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 for the discussion of the ethics Rand defended is that ethics is by its very nature and purpose egoistic or rationally self-interested not, however, on a case by case basis--there can be many actions, much conduct, that does not deliver benefits to the agent which are, nonetheless, egoistic (like generous, kind, benevolent, charitable or disinterested ones) because it is acting in terms of the principles of ethics, whatever they turn out to be, that the agent is advancing his or her self-interest.