Regarding the Objectivist ethics of rational self-interest, it is vital to remember that in "The Objectivist Ethics" Rand is advancing the view that ethics is by its very nature egoistic. That is to say, if one wants to understand the nature of ethics, one needs to acknowledge that such a set of guidelines is required by human beings so as to live right, to flourish. Instead of instincts, which guide other animals automatically because they have them, as it were, hard wired, human beings require or need ethics, which, however, they need to choose to be guided by. One vital implication of this