Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Truth about Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'

Great news, the brilliant philosopher, David Gordon, who has counted among his personal friends, Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick, will be giving a free online lecture on Atlas Shrugged.

Writes Gordon:
Atlas Shrugged is one of the best selling novels of the twentieth century, and reading it is an enjoyable way to learn about the philosophy of the book’s author, Ayn Rand. Her philosophy, called Objectivism, includes distinctive views of epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. The principal theme of this course will be an account of some of the most important of these views, illustrated through episodes in the novel.
 The novel has aroused both intense admiration and equally intense hatred. I’m not an Objectivist, but I think we can learn a great deal from study of the book. Students who take the course will gain an understanding of one of the most important philosophical influences on contemporary libertarianism.
In the course, we’ll also discuss Rand’s theory of aesthetics and consider some of the critical reactions to the novel. What are the book’s strengths and weaknesses?
Gordon is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He was educated at UCLA, where he earned his PhD in intellectual history. He is the author ofResurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Exploitation, Freedom, and Justice, The Philosophical Origins of Austrian Economics,An Introduction to Economic Reasoning, andCritics of Marx. He is also editor of Secession, State, and Liberty and co-editor of H.B. Acton’s Morals of Markets and Other Essays.


Gordon is the editor of The Mises Review, and a contributor to such journals as AnalysisThe International Philosophic Quarterly,The Journal of Libertarian Studies, and The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

The lecture will start at 6:30 Eastern on Friday, July 6. You can sign up here.

5 comments:

  1. Rand presents a malignant influence on contemporary libertarianism. She is equally disparaging of both government controls and Christian values.

    Don Milne,
    author of Atlas Shrugged and Jesus Wept

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  2. Ayn Rand is about selfishness, not libertarianism.

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    Replies
    1. Well no, she's about rational egoism. She believes that selifhsness and subsequently individualism is an outgrowth of rational thinking. She is an Aristotelian at her core, not a Nietzschean.

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    2. No, she's about irrational egoism. She's for crushing cultures who're not so "rational" as us. She's an enslaver.

      In the core of this culture are private interests who want to produce weapons of mass destruction. The US is seeking out countries it can exploit and sell its resources, like lithium and opium in Afghanistan or oil is Mideast countries. Of course the central bankers, who run the US, are behind it.

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  3. Atlas Shrugged Part 2 will be in theaters Oct 12, 2012.

    ReplyDelete