Philosophy: Who Needs It?

Address To The Graduating Class Of West Point, 1974 ^ | March 6, 1974 | Ayn Rand

[Mr.Atos]

...There is a special reason why you, the future leaders of the United States Army, need to be philosophically armed today. You are the target of a special attack by the Kantian-Hegelian-collectivist establishment that dominates our cultural institutions at present. You are the army of the last semi-free country left on earth, yet you are accused of being a tool of imperialism--and "imperialism" is the name given to the foreign policy of this country, which has never engaged in military conquest and has never profited from the two world wars, which she did not initiate, but entered and won. (It was, incidentally, a foolishly overgenerous policy, which made this country waste her wealth on helping both her allies and her former enemies.) Something called "the military-industrial complex"--which is a myth or worse--is being blamed for all of this country's troubles...

...You are denounced, not for any weaknesses, but for your strength and your competence. You are penalized for being the protectors of the United States. On a lower level of the same issue, a similar kind of campaign is conducted against the police force. Those who seek to destroy this country, seek to disarm it--intellectually and physically. But it is not a mere political issue; politics is not the cause, but the last consequence of philosophical ideas. It is not a communist conspiracy, though some communists may be involved--as maggots cashing in on a disaster they had no power to originate. The motive of the destroyers is not love for communism, but hatred for America. Why hatred? Because America is the living refutation of a Kantian universe.

[Mr.Atos]

You might claim-as most people do--that you have never been influenced by philosophy. I will ask you to check that claim. Have you ever thought or said the following? "Don't be so sure--nobody can be certain of anything." You got that notion from David Hume (and many, many others), even though you might never have heard of him. Or: "This may be good in theory, but it doesn't work in practice. You got that from Plato. Or: "That was a rotten thing to do, but it's only human, nobody is perfect in this world." You got that from Augustine. Or: "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me." You got it from William James. Or: "I couldn't help it! Nobody can help anything he does." You got it from Hegel. Or: "I can't prove it, but I feel that it's true." You got it from Kant. Or: "It's logical, but logic has nothing to do with reality." You got it from Kant. Or: "It's evil, because it's selfish." You got it from Kant. Have you heard the modern activists say: "Act first, think afterward"? They got it from John Dewey.

Some people might answer: "Sure, I've said those things at different times, but I don't have to believe that stuff all of the time. It may have been true yesterday, but it's not true today." They got it from Hegel. They might say: "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." They got it from a very little mind, Emerson. They might say: "But can't one compromise and borrow different ideas from different philosophies according to the expediency of the moment?" They got it from Richard Nixon--who got it from William James.

Now ask yourself: if you are not interested in abstract ideas, why do you (and all men) feel compelled to use them?

Its a long read, but it is as important now as it ever was. Who needs it? You do!

[sonofatpatcher2]

Print out and wear as a Campaign Button or go HERE to print.

Feel free to reuse this anywhere you wish...

[RonHolzwarth]

I took a course in Philosophy in college.

Although the class only met for the normal number of hours for three credit hours, we were given four credit hours for it, due to the large amount of reading expected of us.

Being a lazy bum, and not interested, I quickly learned that since the tests were all announced and multiple choice, all I had to do was read the first paragraph or so of writings by Ree, Buckle, James, Lewis, Mill, Schlick, Campbell, Hospers, Benn & Peters, Descartes, Hume, Russell, Will, Black, Hume, Reid, Broad, Tyndall, Huxley, Samuel & Ayer & Ryle, Smart, Holmes, Darrow, Reid, Russell, Ewing, Moore, Ayer, Blanshard, Mackie, Hare, Anselm, Aquinas, Copleston, Paley, Trueblood, Darrow, Dostoevsky, Hick, Russell & Copleston, Kierkegaard, Edwards, Fackenheim, Williams & Robinson, Flew, Locke, Berkeley, Stace, Russell, Nagel, Russell, Whiteley, Sinclair, Plato, Leibniz, Kant, Mill, Russell Ayer, Ewing, Hume, Ayer, Ewing, Warnock, Schlick, and Edwards, and then determine the stance of each.

The above authors were sorted by topic:
Determinism,
Scepticism,
Body, Mind and Death,
Moral Judgements,
The Existence of G-d,
Perception and the Physical World,
A Priori Knowledge
Meaning, Verification and Metaphysics.

The class was boring, I cut it all the time. In fact, I cut it twice for a month straight. Basically, about all I did was show up for the tests.

So, with just about no reading and very little work, I got a B in Philosophy. I was rather proud of myself.

Years later, I read the book.

It was incredibly interesting.

[Hibernius Druid]

Maybe you know that the concept of multiple-choice tests in a Philosophy course is absurd. That's how I and most other Philosophy instructors view multiple-choice tests in our discipline, which demands rigorous reasoning demonstrated in cogent, tightly argued essays. I've taught Philosophy more than a quarter century, never once having used multiple-choice tests.

[RonHolzwarth]

The concept of multiple-choice tests in a Philosophy course is no more absurd than my incredible idiocy at that time - I knew nothing and thought I knew everything, I had nothing to do when the world was before me, and I literally did not know what money was.

Youth is wasted on the young, so is an education for an idiot.

[Watery Tart]

Ayn Rand Bookmark for later....

[Mr.Atos]

I wonder now if, in 1974, Mrs. Rand wasn't responding to a young, foolish Mr. Kerry... and most certainly to the culture of emblemmatic absurdity that created and celebrated him, both then and now.

Atos

[Aquinasfan]

Ayn Rand needed philosophy, for one. I don't think she read Aristotle, since he would have disagreed with her on just about everything.

[Publius6961]

You are the army of the last semi-free country left on earth, yet you are accused of being a tool of imperialism--and "imperialism" is the name given to the foreign policy of this country, which has never engaged in military conquest and has never profited from the two world wars, which she did not initiate, but entered and won. (It was, incidentally, a foolishly overgenerous policy, which made this country waste her wealth on helping both her allies and her former enemies.)

"Who eventually changed places", she might have added...

Who woulda thunk?

[Mr.Atos]

Ping!

[MHalblaub]

Pong!

[b_sharp]

Pong?

Pong is as dead as this thread...

No wait, I have it on disk.

Give me an hour or so and I'll tell you if pong is really dead.

[RightWhale]

i>You are the target of a special attack by the Kantian-Hegelian-collectivist establishment

Hegel gets the blame for everything that is wrong in the world.

[Mr.Atos]

I thought Bush was to blame. So is he the new Hitler or the new Hegel? I guess Bushegel isn't quite so catchy. Sounds like something that needs to be served with locks.

See..this thread is never dead! Unlike Hegel.

[RightWhale]

Hegel was a very popular lecturer. Not sure why, probably students liked to see how high-level German sentences can be constructed entirely without meaning.

[Mr.Atos]

Er war ein Berliner!