 Of course, this non-instrumentalist justification of virtue depends on the prior instrumentalist justification, viz., that in normal circumstances (that is, in a society of more or less virtuous people), virtue enables us to gain both external and psychological goods. If justice or kindness were systematically bad for human beings, leading to disease and death, they would not be virtues. If rationality routinely led to an early demise, no one would value rationality. But this does not entail, as Salmieri seems to think, that the ultimate value is literal survival (Salmieri 2019). All it entails is that the virtues be compatible with survival in normal circumstances. For it is easy to see that if justice or kindness systematically led to deep depression, and rationality routinely sucked the joy out of life, only the rare misery-lover would value his life, or the virtues. Survival is a necessary condition of a happy life (as well as an unhappy one), not an ultimate value. And it’s only because the virtues lead to, and partly constitute, a happy (eudaimonic) life, that a virtuous person considers it a greater loss to betray his principles than to lose the work he loves – or, sometimes, even his life. One of the best examples of this from Rand’s own work is Howard Roark’s decision to act out of integrity, even at the cost of being unable to practice architecture (The Fountainhead). Another example concerns two minor characters in We The Living who risk – and lose – their freedom and lives for resisting the new communist regime. (Note, however, that Rand does not think that we are morally obligated to martyr ourselves to fight evil. All we are obligated to do is not be complicit in evil, or betray our values.)