Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
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Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
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Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#2Almost clicked on this. SFW? I'm guessing not.
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#3Almost clicked on this. SFW? I'm guessing not.
No nudity on that page. Unless Ayn Rand's portrait is considered porn, this should be SFW. On the other hand, the IT guys in the company you work for might find it "amusing" that you're accessing stuff on the playboy.com domain. You decide if it's NSFW or not.
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#4Thanks for posting this. Always nice to get a healthy dose of "A $ A" with my morning coffee! :-)
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#5I don't define myself as an Objectivists, but I tend to agree with a lot of Rand's philosophy (mostly about work ethics, individuality and productivity). Unfortunately, she has a rather lopsided view about emotions and human relationships. I'm sure if the following words were coming from someone who is not a bestselling author, that person could be loosely defined as "batshit insane":
> If they place such things as friendship and family ties above their own productive work, yes, then they are immoral. Friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man's life.
In today's world, Rand would probably be suffering from burnout.
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#6I don't define myself as an Objectivists, but I tend to agree with a lot of Rand's philosophy (mostly about work ethics, individuality and productivity). Unfortunately, she has a rather lopsided view about emotions and human relationships. I'm sure if the following words were coming from someone who is not a bestselling author, that person could be loosely defined as "batshit insane": > If they place such things as f…
It is curious that a proponent of individualism like Rand advocated that her point of view on relationships, family etc is the only one that's moral.
I really fell in love with objectivism as a teenager, and am a very strong supporter of free markets (yes, despite all the 'misery' they bring to workers in out-of-date industries). But examining her work and everything she said as a whole, it's clear to me that she took her opinions to the extreme. Who is she to say what should be primary in my life?
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#7I don't define myself as an Objectivists, but I tend to agree with a lot of Rand's philosophy (mostly about work ethics, individuality and productivity). Unfortunately, she has a rather lopsided view about emotions and human relationships. I'm sure if the following words were coming from someone who is not a bestselling author, that person could be loosely defined as "batshit insane": > If they place such things as f…
It is curious that a proponent of individualism like Rand advocated that her point of view on relationships, family etc is the only one that's moral. I really fell in love with objectivism as a teenager, and am a very strong supporter of free markets (yes, despite all the 'misery' they bring to workers in out-of-date industries). But examining her work and everything she said as a whole, it's clear to me that she too…
There's a clear difference between dictating what someone else should have as primary in their life, and declaring something to be moral or immoral.
You may choose to take immoral actions, but those are actions that are not best for you.
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is curious that a proponent of individualism like Rand advocated that her point of view on relationships, family etc is the only one that's moral. I really fell in love with objectivism as a teenager, and am a very strong supporter of free markets (yes, despite all the 'misery' they bring to workers in out-of-date industries). But examining her work and everything she said as a whole, it's clear to me that she too…
There's a clear difference between dictating what someone else should have as primary in their life, and declaring something to be moral or immoral. You may choose to take immoral actions, but those are actions that are not best for you.
>There's a clear difference between dictating what someone else should have as primary in their life, and declaring something to be moral or immoral.
Rand does both.
She declares putting family over work as immoral:
"If they place such things as friendship and family ties above their own productive work, yes, then they are immoral."
Then she says family and relationships are not (should not be) primary in a man's life:
"Friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man's life."
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#9 Emotions are not tools of cognition. What you feel
tells you nothing about the facts.
My sister lived out a rational fiction that she wanted to be a pediatrician for almost a decade. It just made so much sense -- there are so any doctors in our family, and working with kids, I think, was sufficiently "female" for her. She always hated my calling bullshit on her.
Today, she works as a consultant to make money so she can choreograph.
You can be informed both by intuition and rationality. Ignoring your feelings is like being a mechanical or electrical engineer who ignores his sense of smell.
Ayn Rand also ignores subconscious cognition. I've had the solutions to many problems I worked on the previous night pop into my head over breakfast. How do we know that "feelings" aren't the result of subconscious processing? I strongly suspect that many of them do. I think you can wisely use such data, so long as you use rational means to corroborate it.
EDIT: Ayn Rand also holds something like this position, which she mentions in this interview, but her estimation of the relative importance of rationality vs. intuition needs some tuning.
Again showing her outdated knowledge of biology:
PLAYBOY: You attack the idea that sex is "impervious to
reason." But isn't sex a nonrational biological instinct?
RAND: No. To begin with, man does not possess any
instincts.
EDIT: My objection specifically, no one can be perfectly rational, any more than someone can ride a bicycle and never fall. No one commands all of the relevant facts. Rationality is a powerful tool, unmatched in its potential for bringing us to understanding of the world. However, it has some serious failure modes. Where are the elbow pads and helmet?
Re: Interview with Ayn Rand (1964)
#10an objective reality exists independent of any perceiver or of the perceiver's emotions, feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
Couldn't agree more.
man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose,
Couldn't disagree more.
And I in no way think that A implies B in this case.