Talk:Rational egoism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Socrates
Philosophy Portal
This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Philosophy, which collaborates on articles related to philosophy. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received an importance rating on the importance scale.
Did You Know An entry from Rational egoism appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 10 October 2006.
Wikipedia


Contents

[edit] Expanding

I've adopted this page, and will expand it. Please feel free to help out or leave comments or suggestions. I will appreciate everything.--Connor K. 19:51, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original Research

I'm removing the tag, I rewrote the entire thing, and cited my sources. Please let me know if you disagree.--Connor K. 22:22, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quick comment

This exhibits itself in politics, because rational government would be the least restrictive while protecting everyone's right to life, liberty and property, and forbidding the initiation of force by anyone against anyone.

Sounds to me like that's Rand's opinion- it's certainly not indisputable fact. So, it needs a qualifier.--AdamGomaa 18:35, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

That is why I wrote it under "Ayn Rand's Version". If it needs more, please let me know.-- ¢² Connor K.   23:10, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overemphasis on Rand

This concept is central to much economic and political science analysis, as a behavioral hypothesis, rather than a philosophical imperative. The Prisoner's Dilemma is just one example. And it was being discussed long before Rand, as witness George Meredith "The Egoist". The article should be restructured to reflect this JQ 22:18, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Well by all means. Update it. I must say, Rand's writing came up most on the internet when I googled "Rational Egoism". I understand it is not incredibly novel. I will say that Ayn Rand expanded it a lot, not because she found another writer so inspiring, but because it is what she always believed.
Of course, it goes without saying, site your sources. And please don't remove all of the information about Rand, she is definitely one of the more well known writers about it.-- ¢² Connor K.   23:05, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Does This Belong in the Article?

In diplomatic, political and military terms, this situation is known, generally, as 'divide and conquer' which takes full and dependable advantage of the conflicting self-interests of the opposing allied parties group's individual members to overcome the allied group's collective interest.

I don't know if this is important in the article "Rational Egoism". In my opinion, this part is more important in the "Prisoner's Dilemma" article, and not in this particular one. Can comeone explain why it is needed in this article?-- ¢² Connor K.   23:23, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I have recieved no comment, so I am going to remove it. If there is a problem, please discuss it on this page.-- ¢² Connor K.   20:41, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rational egoism in the social sciences

There is no sources referenced in this entire section. Please, JQ, place citations, otherwise it seems like original research (because it is definately not common sense). I understand that more is to come, but the citations are important.-- ¢² Connor K.   22:49, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Done. JQ 10:52, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
Thank you so much-- ¢² Connor K.   12:00, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Prisoner's Dilemma

From a Game Theoretic point of view the Prisoner's Dilemma game is an example of rational behavior, this is not a point of contention. However, the example is potentially misleading, to a reader who is unfamiliar with Game Theory, since the Prisoner's Dilemma "game" is not representative of many real-world situations insofar as it does not permit communication between the parties who are acting rationally, a Cooperative_game or a Coordination_gameis much more representative of real-world situations (depending on what you want to emphasize). Perhaps one should be used here, like Chicken_(game)