avampirist

The 2nd last book I bought was Beyond Good and Evil. Thanks for making me feel good about my purchase! I tried reading Thus Spake Zarathustra when I was younger, but the writing style was too annoying to keep my interest. Since I've heard so much about him, I decided to give him another shot. From what I've read so far, he seems to nit-pick. I'm a new Objectivist, so I'm not familiar with prevailing objectivist opinion on Nietzsche, if there is one. Why don't you like the book?

Are you changing the first or last name, or both? Are you gonna be Cogito, like Madonna? Shea's one of my favorite gaelic names. In fact, if I have kids I might choose that name. Just be prepared for this. Cogito. "What?" Cogito "Huh?" Cogito What?" Also, you might get people calling you "Cog"

I agree with you. That's just a phrase I've adopted to try to explain the objectivist point of view to those who have a false understanding of the word "selfish". Most people, it seems, negatively and falsely associate selfishness with greed or something else. What I was trying to say is, "if you're not actively and purposefully employing reason in your decision making, by default you're acting irrationally (not in your best interest)". Now, I realize that being rational doesn't automatically mean someone's acting in their best interest, but it might shed some light for someone who has no clue. Remember that some (maybe most) people don't even believe that using reason to guide their actions is a good thing to do. I'm not used to speaking to objectivists. On other forums, nobody questions the validity of anything I say... it's very refreshing. I agree with most of what you said. Maybe it would be more appropriate to say that everyone is inherently a hedonist, that everyone does what they think (or feel) will make them happy. Whether or not someone applies reason to their decision, their goal is still the same. Because even those who hurt themselves, they do it to escape pain (gain pleasure). Also, anyone who acts out of duty to their religion does so with the belief that they'll gain happiness later.

Every action is inherently a selfish action. The decision to shoot yourself in the head is selfish because it's what you think is best for you at the time. Obviously that does not mean that every action is in your self interest. Whether or not your actions are in your best interest depends on the degree to which your decisions are rational. There is only rational and irrational selfishness.

the answer is yes. the koran is worse than the old testament, not by much, but worse. since actions are based on beliefs, we can easily say that the world would have been worse off.