Atlas Shrugged-Contradictions Where None Can Exist(VANITY)

dubyagee

[dubyagee]

Reasoned opinion only, please. All name-callers please proceed to the nearest CREVO thread.

[dubyagee]

Oh, I agree that her scenario is far-fetched to say the least. But the world she envisioned as far as the "looters" goes, seems to be drawing closer each day...

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Having heard Atlas Shrugged touted often on Free Republic as one of the greats in literature,

Ask any serious philosophers what they think of Ayn Rand (that is if you are lucky enough to know any...)

[dubyagee]

I would agree with your "utopian" vision of it.

[dubyagee]

Ask any serious philosophers what they think of Ayn Rand (that is if you are lucky enough to know any...)

Must say that I am not lucky enough to know any....

[RobRoy]

>>All name-callers please proceed to the nearest CREVO thread.<<

In that case, this'll be a pretty short thread. Other than those of us in the choir patting you on the back, the rest don't really have much to say now. 8^>

[Frapster]

Ask any serious philosophers what they think of Ayn Rand (that is if you are lucky enough to know any...)

For those of us who don't know any what would they say?

[dubyagee]

In that case, this'll be a pretty short thread.

Hmmm...I hadn't thought about it like that.. ; * )

[rdb3]

My reason tells me that greatness must come from that which is greater.

Not only that, but it's common sense. That's putting it mildly, trust me. Nice piece.

[yendu bwam]

The last thing that I am doing when I choose to believe in God is abandoning my reason.

Reason can be used for (what most would consider) great good or great evil. Gandhi and Stalin both employed reason in just about everything they did. Similarly, religious believers do not abandon reason. Christ told his followers to be as wise as serpents.

[Benrand]

I know a very professional, ivory tower intellectual, who is at Princeton now after turning down Harvard, who started his journey by reading Rand.

If I asked a serious philosopher about Marx and he DIDN'T laugh, I'd be a bit taken aback. But that's not the way it is. Marx is taken quite seriously by many different areas of scholarship.

[dubyagee]

Thanks. I actually expected to be belittled right away...guess it's the pessimist in me. (Or else too many crevo threads...) 8 * )

[evolved_rage]

Literature??? I thought it was non-fiction

[dubyagee]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me...

[Lev]

But if man is only truly alive and good when he is true to himself and his virtue, how can evil exist?

Man is a rational animal. When he is no longer rational he becomes evil.

"To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: rationality." - Ayn Rand.

[dubyagee]

Man is a rational animal. When he is no longer rational he becomes evil.

What causes man to become irrational?

[lelio]

But if man is only truly alive and good when he is true to himself and his virtue, how can evil exist?
Evil exists as it is the opposite of advancing man's life. For example, socialism is evil as it forces me to work for the good of the whole. That came from man's mind and not from a religious standpoint, to answer your question where it came from.
In the words of Francisco D’Anconia (I love this character, btw), “Contradictions cannot exist.” Good and evil contradict one another. The presence of both in this world is clearly a contradiction.
As we are all individuals (you are all individuals! -- MP) you have the ability to be good or evil. I can't see the actions of the individuals being a contradiction.
I think what Francisco was getting at was that you, as a robber, can't pretend to live in a free and virtuous society.

[yendu bwam]

For example, socialism is evil as it forces me to work for the good of the whole.

So goodness is about selfishness (not working for the good of the whole)?