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Conventional Virtues

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 7:00pm
UCLA Campus: Ackerman Union 3517

We are lead to believe that conventional virtues--specifically charity, generosity, and kindness--are universally just and good across cultures. But often, acting on these virtues leads to sacrificing our values in order to help those whom we do not value and who do not always deserve our help. Our meeting this week is on how being generous, charitable, and kind is possible without self-sacrifice.

We will use Tara Smith's "Implications for Certain Conventional Virtues" from her book Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist as a frame of reference. Please consider the following questions:

• How can being charitable be consistent with being selfish?
• Should charity be a moral duty?
• On what grounds is it rational to be generous?
• How would being generous be in one's self-interest?
• What kind of positive values does being kind offer a person?
• Should it be our duty to be kind to everyone? Why or why not?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

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