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Thursday
May 11, 2006

Ayn Rand Society - 2006 by Stephen Boydstun

The topic of the Ayn Rand Society this year will be Tara Smith's new book Ayn Rand' Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist. This work was published this year by Cambridge University Press. The ARS meeting will be held in conjunction with the APA Eastern Division meetings in Washington DC, at the Marriott Wardman Hote... (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (29 messages)

Post 20

Monday, May 15, 2006 - 10:31am

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Tidbit

In the Appendix to her new book, Professor Smith discusses egoist friendship. In a footnote, she remarks that Rand "believes that love can provide a unique type of self-awareness or visibility" (290). Smith neglected to give any references for this view of Rand's.

The chief exposition of this fond view of Rand's is an essay in Rand's journal The Objectivist. It was written by Nathaniel Branden, and it is reprinted as the third of the essays assembled in Friendship: A Philosophical Reader, Neera Badhwar, editor.

The dawn of the self-mirror view of romantic love is Rand's exquisite rendition of Dagny Taggart and John Galt together that night of nights in the railway tunnel, at the real climax of Atlas Shrugged (956-57).

Post 21

Monday, May 15, 2006 - 3:11pm

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That passage from Comte is nearly impossible to find--I managed to obtain a copy of the book after looking for it for several years. So I can appreciate her having to cite the passage from my work. (Must have pained her to have to do that. It implies having to trust a heretic.)

Post 22

Monday, May 15, 2006 - 6:37pm

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Steve Shmurak, I appreciate the notes on preprints. I am not well read on Tomkins, and will use the time until publication to acquaint myself with his work (and that of his institute).

It seems to me that the neuroscience of emotion has hit a galloping stride in the last ten years (as the Damasio talk demonstrates in part -- I urge those who wonder if there is anything interesting vis-a-vis Objectivism in the neuroscience to give the earlier cited Damasio talk a listen. The sound is a touch scratchy, but Damasio is a fluent expositor) -- it is of great moment to me that the O-ist world gives serious, thoughtful attention to these findings. I appreciate all the cites and comments given here.

WSS

Post 23

Monday, May 15, 2006 - 7:44pm

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Funny that Damasio is mentioned here-- he is heading a new Institute for the Study of the Brain and Creativity at USC and I am applying to USC for grad school. I might--- if I get in--- be studying with/near Damasio. I'm interested in the interaction between volition and emotion.

Post 24

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 7:35am

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Tibor,

I take your point about the pain occasioned by having to cite a heretic :-)

I also take your point, as far as finding the Positivist Catechism in English is concerned. (The original can be had in a mass-market paperback reprint. I read it in French. But judging from a couple of errors in her footnote, I'm reasonably sure that Tara Smith doesn't know any French.)

However, the System of Positive Polity (of which the Catechism was intended to be a boiled-down presentation for female readers, who Comte was convinced were "emotionalistic") is probably easier to find in the English translations that were done in the 1870s than in the original. Even our subpar library at Clemson has all four volumes, in a 1970s reprint edition. And Comte's English translators meticulously provided his volumes with an index. Looking up "altruism" is a good way to begin...

Robert Campbell

Post 25

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 9:48am

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Stephen B,

I have more reading to do, before I get to Smith's appendix on friendship.

But I've already noticed some flailing in the chapter on honesty. Smith wants to cite Rand on how lying lowers the liar's self-esteem, but can't come up with anything. Meanwhile, a citation of Nathaniel Branden--even of his articles in The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist--remains off-limits.

Robert Campbell

Post 26

Monday, April 30, 2007 - 12:15pm

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This book by Tara Smith has now been reviewed by Diana Hsieh in The Objective Standard.

Post 27

Monday, April 30, 2007 - 1:18pm

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Considering the amount of vitrolic irrationality seen displayed in Solo and NoodleFood by her, am astonished by this review having her name to it....

Post 28

Thursday, June 12 - 4:48am

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Fred Seddon has made his JARS review of Ayn Rand�s Normative Ethics available online here.

His review includes some of his criticisms of Rand�s ethical theory, which are among those given in the major critiques.

(Edited by Stephen Boydstun on 6/12, 4:54am)