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What is the Objectivist definition of greed? Is it wanting the unearned? I have found nothing in the lexicon.
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According to my dictionary, greed is defined as: "intense and selfish desire for something, esp. wealth, power, or food". Of course, by itself, this definition has no negative meaning; it's just as possible to be rationally greedy for something as irrationally greedy for it. However, it's become common to attach a negative connotation to it, just as is common with "selfish". While I don't think there's an official Objectivist definition for "greed", one can infer from how Ayn Rand used it that she did not accept the negative connotations attached to the word. Indeed, chapter 2 of section 2 in Atlas Shrugged was entitled: "The Utopia of Greed". There are many examples of the looters using the word in the pejorative sense (e.g., James Taggart says: "Ellis Wyatt is a greedy bastard who's after nothing by money"), but there are also a number of examples where she makes it clear that her protagonists reject that definition (e.g., Dagny's first dinner in the valley has several references). |
Greed is an anti concept, a smear tactic and a package deal. The word assumes that self interest is wrong. Then it packages it will the violation of another's rights to gain unearned values. Ask yourself this question: Can one be 'greedy' without violating a right?
the essence of greed is an unmitigated desire. It does not specify a particular content, just a specific intensity towards that content, whatever it may be. Greed for wealth, greed for women, greed for the unearned, etc...
I've heard Peikoff define it as insatiable desire. But personally, I think it it more often used (properly) as "a[n irrational] desire for a value without regard to other values".
By that definition, can one be "greedy" without violating a right? Sure, a desire does not necessarily imply that one acts on that desire. And often people who "get greedy" cause self-destruction without a violation of the rights of others. (*)
Note that this definition is directly counter to Rand, and so is in no way "Objectivist". Rand referred to Galt's Gulch as a "utopia of greed" (Atlas Shrugged, chapter 22).
(*) For example, Michael Vick (a football quarterback) says he "got greedy and took a shot at the end zone", disregarding the fact that he had three more downs and 44 more seconds if only he could stop the clock and keep from turning the ball over. No one's rights were violated by his greed.
You assume the current definition of 'greed'. An irrational desire is actually - unselfish. The modern understanding of the word 'greed' is synonymous with the word 'selfish' and is the derogatory version of it. Like 'fag' is to 'gay', 'spic' is to 'mexican'. It simply means - 'selfish and I think it evil' - packaged into one.