Ayn Rand & Objectivism

Ayn Rand’s ethics, the centerpiece of Objectivism, is a code of morality for living and loving life. This is a beautiful thing.

An independent thinker faces reality and thinks for himself. A second-hander faces other people and expects them to think for him.

I recently posted about Vladimir Shlapentokh’s opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor, in which he misrepresents Ayn Rand’s ideas and calls for Tea Partiers to distance themselves from her. In that post, I focused solely on his absurd claims about Rand’s politics; here, for those who may be interested…

[caption id="attachment_28169" align="alignright" width="241"] Image: Wikimedia Commons[/caption] In a recent Christian Science Monitor editorial, Vladimir Shlapentokh suggests that the popularity of Ayn Rand among Tea Partiers should “concern all Americans” and recommends that Tea Partiers distance themselves from the 20th-century philosopher and novelist. Why? According to Shlapentokh, Ayn Rand was…

In Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, Tara Smith dives deep into the virtues on which life depends, showing why they are requirements and what they demand. Here are six quotes I particularly liked, from Smith's chapter on honesty: "As the refusal to fake reality, honesty consists in a deliberate,…

Roderick Fitts reviews The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics: The Case Against the Brandens, by James Valliant.

Examines Daniels’s recent New Criterion article “Ayn Rand: Engineer of Souls” and ponders the question, “Why, to the detriment of his own credibility, would an otherwise capable intellectual so grossly misrepresent Rand’s actual views—and do so, not at a cocktail party, but in a public forum?”

Here’s a note from Diana Hsieh about her growing empire of excellence in activism and living: Hi, I'm  Diana Hsieh.  I'm an Objectivist and a recent Ph.D in philosophy. I oversee an independent network of e-mail lists for friendly discussion and information-sharing among advocates of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.  They are…

Daniel Wahl reviews Essays on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, edited by Robert Mayhew.

In my last post, I responded to Will Wilkinson's allegation that Ayn Rand's ethical egoism cannot support the principle of individual rights, because the egoist has no self-interested reason to refrain from using force against others. Wilkinson contended that bureaucrats who feast at the public trough seem to fulfill their…