Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature

Author : Greg S. Nyquist
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780595196333

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Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature by Greg S. Nyquist Pdf

No American philosopher has sold more books to the general public than Rand—over thirty million at last count, with over a half million being sold on a yearly basis. Rand’s legacy is widespread and enduring. Yet, despite the extent of her influence, her ideas have not received much attention from scholars and critics. Her philosophical views, many of which are extremely controversial, literally cry out for interpretation and criticism. But little along these lines has appeared. Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature represents a major contribution to a critical understanding of Rand’s so-called “Objectivist” ideology. Based on extensive research of Rand’s writings, including her journals and letters, the book demonstrates how Objectivism sprung from Rand’s romantic and idealistic view of human nature. Rand repeatedly claimed that the goal of her writing was “the projection of an ideal man” and that her philosophy was merely “a necessary means to that end.” Using this insight as an interpretive touchstone, the book proceeds to explain how Rand’s views on history, human knowledge, morality, and aesthetics were profoundly influenced by her idolatry of the “ideal man” and where she went wrong in developing her unique but flawed vision of human society.

Author : Eamonn Butler
Publisher : London Publishing Partnership
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2018-06-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780255367653

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Ayn Rand: An Introduction by Eamonn Butler Pdf

Few 20th century intellectuals have been as influential – and controversial – as the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Her thinking still has a profound impact, particularly on those who come to it through her novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead – with their core messages of individualism, self-worth, and the right to live without the impositions of others. Even though ignored or scorned by some academics, traditionalists, progressives, and public intellectuals, she remains a major influence on many of the world’s leading legislators, policy advisers, economists, entrepreneurs and investors. Why does Rand’s work remain so influential? Ayn Rand: An Introduction illuminates Rand’s importance, detailing her understanding of reality and human nature, and explores the ongoing fascination with and debates about her conclusions on knowledge, morality, politics, economics, government, public issues, aesthetics and literature. The book also places these in the context of her life and times, showing how revolutionary they were, and how they have influenced and continue to impact public policy debates.

Author : Edward Wayne Younkins
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 407 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2008-08-25
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780739130537

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Champions of a Free Society by Edward Wayne Younkins Pdf

This book is constructed around great thinkers of the past and present who have been influential in developing the philosophy of freedom. Its main purpose is to provide a survey and overview of the ideas of leading individual philosophers and economists of capitalism who have contributed to developing what might be called the classical liberal or libertarian worldview. Champions of a Free Society endeavors to provide a guide to political and economic thinking about the desirability and construction of a free society that is intelligible to the educated layperson. Edward Younkins provides an historical perspective of the pursuit of political and economic truth. The goal of this book is to present the development of ideas in language that permits generally educated readers to understand and appreciate their significance. The book's chronological approach considers the thinkers and their ideas as they have developed over the course of time. There is much unfulfilled illuminative potential to be found in the ideas of the past and Younkins successfully integrates the ideas of past and current thinkers into a logical contemporary worldview.

Author : Ed Younkins
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2018-10-15
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781498546102

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Perspectives on Ayn Rand's Contributions to Economic and Business Thought by Ed Younkins Pdf

Ayn Rand wrote and lectured on economic concepts and topics. This volume addresses the economic and business aspects of her writings. The authors of this anthology are from a variety of fields and all of them are enthusiastic supporters of her ideas.

Author : Edward W. Younkins
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 389 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2005-11-10
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780739158821

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Philosophers of Capitalism by Edward W. Younkins Pdf

Philosophers of Capitalism provides an interdisciplinary approach, attempting to discover the feasibility of an integration of Austrian Economics and Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. In the first section of the book, Edward W. Younkins supplies essays presenting the essential ideas of Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, and Ayn Rand. Building upon these essential ideas, the second portion of the book brings together scholarly perspectives from top academics, analyzing Menger, von Mises, and Rand. The third and final section of the book looks toward the future and the possibility of combining and extending the insights of these champions of a free society, emphasizing how the errors, omissions, and oversights made by one theorist can effectively be negated or compensated for by integrating insights from one or more of the others. Featuring a list of recommended reading for the major ideas and theorists discussed, Philosophers of Capitalism is an essential book for both philosophers and economists.

Author : Scott Ryan
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 434 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2003-01-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780595267330

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Objectivism and the Corruption of Rationality by Scott Ryan Pdf

Ayn Rand presented Objectivism as a philosophy of reason. But is it? That is the question Scott Ryan seeks to answer in this careful examination of the Objectivist epistemology and its alleged sufficiency as the philosophical foundation of a free and prosperous commonwealth. Sorting painstakingly through Rand's writings on the subject, Mr. Ryan concludes that the epistemology of Objectivism is incoherent and debases both the concept and the practice of rationality.

Author : Edward W. Younkins
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2021-07-13
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781793636430

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Exploring Atlas Shrugged by Edward W. Younkins Pdf

This book explores Ayn Rand’s monumental work, Atlas Shrugged, which presents a revolutionary new philosophical system in the form of an inspiring novel. Edward W. Younkins explains how Rand’s masterwork is one of the most influential books ever published, impacting a variety of disciplines including philosophy, literature, economics, business, and political science, among others. Exploring Atlas Shrugged analyzes the novel’s integrating elements of theme, plot, and characterization from many perspectives and on many levels of meaning. The chapters in this book are accessible and rewarding, offering fresh insights to both new readers and to scholars who have studied Rand’s masterpiece over many years. It is also a valuable resource for teachers and students who use Atlas Shrugged in their classes. Such a rich and complex novel warrants and rewards additional study and critical analysis. The author explains how Atlas Shrugged expounds a radical philosophy, presenting a view of man and man’s relationship to existence and manifesting the essentials of an entire philosophical system of metaphysics, epistemology, politics, and economics.

Author : Cynthia Burack
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2014-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781438449869

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Tough Love by Cynthia Burack Pdf

Exposes how ex-gay and postabortion ministries operate on a shared system of thought and analyzes their social implications.

A staple of the culture wars, the struggle between Christian conservatives and progressives over sexuality and reproductive rights continues. Focusing on ex-gay ministries geared to helping same-sex attracted people resist their sexuality and postabortion ministries dedicated to leading women who have had an abortion to repent that decision, Cynthia Burack argues that both are motivated and characterized by a strain of compassion that is particular to Christian conservatism rather than a bias and hatred toward sexual minorities and sexually active women. This compassion reproduces the sexual ideology of the Christian right and absolves Christian conservatives from responsibility for stigma and other forms of harm to postabortive and same-sex attracted people. Using the democratic theory of Hannah Arendt, the popular fiction of Ayn Rand, and the psychoanalytic thought of Melanie Klein, Burack studies the social and political effects of Christian conservative compassion.

Author : Leonard Peikoff
Publisher : Dutton Juvenile
Page : 518 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : UOM:39015027252165

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Objectivism by Leonard Peikoff Pdf

Author : Tibor R. Machan
Publisher : Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : UOM:39015049666491

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Ayn Rand by Tibor R. Machan Pdf

Machan's book explores all the major themes of Ayn Rand's philosophical thought. He shows the frequent strengths and occasional weaknesses of Rand's mature philosophy of Objectivism, drawing on his own, and many others', discussion of this challenging and iconoclastic thinker's ideas. Machan's treatment of Rand is a welcome addition to the growing literature of serious scholarship on Rand's philosophical work.

Author : Ayn Rand
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 1990-06-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781101137260

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The Voice of Reason by Ayn Rand Pdf

Between 1961, when she gave her first talk at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, and 1981, when she gave the last talk of her life in New Orleans, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as varied as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces, written in the last decades of Rand's life, are gathered in book form for the first time. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor. The work concludes with Peikoff's epilogue, "My Thirty Years With Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir," which answers the question "What was Ayn Rand really like?" Important reading for all thinking individuals, Rand's later writings reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. This collection communicates not only Rand's singular worldview, but also the penetrating cultural and political analysis to which it gives rise.

Author : Ayn Rand
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 1988-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781101137246

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The Ayn Rand Lexicon by Ayn Rand Pdf

A prolific writer, bestselling novelist, and world-renowned philosopher, Ayn Rand defined a full system of thought--from epistemology to aesthetics. Her writing is so extensive and the range of issues she covers so enormous that those interested in finding her discussions of a given topic may have to search through many sources to locate the relevant passage. The Ayn Rand Lexicon brings together all the key ideas of her philosophy of Objectivism. Begun under Rand's supervision, this unique volume is an invaluable guide to her philosophy or reason, self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism--the philosophy so brilliantly dramatized in her novels The Fountainhead, We the Living, and Anthem.

Author : David Kelley
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2024-06-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1412836336

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The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley Pdf

Ayn Rand's philosophical novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged made her the most controversial author of her age. Her works have drawn millions of readers and continue to sell at a breathtaking pace. Their impact on American culture runs from libertarian politics to the self-esteem movement in psychology to the rugged individualism of Silicon Valley and the Internet. Rand also launched a movement of intellectuals committed to her philosophy of Objectivism. While it has grown dramatically since Rand's death in 1982, however, the Objectivist movement has also fractured into rival camps whose differences over doctrine and strategy are compounded by competition for leadership and bitter accusations of heresy. In Truth and Toleration, philosopher David Kelley analyzes the conflicts that led him to break ranks with orthodox Objectivists and create an independent branch of the movement. Originally published in 1990 as a manifesto, this work has been revised as an analysis of the principles of intellectual collaboration-the terms on which intellectuals and activists can work together in a common cause. Going beyond the immediate issues, Kelley discusses the nature of individual responsibility for the spread of ideas and for their historical consequences. He offers a new argument for toleration based on a non-relativistic theory of truth. He describes the nature of tribalism among intellectuals, showing how the troubled legacy of Ayn Rand has followed a pattern similar to the not-so-civil wars among followers of other original and charismatic thinkers such as Marx and Freud. In a postscript for the second edition, Kelley reviews the growth in Objectivist scholarship and the influence of Rand's ideas over the past decade. Truth and Toleration is an engaging introduction to the Objectivist movement, its core ideas, and its central fissures. At the same time, it offers a case study in the sociology of intellectual movements and a frank discussion of the issues that arise whenever thinkers leave their studies to promote their idea in the public realm. David Kelley is the executive director of the Objectivist Center. Educated at Princeton University, earlier in his career he taught philosophy at Brandeis University and Vassar College. He has written widely on the subject of libertarianism including The Evidence of the Senses; The Art of Reasoning; and is co-author of The Logical Structure of Objectivism.

Author : Derek Offord
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2022-05-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781350283930

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Ayn Rand and the Russian Intelligentsia by Derek Offord Pdf

This book examines the writings of the American novelist Ayn Rand, especially The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), which Rand considered her definitive statement about the need for an unregulated free market in which superior humans could fully realize themselves by living for no-one but themselves. It explores Rand's conception of American identity, which exalted individualism and capitalism, and her solution for saving the modern American nation, which she believed was losing the spirit of its 18th- and 19th-century founders and frontiersmen, having been degraded morally and economically by the rampant socialism of the mid-20th-century world. Derek Offord crucially goes on to analyse how Rand's writings functioned as a vehicle in which she, a Russian-Jewish writer born in St Petersburg in 1905, engaged with ideas that had long animated the Russian intelligentsia. Her conception of human nature and of a utopian community capable of satisfying its needs; her reversal of conventional valuations of self-sacrifice and selfishness; her division of humans into an extraordinary minority and the ordinary mass; her comparison of competing civilizations – in all these areas, Offord argues that Rand drew on Russian debates and transposed them to a different context. Even the type of novel she writes, the novel of ideas, is informed by the polemical methods and habits of the Russian intelligentsia. The book concludes that her search for a brave new world continues to have topicality in the 21st century, with its populist critiques of liberal democracies and acrimonious debates about countries' moral, social, and economic priorities and their identities, inequalities, and social tensions.

Author : Ayn Rand
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1971-10-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780593437322

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The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand Pdf

In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned book, Ayn Rand throws a new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again Miss Rand eloquently demonstrates her refusal to let popular catchwords and conventional ideas stand between her and the truth as she has discovered it. The Romantic Manifesto takes its place beside The Fountainhead as one of the most important achievements of our time.