The Virtue of Whim

A refutation of Ayn Rand's critique of 'Whim'

“Today, as in the past, most philosophers agree that the ultimate standard of ethics is whim (they call it “arbitrary postulate” or “subjective choice” or “emotional commitment”) – and the battle is only over the question of whose whim: one’s own or society’s or the dictator’s or God’s. Whatever else they disagree about, today’s moralists agree that ethics is a subjective issue and that the three things barred from this field are: reason-mind-reality."

Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

For someone whose defense of “selfishness” as a virtue opens with a dictionary definition, Ayn Rand’s denunciation of “whim” ironically relies on the same societal interpretations she has beef with when the term “selfishness” brings to mind a “brute”. The notion of selfishness being vital to fulfillment, satisfaction, and at the most basic level, survival remains appreciated and a point of view poignant to all. She has her reasons, and to this particular philosopher, reason seems her end-all and how she goes about her proofs of Objectivist Ethics. Still, she does not apply this to whim, as she does not even bother to define it by the same standards by which she defines selfishness.

So let us do this.

whim

noun

1. a sudden desire or change of mind, especially one that is unusual or unexplained. "she bought it on a whim"

2. archaic, a windlass for raising ore or water from a mine.

Here, we will not dissect her whole philosophy, but instead focus on whim as a virtue in itself; as change is the natural and unavoidable course of all things, why should our minds not also experience a change? Albeit sudden, this opens a philosophical conundrum of the nature and measure of time; as understood, time is a mechanized feature, formed by a system of clocks, watches, and high-tech heart-rate trackers one wears on one’s wrist. Ironically enough, our perception of time is not dictated by the ticks of a second hand, but rather the beats of our hearts, as they function as a metronome; internally and inescapably. All this to say, time is irrelevant; change happens despite how we track it.

MIND

Strictly by the first definition, we can assert that Rand is presumptuous in saying that whim doesn’t include the mind. We could further insinuate that Rand is presumptuous in believing that the mind must always be rational in its desires and consider whim a faulty action. She does not seem to grasp how the human mind works and would idealize man of an entirely rational nature. Sure, that would work, but man remains a complex being capable of emotions, moods, attitudes, and even logic, rather than being rational.

REASON

Granted, we cannot defend the accusation that whim defies reason, as it's defined as unusual or unexplained. Reason requires explanation, but this does not equate to irrelevance. The very unusualness or unexplainable aspect of an action makes it all the more selfish - one does not ask why, one simply does. Rand requires that the beginning of forming a code of ethics is to ask why; however, whim does not form a code, but a deviation. According to Principle 43, just as whim can be perverted, so can selfishness; either can effect harm. Therefore, both require a certain amount of reason, logic, or general thought, to avoid an unsightly outcome.

REALITY

We have not yet addressed the further meaning: a windlass for raising an oar or water from a mine. One may question why bother with the archaic form, but often, the archaic forms of words express the origins of the word, in this case, the physicality of the origin.

With the definition, we gathered that a whim specifically refers to raising ore or water from a mine. This technology was used to make lifting heavy amounts easier for the subject. Here, the themes of lifting and raising could evoke a mood. If one buys something “on a whim”, not only does this imply a sudden nature, as a piece of technology designed for ease, but also evokes a sort of raising, an uplifting.

As an instrument, a whim could also be classified under the category of a windlass. This similar technology functions similarly but is utilized in many other situations, such as hosting sails. However, we do not say we do things on a windlass, nor does the definition of whim include these different uses. This way, the definition of whim also specifies lifting from a mine, with mines as a natural, dark place. One could argue this darkness implies a sort of evil that the event of a whim could come out of, but the whim physically does not enter this dark place. The whim lifts heavy water, also a widely regarded symbol for emotion, out of darkness, faster than entering and doing so manually.

This could be understood as a desire buried within consciousness, the mind, that—as if on a whim—rises to the surface faster than reason can account for. Perhaps a whim followed could do the same for any subject that decides to find virtue in and follow through with the unusual desires of the mind and change their reality.