I've read and studied some of Ayn Rand's philosophy in my philosophy class Freshman year of college but I haven't read Atlas Shrugged and I was wondering if its worth it, it is a huge book after all. So what do you guys think of her philosophy? I've read there was a clash between her and the Libertarian party, what was that about?
Ayn Rand is incredible. I love her. A great advocate of the free market and natural rights. I haven't done really extensive research into her philosophy, but from what I have seen so far it's very much Rothbardian. Both her and Rothbard's philosophies were rooted in Aristotelianism. Ayn Rand praised Aristotle above all other philosophers. In particular what I like about her is how she stressed that in a free market, looking out for one's self is selfish and the best thing to advance your own position, but it is also the best possible thing for everyone else's benefit besides you. The thing that advances all of society the most, and also the individual, is the same thing. That is the power of capitalism, even the most greedy person in the world does good for the overall system simply by acting on that greed. She had some personal issues though. I'm not sure why she had such animosity towards Rothbard or to libertarians. If you look just at her philosophy, Objectivism, you could say it pretty much is libertarianism. Libertarian capitalist at least. It's that similar, but for some reason she pretty much hates Rothbard and the libertarian movement. It could be because she was just such an egomaniac that she wanted her own Objectivist philosophy to be the only one followed, and not the Rothbardian influenced libertarian philosophy. I'm not sure. As far as economics I have yet to find any flaw in her ideology. The main difference between her and Mises is the source of the name of her philosophy, Objectivism. Basically she believes that value is objective, while Mises and the Austrians believe value to be subjective. Her definition of this objective value though, doesn't seem to contradict the Misean subjective theory of value, so I don't actually consider it to be a real difference. Even though she would never say it, she was basically the mother of modern libertarianism. Even Rothbard himself said that it was Rand that convinced him of the natural rights theory. So she was enormously influential. Von Mises also praised Atlas Shrugged highly after he read it.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7CjdJ1QyxI]Ayn Rand - In Defense of Capitalism - YouTube[/ame] Good video of some of her interviews.
I never read anything by Rand. In high school I was never interested in politics I just wanted to be left alone. I've read summaries and had "Atlas Shrugged" explained to me and I like the concept. Apparently I also bear a striking resemblance to one of her characters. I don't remember which.
i was first introduced to ayn rand through neil peart of rush [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHEcIbhDiw]Rush - The Trees - YouTube[/ame]
She thought they were stealing her ideas or something like that. Because they agreed with her, sort of. Objectivism has a lot of holes and is too extreme and impractical in today's society. "Rational self-interest" is a vague term that can be described as "being a dick". It's difficult to call it a philosophy really as she never presented a critique of her work, anyone who disagreed with her was either inept or stupid. I can make loud noises when people disagree with me too but it doesn't lend credence to my theories. As a person, by all accounts she wasn't a very nice person, but after what she went through it's sort of understandable. Interestingly, she did take government handouts during her life. As for the novels I wouldn't bother. They're little more than a vessel for objectivism and you can get more about it by using google. As stories they're thin and transparent, pointlessly long and as I said before, anyone who disagrees with her view is simply an idiot, there's no real look at her own work as anything other than god-like. That said, Atlas shrugged is an interesting novella hiding in a book that's far too big and padded out for it's own good, but the same can be said of the lord of the rings and people think it's a classic. If you've got the time then read it but there are far better books to be getting into.