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Ultimate Value: Self-Contradictory
- Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
- Penn State University Press
- Volume 17, Number 1, July 2017
- pp. 54-67
- Article
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Ever since Ayn Rand’s groundbreaking analysis of life and value, and her formulation of the Objectivist ethics, controversy has been generated over the relation between the “choice to live” and the status of life as the “ultimate value.” The author argues that the concept “Value” should be modified to denote “that which [an organism] acts to gain and/or keep” that serves as the means to a further end. Deeper analysis shows that the term “ultimate value” is self-contradictory and has been detrimental to the study of the foundations of the Objectivist ethical theory.