Anirudh Silai

After finishing the "personal integrity" section of Branden, I feel it has raised a question: Suppose Adam steals from Bob. If Adam dis-values theft, then he will surely feel guilty because he has also defrauded himself in a sense - through his mind. But what if Adam does not dis-value theft?

I see what you mean. You might have seen the ABC 20/20 report by John Stossel called "Feel Good about Failure." Stossel actually uses Baumeister in his own argument that self-esteem comes from achievement. But Baumeister defined self-esteem in a different way than Branden, I guess. Thanks for the correction!

Hey everyone, Here's an interesting thought to consider: http://aynrandlexicon.com/ayn-rand-ideas/the-objectivist-ethics.html - Here Rand says, "if some men attempt to survive by means of brute force or fraud, by looting, robbing, cheating or enslaving the men who produce, it still remains true that their survival is made possible only by their victims, only by the men who choose to think and to produce the goods which they, the looters, are seizing...The men who attempt to survive, not by means of reason, but by means of force, are attempting to survive by the method of animals...Such looters may achieve their goals for the range of a moment, at the price of destruction: the destruction of their victims and their own." - By destruction, she means physical and psychological (with regard to self-esteem). But what about criminals who get away with it successfully? Consider that man must act with reason in order to survive. Consider a thief who reasons that the risk of getting caught is very low, even that the likelihood of his victim even reporting the crime is low. Finally consider that criminals, on average, even those who are caught, have higher-than-average self-esteem, according to the APA. Or, as an insignificant example, consider that once, when I was in school, I was feeling hungry and I easily snagged a couple of potato chips from a friend.