Objectivism

[Anonymouse]

Having read Rand's Atlas Shrugged I was impressed by the book and its defense of individuality and liberty against the collective herd. I then read The Fountainhead and I was equally impressed. I thought "Wow, no one has done a better defense of individuality than this author and her novels". Ayn Rand was perfectly fine when she wrote novels about liberty and the place of the individual. However, the problem with her is novels weren't enough and she decided to march into the territory of philosophy. She started a philosophy termed "Objectivism", which as Wikipedia states is the following:

Objectivism is the philosophy of Ayn Rand. In summary, Objectivism holds that human beings are conscious of an independent reality through their senses, that reason is essential in processing this data, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is to pursue one's own rational self-interest, and that the only moral social system is full laissez-faire capitalism with a minimal government limited to courts, police, and a military.

While I do not disagree with its promotion of laissez-faire capitalism and minimal government this philosophy has a number of points I find bones to pick with. The problem with her philosophy are threefold: first, it has promoted a cult of personality centered around the founder itself, Ayn Rand; second, it's metaphysical assumption that reason and reason itself is the only way to truth, i.e. a cult of rationalism; third, Rand's philosophy has morphed into a system of scapegoating.

While claiming objectivism, they forget that it is not objective by it's own standard, it is simply group subjectivity.

[Objectivist]

While I do not disagree with its promotion of laissez-faire capitalism and minimal government this philosophy has a number of points I find bones to pick with. The problem with her philosophy are threefold: first, it has promoted a cult of personality centered around the founder itself, Ayn Rand; second, it's metaphysical assumption that reason and reason itself is the only way to truth, i.e. a cult of rationalism; third, Rand's philosophy has morphed into a system of scapegoating.

While claiming objectivism, they forget that it is not objective by it's own standard, it is simply group subjectivity.

1. In a world full of sheeps, Ayn Rand was a lion. Before her, no one had come up with a fully rational philosophy that covered all of its branches: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, and esthetics. Her philosophy was entirely integrated and there were no contradictions in this philosophy. The philosophy gave proof that Man has a right to this own life and that no one else can take that right from them without the sanction of the victim. This philosophy was in direct conflict with the accepted mentality of self-sacrfice before it.

The fact is that Rand's philosophy does not explicitly create a cult. In fact it explicitly states the opposite of what a cult is - it promotes individual thought.

There are those who take her philosophy to extremes of course - and there are a large percentage of those types. They accept anything that comes out of her mouth without analyzing every aspect of the philosophy and that is the cult mentality.

I analyze anything Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff, or any other Objectivists same before I can accept that premise and integrate it with my own subconscious. To not analyze anything they say is not Reason, but blind faith.

The picture of Ayn Rand that I have as my avatar is not cult-like. It is a testament of a heroic human being who dared to challenge the philosophies of the time.

2. There are three axioms that one must metaphysically accept. These axioms come before the act of defining Reason. These axioms are:
The Law of Identity "A=A"
The Axiom of Existence "Existence exists."
The Axiom of Consciousness "Consciousness is conscious."

These axioms are accepted by most philosophers as any philosophy cannot be valid if it doesn't.

Reason is based on the acknowledgment of these three axioms.

3. Scapegoating? What are some examples?

If by scapegoating you mean the judgment of anything irrational, then yes, it does state that Rational Men must pronounce moral judgment whenever appropriate. We must never let a murderer get away with murder because some people say, "He's just human, and we're no better". We must never let a rapist get away with rape because some say, "He's just human, and we're no better". And we can't let an irrationalist get away with irrationality because some say, "He's just human, and we're no better".

P.S. Ayn Rand developed her novels long before she started writing them. Her novels are all based on her integrated philosophy. One can see that she uses her novels to project Man as he supposed to be but she furthered her philosophy via non-fiction.

P.P.S.What leads you to believe that Objectivism is a "is not objective by it's own standard, it is simply group subjectivity"?

[Anonymouse]

While I do not have the time now to engage in a long discussion as I did in the past regarding other topics, I will refer you to the following article by Butler Shaffer, who echoes my views entirely on the issue of Objectivism and Ayn Rand. Enjoy.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer89.html

Excelsior.

[Siggie]

While I believe that we live in an objective universe, none of us can ever know the nature of that reality other than through the subjective processes by which our mind organizes its experiences. We do not learn about the world in the mechanistic fashion of a video camera recording sensory impressions. Rather, we interact with our world, organizing our experiences into categories and concepts by which we make comparisons and contrasts. It is the mind, alone, that creates these categories; they do not exist beyond the boundaries of our mind.

I agree with this part. I haven't finished reading the article (a little long for work reading), but I don't know about morality and values.
There's a book that I need to read by Michael Shermer called The Science of Good and Evil on that topic I believe.
Why post if I haven't finished reading right? I was going to post in this thread for a different reason...

I finished reading The Fountainhead a couple weeks ago and I started Atlas Shrugged today. I was listening to the audiobook and I think I'd like to own the book as well, since you can't as easily refer back to things in an audiobook. So, I bought the book at lunch and went back over to the table where my bf and his coworkers were finishing their lunches. I was showing him what I bought when his boss commented "Ahhhh Atlas Shrugged. I have a friend that's an Objectivist." Everyone else had no clue what he was talking about, so he continues "I can summarize the whole philosophy in one sentence: Selfishness is good".
After reading The Fountainhead, I didn't have the impression that that was what the book advocated.
What do those of you who have finished the book and are more familiar with the philosophy think?
Oh and don't spoil the story for me please... or give a warning early in the post that you are going to.

[thedebutante]

all i have to say is that your bf's boss is a liberal. hahahaha. go figure.


edit: it's about the importance of the individual (and i think the main character struggles against society to retain his individuality). if you ask me, the fountainhead is the libertarian bible. haha.

i havent read the book or anything but from what i hear, it's about how society consists of a bunch of followers and if you wanna separate yourself from the herd, you gotta be selfish. this is what the main character dude tries to do.