Word: rand
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...preface to For the New Intellectual, Ayn Rand writes: "I am often asked whether I am primarily a novelist or a philosopher. The answer is: both." All novelists are philosophers to some degree; but as her new book most conclusively demonstrates, very few of them philosophize as much or as openly as does Miss Rand...
...Intellectual presents the major philosophical passages from Ayn Rand's four novels, Atlas Shrugged. The Fountain-head, Anthem, We the Living. It is prefaced by a 60-page, non-fiction introduction which summarizes her beliefs. Miss Rand's writing occasionally lapses into a somewhat offensive pomposity ("I offer the present book as a lead for those who wish to gain an integrated existence"), and certain portions combine in one volume a great many interesting ideas, which, taken together, have intrigued many contemporary thinkers...
...basic axioms of "objectivism" as Miss Rand aptly calls her new philosophy, are sufficiently tame; it is only when she builds on these and divides all men into two pat categories--those who fear and those who accept reality--that her system becomes interesting. Of the "fearing" man Miss Rand's two archetypes are Attila and the Witch Doctor: "the man of muscle and the man of feelings, both seeking to exist without mind." Against these symbols of faith-and-force she pits the Producer: "any man who works, and knows what he's doing...
From these premises Miss Rand derives an elaborate glorification of the capitalist system in general and the businessman in particular. "Capitalism demands the best of every man--his rationality--and rewards him accordingly," she proclaims. "Success depends on the objective value of work." Her praise of the entrepreneur is sometimes quite staggering: he is a man who "takes pride in his work and in the value of his work and in the value of his product--who drives himself with inexhaustible energy and limitless ambition to do better and still better and ever better--who is willing to bear penalties...
According to Miss Rand capitalism today is taunted by various impurities, and it is from this pollution that all the apparent evils in the system stem. To be objective, businessmen must be free. And to be free, business must be daring, cutthroat, and laissez-faire. As far as Miss Rand is concerned, any from of government control, no matter how slight, is too much...