see there are three points in Rand’s philosophy which induce to polemic: primo, the assumption that rational interests of individuals do not come into conflict; secundo, the extrapolation of economic theories on quite different realms of human activities such as ethics; tertio, the exaggerated faith in a rationality of a human being.

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