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| 3/6/1982 |
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Ayn Rand Redux
On this day in 1982 Ayn Rand died. Whatever might be said about Rand's controversial philosophy, difficult personality and long books, her life-story is a remarkable one -- flight at age twenty-one from Communist Russia to funeral at age seventy-seven with the six-foot dollar sign in flowers. |
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Anthem
fiction |
Atlas Shrugged
fiction |
Letters of Ayn Rand
by Ayn Rand, Michael S. Berliner (Editor)
letters |
The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
by Harry Binswanger, Ayn Rand
non-fiction |
The Fountainhead
fiction |
Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism
non-fiction |
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FIND BOOKS BY AYN RAND
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"Ayn Rand, Anti-Communism, & the Left"
An article explores the problems and contradictions in Rand's Objectivist philosophical system.
"She despised Immanuel Kant but then actually invokes 'treating persons as ends rather than as means only' to explain the nature of morality. Perhaps she had picked that up without realizing it was from Kant. At the same time, the Nietzschean inspiration that evidently is behind her 'virtue of selfishness' approach to ethics seems to have embarrassed her later: She very properly realized that, since the free market is built upon voluntary exchanges, capitalism requires firm moral limits, ruling out violence, coercion, fraud, etc. That was certainly not a concern of Nietzsche, but it was very much a concern of Adam Smith, who realized that, in a context of mutually voluntary exchange, people will always go for the best deal, producing the 'invisible hand' effect of mutual and public goods being produced by private preferences. This confuses people enough in regard to Smith; and that makes it all the easier to mistakenly see Rand as advocating a view of capitalists as righteous predators -- especially unfortunate when the popular vision of laissez-faire capitalism is already of merciless and oppressive robber barons. A careful reading of Rand dispels that idea, but her rhetoric works against a good understanding." |  | "Philosopher for a New Millennium?"
A fan defends Rand's reputation from philosophical and ethical critiques, and expounds on the virtues of Objectivism.
"Some of those who find individualism (or egoism) and rational self-interest abhorrent, who reject the possibility of objectivity, who view free enterprise as a debasing way of conducting human relationships go first for Rand's figurative jugular. Every character flaw, every supposedly 'mean-spirited' comment or action, every human weakness or discrepancy is dragged forward..." | | Ayn Rand's HUAC Testimony
Find the compelte text of Rand's "friendly" testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947.
"Look, it is very hard to explain. It is almost impossible to convey to a free people what it is like to live in a totalitarian dictatorship. I can tell you a lot of details. I can never completely convince you, because you are free. It is in a way good that you can't even conceive of what it is like. Certainly they have friends and mothers-in-law. They try to live a human life, but you understand it is totally inhuman. Try to imagine what it is like if you are in constant terror from morning till night and at night you are waiting for the doorbell to ring, where you are afraid of anything and everybody, living in a country where human life is nothing, less than nothing, and you know it. You don't know who or when is going to do what to you because you may have friends who spy on you, where there is no law and any rights of any kind." | | The Ayn Rand Institute
Find a biography, timeline of events in the author's life, bibliography, and image gallery. Resources on Objectivism (Rand's philosophical viewpoint) include essays and articles on environmentalism, individualism, diversity and multiculturalism, and other subjects. A section of video and audio lectures are also available, in addition to information about the Institute.
"Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was her greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatized her unique philosophy in an intellectual mystery story that integrated ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics and sex. Although she considered herself primarily a fiction writer, she realized that in order to create heroic fictional characters, she had to identify the philosophic principles which make such individuals possible. She needed to formulate 'a philosophy for living on earth.'" | |
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The TinL masthead features photography by
Natasha D'Schommer
, and the book art featured is by Jim Rosenau.
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