Viable Values examines the most basic foundations of value and morality, demonstrating the shortcomings of major traditional views and proposing that morality is grounded in the objective requirements of human life. Smith argues that human beings need to be moral in order to live, explaining how life is the standard of morality, how flourishing is the proper end and reward of living morally, and how an intelligent egoism is the path to flourishing.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Smith writes in very clear, engaging language, refreshing and enjoyable. Good index. Recommended. (Choice )
Smith undertakes the meta-ethical part and does a commendable job of fleshing out Rand's ideas. (The Journal Of Value Inquiry )
To my mind, this is one of the most interesting works in ethics to have appeared in a long while. Tara Smith's book ought to win many new adherents to the proposition that morality should be in the service of life, and not the reverse. (Lester H. Hunt )
Smith undertakes the meta-ethical part and does a commendable job of fleshing out Rand's ideas. (The Journal Of Value Inquiry )
To my mind, this is one of the most interesting works in ethics to have appeared in a long while. Tara Smith's book ought to win many new adherents to the proposition that morality should be in the service of life, and not the reverse. (Lester H. Hunt )
About the Author
Tara Smith is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Why be moral? Anyone who has ever done any serious reading on the subject has probably been disappointed with how most writers respond to that question. However, in her latest book, VIABLE VALUES, philosopher Tara Smith gives one of the most convincing, rigorous, and readable answers to the question I have ever read. As someone who is NOT an Objectivist or a follower of Ayn Rand, Smith has given me much to think about.
Tara Smith defends the metaethical theory known as egoism, which is the view that morality requires you pursue your own self-interest. However, as Smith convincingly shows, many of the traditional objections to egoism are based on misunderstandings or, more often, caricatures of what egoism entails. Egoism is incompatible with hedonism, materialism, and subjectivism; an act may be pleasurable or may make a person happy and yet not be in a person's interest. Anyone committed to pursuing their rational self-interest must adopt ethical principles to guide them through life. Moreover, though it may initially seem that an egoist would be in competition with everyone else, Smith convincingly shows how this is not the case. By grounding morality on life as the source of value, what is in a person's interest is "flourishing," to live one's life in a life-promoting manner. The egoist benefits when other people flourish.
Perhaps Smith's most controversial claim is her argument rational self-interests never conflict. I haven't decided if I am convinced of that yet, but if she is right then egoism *is* universalizable, thus avoiding one of the traditional objections to egoism.
At any rate, it appears that Smith has answered all of the traditional objections to egoism as an ethical theory. Whether Smith is ultimately correct remains to be seen, however it is clear that Smith has provided rigorous, prima facie answers to those objections. I strongly recommend VIABLE VALUES to anyone interested in the foundations of morality.
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
« Viable Values » is not about ethics, but metaethics : it will not provide you with a code of values with which to guide your life and actions, but help you answer such questions as « why be moral ? » and « is moral knowledge possible ? »
Do not think that these are very abstract issues which only a professional philosopher would ever consider worth his time. After all, why are *you* moral and how do you know right from wrong ? Do you believe that « you just know » ? Then you are an intuitionist, a position which Tara Smith shows to be untenable. Or do you think that morality is just a matter of agreeing with others on what behaviour is mutually acceptable ? Then you are a contractarian, another invalid position.
On the contrary, as Tara Smith explains, the root of morality is life. You should be moral because you have chosen to live. Morality is a matter of life and death : to choose the bad is to destroy oneself, to choose the good is to flourish.
You might be tempted to shun this book in favour of more popular ones offering concrete rules, but none of these books will give you a good reason to be moral, or a good justification for the code of value they offer. « Viable Values », on the other hand, will make an independent moral thinker out of you, equipping you with the methods and standards by which to judge for yourself.
Moreover, this concise, lucid volume will also direct you to the books that do offer rational moral guidance, sparing you the costly trial-and-error method that has wasted so many lives.
58 of 62 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Why be moral? Prof. Smith's "Viable Values" provides the most comprehensive answer to this question that I've seen.
Although Smith unapolegetically follows the philosophy of the late Ayn Rand, she does not simply recapitulate Rand's position. First, Smith provides an original defense of Rand's question "Why does man need a code of values?" Second, she utterly demolishes the life/flourishing dichotomy through a series of extended, thoroughly analyzed examples. But the most rewarding section contains an illuminating analysis of why ill-begotten gains are not values. Her analysis here is explicit enough that it should allow readers to identify how *any* con-artist must be self-defeating.
As an aside, I can't help but defend Smith's thesis against one silly objection--that she provides no reason for an irrevocably suicidal person to live morally. Her answer would be simple: If morality is the art of living well, then a person irrevocably committed to suicide has no more reason to act morally than a person irrevocably committed to poverty has reason to invest wisely. The *reason* to practice any code of action (whether morality or the art of finance) is the acceptance of the *goal* of that practice (whether it be life or wealth). Thus, demanding an ethics that will compel moral action from those who seek never to act again is akin to demanding an economics that will compel good investments from those who've taken a vow of poverty. Following Smith's argument, if you meet an *irrevocably* suicidal airline pilot, don't get on his plane; if you meet a monk who dabbles in the stock market, don't give him a dime to invest. There's no hole in the logic that leads to "seek a pilot who loves life and an investor who loves profits."
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Life is the Standard and the Reward of Morality
Viable Values by Tara Smith
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
11/19/2011
"Viable Values" is an excellent read for anyone concerned with rational values and what code of... Read more
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
11/19/2011
"Viable Values" is an excellent read for anyone concerned with rational values and what code of... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
A powerful mind guiding you through complexity
I have read this book twice...so far. When I started it, there was only one review about this book here on Amazon and I wanted to supply a deeper discussion. Read more
Published on October 13, 2009 by Paul Beaird
I. E. Ethics To Live By.
Delightful! Ms. Smith has succeeded in making an in depth analysis of the profoundly important topic of ethics both entertaining and useful. Read more
Published on April 16, 2007 by T. Dungey
Response to Kevin Currie
Mr. Currie's review is far from the target. He begins doing precisely what he dislikes -- that is, characterizing the position of an opponent and then declaring himself the victor. Read more
Published on February 28, 2007 by W. Schultz
Unviable philosophy.
The anatomy of most Randian arguments is this: (a) Ask the philosophic question (what is life?); (b) caricaturize all of your opponents; (c) argue against the strawmen using... Read more
Published on May 13, 2004 by Kevin Currie-Knight
Rigorous explanation of why enlightened selfishness is GOOD
This book does an incredible job of reviewing the failings of most contemporary explanations of morality and why "one should be moral". Read more
Published on February 20, 2004 by Eric Kassan
A New Angle on Putting Philosophy in the Service of Life
On reading Ayn Rand's nonfiction, many readers are struck by her impassioned relating of philosophy to life. Ideas, she persuades us, matter. Read more
Published on December 2, 2003 by Mike Baum
Great Book
This is a very thorough examination the rational, scientific basis for ethics.
Published on August 13, 2003 by Mark Miller
Are Randian Ethics Viable?
Tara Smith is a follower of the novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand, and also a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas. Read more
Published on September 14, 2002 by Steve Jackson
This should be required reading in philosophy departments.
Tara Smith begins Viable Values by carefully examining today's dominant schools of moral thought and demonstrating both the lack of and the need for an objective, fact-based answer... Read more
Published on July 9, 2002 by Craig Biddle
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