First Ayn Rand interview.

[ebacon]

There is nothing that requires me to pick all sides as winners in a debate of ideas. Of all the ideas that are out there I consider those of the ARI the worst. Hands down.

[finnbow]

To me, Rand misinterpreted Adam Smith's "enlightened self-interest" by deleting the "enlightened" aspect of it, probably as a reaction to her experiences in Soviet Russia. She was first exposed to western freedoms at age 20 and somehow came up with the notion that she was the only one who understood the workings of a capitalist nation, when she indeed had no clue. How anyone today can ascribe to her musings as a fully developed political philosophy is beyond me.

[Oerets]

Well at least she didn't reproduce! But maybe if she had then some compassion might of been gained.




Barney

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Oerets

Well at least she didn't reproduce! But maybe if she had then some compassion might of been gained.




Barney

It was not for lack of trying, while still married and in her forties she took up with a married twenty something chap Nathaniel somebody or other.

[beej]

Originally Posted by finnbow

To me, Rand misinterpreted Adam Smith's "enlightened self-interest" by deleting the "enlightened" aspect of it, probably as a reaction to her experiences in Soviet Russia. She was first exposed to western freedoms at age 20 and somehow came up with the notion that she was the only one who understood the workings of a capitalist nation, when she indeed had no clue. How anyone today can ascribe to her musings as a fully developed political philosophy is beyond me.

Seems more an attitude than a developed philosophy to me.

[ebacon]

Here's more on Ayn Rand's philosophy from Professor Vladimir Shlapentokh. He is a Soviet sociologist that emigrated to the USA in 1979. In this article he describes how perfectly awful Ayn Rand's philosophy is for the USA. He attributes shortcomings in the philosophy to Ayn Rand's Russian roots. He and I had a pleasant discussion on the phone back when he was writing about Ayn Rand and I told him my theory about Ayn Rand actually being intent on destroying the US economy from within. He called me a conspiracy theorist. Par for the course. The curious thing is that the professor and I arrived at identical conclusions as to the problems with Ayn Rand's philosophy. The question then becomes are those errors there by mistake as the professor claims or on purpose as I claim.

The reason I believe they are there are purpose are because Ayn Rand's philosophy nudges traditional American self-managed capitalism towards a more feudal brand of capitalism that occurred in Russia under the czars. That was the brand of capitalism that Marx predicted would fail. I still firmly believe that Ayn Rand was a Soviet plant whose assignment was to perform social engineering the USA.

In any event here is the professor's article.

http://shlapentokh.wordpress.com/201...9s-philosophy/

Here is the professor's web site. He's a pretty fascinating guy to talk with.
https://www.msu.edu/~shlapent/index.html

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by ebacon

Here's more on Ayn Rand's philosophy from Professor Vladimir Shlapentokh. He is a Soviet sociologist that emigrated to the USA in 1979. In this article he describes how perfectly awful Ayn Rand's philosophy is for the USA. He attributes shortcomings in the philosophy to Ayn Rand's Russian roots. He and I had a pleasant discussion on the phone back when he was writing about Ayn Rand and I told him my theory about Ayn Rand actually being intent on destroying the US economy from within. He called me a conspiracy theorist. Par for the course. The curious thing is that the professor and I arrived at identical conclusions as to the problems with Ayn Rand's philosophy. The question then becomes are those errors there by mistake as the professor claims or on purpose as I claim.

The reason I believe they are there are purpose are because Ayn Rand's philosophy nudges traditional American self-managed capitalism towards a more feudal brand of capitalism that occurred in Russia under the czars. That was the brand of capitalism that Marx predicted would fail. I still firmly believe that Ayn Rand was a Soviet plant whose assignment was to perform social engineering the USA.

In any event here is the professor's article.

http://shlapentokh.wordpress.com/201...9s-philosophy/

Here is the professor's web site. He's a pretty fascinating guy to talk with.
https://www.msu.edu/~shlapent/index.html

Thanks for the cite. I'm interested in this subject matter. Your Soviet plant hypothesis is interesting. BTW, since you appear to be into philosophy, have you read Wittgenstein's Tractatus? I had to deal with it in a linguistic seminar on formal languages.

[bobabode]

Only a Jesuit can bild (model) that? (Yeah, I skimmed the wiki article..)
So how's the weather down your way? It muggy as hell up here. Time for a cool drink and a walk down on the beach in Newport. It's got to be cooler down that way. Have a good one BH.

[ebacon]

Originally Posted by bhunter

. . . BTW, since you appear to be into philosophy, have you read Wittgenstein's Tractatus? I had to deal with it in a linguistic seminar on formal languages.

I have not read it.

My exposure to pure philosophy is extremely limited. During engineering undergrad I satisfied a philosophy credit with a class called Introduction to Ethics. That class stayed with the classics such as Plato, Aristotle, etc. and was fun to digest.

A few years ago I read The Closing of the American Mind. That book was a bear for me to get through. The author threw around names like Hegel, Marx, Jefferson, etc. as if the reader knew all of their philosophies. I did not. I spent just as much time doing research as reading the book. It was an enlightening experience.

In law school we really didn't learn any philosophy. Law school is more like a software class. We did simple analysis such as law A ended up with effect Z. The good thing from law school is that it helps students see the big picture.

On the theology front I read Seven Storey Mountain. That was the book that finally made religion understandable for me.

So that's it. My background is two philosophy books with other background in law and a little theology to help put philosophy in context.

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Only a Jesuit can bild (model) that? (Yeah, I skimmed the wiki article..)
So how's the weather down your way? It muggy as hell up here. Time for a cool drink and a walk down on the beach in Newport. It's got to be cooler down that way. Have a good one BH.

It was about 90 degrees with 60-70% humidity. Too damn hot! I tried to do some work, but it's hot enough that my skin is sticking to my Vyco covered desktop. It's great stuff to write on but any sweat and your skin sticks. Balboa Island and a gin and tonic, or several, sounds about perfect. Enjoy your walk.