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Position:Home>Philosophy> Ayn Rand, New to her philosophies, any warnings?Question: Ayn Rand, New to her philosophies, any warnings!? I just started reading Fountainhead because of a local University Controversy!.
Any warnings!? I tend to skip to the back of books and read ahead, should I just wait!? I hate the Peter Keating Character, do I have to pay much attention to him!? Oh, the job interview at the end of Chapter Three, It could have been any trade! I loved it, so Old-school!Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: "The Fountainhead" is a book for geeks!. It tells you, so what if no one likes you, just be the best at what you do!. (Note Peter Keating is the most likable, and he's a miserable creature!.) Roark was an architecture geek!. But he tells all geeks that it's okay as long as you're the smartest!. I see it the other way around from Dolphin3 above!. I think it's her novels that made her famous, not her "philosophy!." And literarily I think her first novel, "We the Living" is really the only one that holds up!. Read here: http://www!.noblesoul!.com/orc/critics/ind!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com objectivism http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Objectivism!.!.!. you should have read atlas shrugged first (better) most people will not agree with your position because it is socially !.!.!.diffrent so look outWww@QuestionHome@Com Other than Ayn Rand's hero worship, rape fantasies, and entirely naive view of capitalism, there's really nothing to warn you about!. Oh wait! There's always the forty-page monologues!. But those aren't in EVERY book of hers!. Heh!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The major warning one can give someone starting to read Rand is to treat her writings as a philosophy!. Many Objectivists have crossed the bridge from philosophy to religion!. Examine her augments rationally and don't let her passionate words over come the actually augment!. Too many lovers of Rand become mere parrots of her words!. She claimed to be a philosopher so treat her that way!. Sometimes her augment will be right and sometimes it will be wrong if you examine them rationally!. One can like her heroic view of humanity without accepting everything she said was true!. I"ll end in a very Randian way but turned back on Rand: Only accept that part of her philosophy that can be found by reason to be true!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Ayn Rand's best contributions to human knowledge were in the areas of epistemology, and ontology!. Her novels, in my view are weak, and boring, and highly contrived, and not good literature!. Her economic ideas which amount to extreme laisser faire capitalism (way beyond Milton Friedman) are I think incorrect, and perhaps wacky!. That said, what Ayn had to offer in her strong suits -- epistemology and ontology was original, sweeping, and highly revolutionary -- and of course most important -- true!. She got that stuff 100% right!. She only has a few peers in that area -- Aristotle, Veatch, Parker, Sparrow, and Russell!. The easiest access to Rand's thought in the important areas is via Peikoff, and sometimes also Binswanger!. These guys actually wrote Rand's thoughts down better than she did!. She was a powerful thinker, and a poor/fair writer!. If you really master her novels, you've missed the point of Rand!. She was a philosopher of the first rank, and a novelist of the 117th rank, whose books wouldn't get out of the slush pile, except for her coterie of followers -- 95% of whom followed he because of her epistemology and ontology!. It's like a topgun fighter pilot, who also does surgery -- they are the best pilot in the squad and the 117th best surgeon in the hospital -- not everybody (or almost anybody) does everything at the topgun level!. Her novels are tedious -- if you want literature read Hemingway, or D!.H!. Lawrence, or Cervantes, or Anita Desai -- somebody who can at least write with wit, style, charm, and substance -- not like Ayn Rand, who basically just rants her shrill and nutty ideas about economics and romance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |