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Originally Posted by mrblonde77  Thanks for the more in depth reply, I appreciate it. I don't think Ayn Rand insinuates that all man thinks this way, rather the opposite. Her letter at the beginning of my copy of The Fountainhead shows she doesn't. Rather she claims all men ought to think this way, and the reason she wrote these books was to show men how they ought to act. Objectivism is just her life philosophy that she wishes or thinks everyone ought to follow.
I do struggle with the idea that men should be so self dependent though. In her ideas of the ego, it's kinda saying to all out reject society and be your own one-man universe. With Howard Roark in The Fountainhead he cannot collaborate with others and rejects any collaborative product as bad. I'm a big computer nerd, and have been an avid supporter of OSS such as Linux, Open Office, etc. These programs show what the collaborative process can produce and how beneficial it can be - and objectivism says this is bad? That's where I don't agree with Objectivism. |
Again, I wish I could have formulated a better response for you, but all these drugs are killing me. I do agree with your linux and open source example, thats one way in which objectivism falls short. One of the big problems I see with objectivism is that I don't believe it to be a very accurate theory to guide ones actions by. See with utilitarianism we look at the communities happiness. With objectivism we look at one persons happiness.
But personally I don't nescecarily agree with utilitarianism either, its too bulky, too time consuming, too.... some other adjective I can't quite describe. I myself consider myself sort of a Kantian. The second categorical imperative is quite overarching, easy to discern ones actions, and overall has the greatest scope of implementation.
However I don't think we can base our ethical decisions on one theory alone, I think it's important to take multiple theories into account before reaching a decision.
By the way, how come we never discuss Kant on these boards? We need less christian babble, and more philosophical debate.