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Started by Ronald at 04-04-2006 5:41 PM. Topic has 7 replies.
  
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 04-04-2006, 5:41 PM
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Ronald
Joined on 04-05-2006
Posts 5
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My name is Ron. I have been searching for a certain type of discussion base, but have been unsuccessful.
Ayn Rand had many things to say. Hell, she was the first to say them.... Many things are hard to digest, but never-the-less, cannot be disputed.
Does anyone have an opinion, on what this woman's greatest discoveries are?
Anyone?
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04-07-2006, 11:43 AM
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mikelanyard
Joined on 04-07-2006
Posts 8
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Well, I think Rand has many original discoveries (and new insights on philosophical and political positions established elsewhere).
To name just a few that immediately come to mind: her clarification that the moral is the practical; her discussion (and solution) to the "is/ought" controversy; her position that man can know the facts of reality (and act accordingly); the roles of both mysticism and altruism as the root causes of totalitarianism (e.g., communism, fascism, religious theocratic regimes, etc.); the role of "the sanction of the victim" as a social control mechanism that fosters and perpetuates totaltarianism and other collectivist systems; her theory of human rights; and her presentation of capitalism as the only economic system consistent with man's rights. These are just a few. There are many more.
For more detailed discussions of Rand's distinctive contributions, see The Moral Revolution in Atlas Shrugged, by Nathaniel Branden; the TOC website section on "Objectivism Q&A" and "Faqs;" Ayn Rand by Tibor Machan, is an excellant summary; Anthony Sciabarra's Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical, for a very thorough answer to your question, and his brief overview and summary, Ayn Rand: Her Life and Thought. Allan Gotthelf's On Ayn Rand, is another brief summary of some of her contributions. Most of these books and pamphlets are available through TOC.
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05-07-2006, 12:43 PM
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anotherjohngalt
Joined on 05-07-2006
Butte, Montana
Posts 6
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![Hmm [^o)]](/cs/emoticons/emotion-40.gif)
Re: Anyone?
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Thought I'd post my opinion, even though I'm new to this site--just joined today. Before saying anything more, I'd like to commend those who began the site. Any alternative that helps to put people in touch with oneanother in the midst of a disintegrating global society, where the whole truth is seldom revealed by the media, where a lot of irrational, racist, collectivist dogmas receive almost all the attention of society, is certainly welcome.
In my estimation, Ayn Rand deserves greatest credit for an original, explicit definition of ethics, the ethics of selfishness--appropriate to mankind's rational nature--and the only alternative to what has existed and dominated all human societies at least since the rise of tribalism and kings. Again, from my vantage point, her essay "For the New Intellectual" threw down a challenge to all thinking men and women to reflect on the history of mankind, observe the consistency of her radical ethical theory and its relationship to that history, and respond accordingly by using it in their intellectual products.
I am not saying that I have no problems with the personal performance or life of Ayn Rand. She failed in many ways to live the totally rational life she advocated. Witness her love of the habit of smoking and what I believe was a weakness for obedient flattery which led to her tolerance and embrace of sycophants such as Branden. I also have major problems with her failure to explicitly and loudly denounce the practice of routine circumcision of male infants, which in the mid-1960's (the height of her appeal in the U.S.) was reaching its peak of about 90% of male Caucasian neonates in the U.S. How could she fail to see this as an abject and total denial of individual autonomy and human rights--the right to decide the shape of ones own body, and refuse unwanted, traumatizing medical treatment? I personally see her magnificent achievement in ethics; but I also see her incredible ability to overlook major problems in both the character of her chosen associates and in applying her ethics proclaiming individual rights to practical issues clearly evident around her at the time she was most professionally active.
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05-10-2006, 2:00 PM
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Ronald
Joined on 04-05-2006
Posts 5
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Hey thanks for the suggestions. I like to read any material that I can about this woman. Any fiction out there that is comparible? I have been searching for such. It interests me, the many things that scholars, seem to attribute to this most unique individual. I want to read anti Ayn Rand material. I have, but it is all adolescent. So much anti-Ayn Rand out there, seem to focus on such unimportant issues;
What about her discovery of Concepts.You don't hear too much illaboration (sp?) on this subject! Or do you?
I could write a whole volume of information pertaining to this subject matter.
Ayn Rand made the discovery, then just brushed over it......
Leonard Peikoff studied the subject, 'Why Johnny Can't Read'
Where are the other volumes to add to these thoughts? Are they out there? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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05-15-2006, 6:29 PM
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allentazwell
Joined on 05-15-2006
Posts 4
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![Confused [*-)]](/cs/emoticons/emotion-42.gif)
Re: Anyone?
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Ayn Rands greatest discovery may have been providuing the tools to reestablish my Individuality.
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07-30-2006, 2:40 PM
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paine
Joined on 07-30-2006
Posts 9
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Ron, That would be relative to the individual. For me, it was confirmation that I wasnt nuts. That the reactions to situations I encountered wern"t wrong . That someone, at some time, had been similar. I suspect that it was the same revelation for the vast majority of her readers. I have never been the same since. That was in 1968. That anyone could touch that deeply, that profoundly, made her, to me , the Shakespear of philosopy. Personaly, it has allowed me since to act in my own interest without guilt. To respect myself. To allow myself to judge, objectively, the actions of others and the events of the day. That she existed and had the intelligence, the insight, the fortitude against a world of indescribable ignorance, superstition, vengful intolerance, mindless hate, makes me proud to have been just a student. That just a small few of our world leaders share, to any extent at all, in any aspect of her teachings, gives me ------------------hope.
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07-30-2006, 3:45 PM
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paine
Joined on 07-30-2006
Posts 9
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Capitalism, the unknown ideal.
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The Atlas... » Special Interes... » Meet Members » Anyone?
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