My first thought after reading this article was that it was a breath of fresh air in the morality and ethics debate. Having suffered through a whole semester worth of ethics and society, Ms Rand was correct when she said that no one had ever wondered about why ethics are required for human beings. Her theory of the relationship between ethics and survival was interesting, and definetley has made me inquire more about the reason why we need ethics or not.
However I had a few criticisms about Ms Rands rationale behind this theory. She mentions that," The physical sensation of pleasure is a signal indicating that the organism is pursuing the right course of action. The physical sensation of pain is a warning signal of danger, indicating the organism is pursuing the worng course of action." I think that maybe Rand oversimplified this in her rationale. I can think of a few instances where this in not true- for example human beings have had to physically exert themselves to hunt, gather, grow crops etc. Though there might be a physical sensation of pain, this is still needed for survival and humans do it without thinking it is "dangerous". Also, this is commonly seen in other organisms like animals who must migrate across continents to stay alive during winters.
It is also important to note that