Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset wrote the following quote (below). What does he mean by 'it is not easy to be a pure egoist" and how does this relate to Nietzsche and Rand's view of egoism? “It is not as easy as you imagine to be a pure egoist, and none such have ever succeeded. The apparent egoism of great nations and of great men is the inevitable sternness with which anyone who has his life fixed on some undertaking must bear himself. When we are really going to do something and have dedicated ourselves to a purpose, we cannot be expected to be ready at hand to look after every passer-by and to lend ourselves to every chance display of altruism. One of the things that most delight travelers in Spain is that if they ask someone in the street where such a building or square is, the man asked will often turn aside from his own path and generously sacrifice himself to the stranger, conducting him to the point he is interested in. I am not going to deny that there may be in this disposition of the worth Spaniard some element of generosity, and I rejoice that the foreigner so interprets his conduct. But I have never, when hearing or reading of this, been able to repress a suspicion: ‘Was my countryman, when this question, really going anywhere?’ Because it might very well be, in many cases, that the Spaniard is going nowhere, has no purpose or mission, but rather goes out into life to see if others’ lives can fulfill his own a little.” [Source: José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses [1930], W. W. Norton, 1932, p. 143.]
Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset wrote the following quote (below). What does he mean by 'it is not easy to be a pure egoist" and how does this relate to Nietzsche and Rand's view of egoism?
“It is not as easy as you imagine to be a pure egoist, and none such have ever succeeded. The apparent egoism of great nations and of great men is the inevitable sternness with which anyone who has his life fixed on some undertaking must bear himself. When we are really going to do something and have dedicated ourselves to a purpose, we cannot be expected to be ready at hand to look after every passer-by and to lend ourselves to every chance display of altruism. One of the things that most delight travelers in Spain is that if they ask someone in the street where such a building or square is, the man asked will often turn aside from his own path and generously sacrifice himself to the stranger, conducting him to the point he is interested in. I am not going to deny that there may be in this disposition of the worth Spaniard some element of generosity, and I rejoice that the foreigner so interprets his conduct. But I have never, when hearing or reading of this, been able to repress a suspicion: ‘Was my countryman, when this question, really going anywhere?’ Because it might very well be, in many cases, that the Spaniard is going nowhere, has no purpose or mission, but rather goes out into life to see if others’ lives can fulfill his own a little.” [Source: José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses [1930], W. W. Norton, 1932, p. 143.]
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