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Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
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Publisher's summary
This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.
Written with all the clarity and eloquence that have placed Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy in the mainstream of American thought, these essays range over such basic issues as education, morality, censorship, and inflation to prove that philosophy is the fundamental force in all our lives.
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Hurt version decidedly superior
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Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
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Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
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Get Stein on Writing
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Rand takes listeners step by step through the writing process, providing insightful observations and invaluable techniques along the way. She discusses the psychological aspects of writing and the roles played by the conscious and subconscious mind. She talks about articles and books, explaining how to select a subject and theme, how to identify your audience, and how to write the first draft.
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Great Content, but the narrator is annoying
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Critic reviews
"For those who want to understand the philosophic implications of our era, this collection by Ayn Rand is an excellent place to begin." (News-Leader)
"Although this omnibus volume...is written for an audience of believers, readers unfamiliar with [Rand's] novels might find it a useful starting point." (Publishers Weekly)
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The God Argument
- The Case Against Religion and for Humanism
- By: A. C. Grayling
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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What are the arguments for and against religion and religious belief - all of them - right across the range of reasons and motives that people have for being religious, and do they stand up to scrutiny? Can there be a clear, full statement of these arguments that once and for all will show what is at stake in this debate? Equally important: what is the alternative to religion as a view of the world and a foundation for morality?
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Fascinating Topic Made Mind Numbingly Dull
- By m.emery on 06-17-15
By: A. C. Grayling
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On Liberty
- By: John Stuart Mill
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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On Liberty is a book by John Stuart Mill, one of the most celebrated philosophers on the subject of leadership and governing ideals. The book focuses on Mill's philosophy on utilitarianism which is one of his defining principles. The principles of the book are focused on developing a relationship between the ruling authority and liberty.
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Must read
- By Trevor M. on 08-04-21
By: John Stuart Mill
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Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers
- The Ideas That Have Shaped Our World
- By: Philip Stokes
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This engaging and accessible book invites the listener to explore the questions and arguments of philosophy through the work of 100 of the greatest thinkers within the Western intellectual tradition - covering philosophical, scientific, political, and religious thought over a period of 2500 years.
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Unpretentious, honest, with a big picture
- By Mike S. on 05-29-17
By: Philip Stokes
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What Are We Doing Here?
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville, inform our political consciousness or discussing how beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display.
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Unpersuasive and a bit repetitive
- By Adam Shields on 03-07-18
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The Dream of Enlightenment
- The Rise of Modern Philosophy
- By: Anthony Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Anthony Gottlieb
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Dream of Enlightenment, Anthony Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.
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Enlightenment meets Neuroscience
- By Rodger on 12-05-19
By: Anthony Gottlieb
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Kant's Foundations of Ethics
- By: Immanuel Kant
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Kant published this work in 1795, during the aftermath of the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The high hopes of the European Enlightenment had been dampened by the Reign of Terror in which tens of thousands of people died, and the perpetual cycle of war and temporary armistice seemed to be inescapable. Kant's essay is best known as an early articulation of the idea of a league of nations that could bring an end to all hostilities. Today, the United Nations continues to pursue that dream, but lasting peace still seems to be wishful thinking.
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The Best on The Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals
- By JCW on 07-28-18
By: Immanuel Kant
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The Enlightenment
- And Why It Still Matters
- By: Anthony Pagden
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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One of our most renowned and brilliant historians takes a fresh look at the revolutionary intellectual movement that laid the foundation for the modern world. Liberty and equality. Human rights. Freedom of thought and expression. Belief in reason and progress. The value of scientific inquiry. These are just some of the ideas that were conceived and developed during the Enlightenment, and which changed forever the intellectual landscape of the Western world.
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A thorough political tract rather than history
- By Jacobus on 03-08-14
By: Anthony Pagden
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The Irony of American History
- By: Reinhold Niebuhr
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr's masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue.
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Superlative Book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-10
By: Reinhold Niebuhr
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Ashame this is not taught in our
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We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
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Emotionally intense, historically authentic
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The Virtue of Selfishness
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Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with human nature, with the creative requirement of survival, and with a free society.
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Beyond brilliant
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Objectivism
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This brilliantly conceived book is based on a lecture course given by Dr. Leonard Peikoff in 1976 entitled, "The Philosophy of Objectivism". The lectures were attended by Ayn Rand, who helped prepare them and who also joined Peikoff in answering questions.
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The very best overview of Objectivism
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The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
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In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand's life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor.
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Explains Everything Of Today
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In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, she demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth. Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message.
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Essential AYN
- By Mica on 07-15-08
By: Ayn Rand
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Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
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We the Living
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Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
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The Virtue of Selfishness
- By: Ayn Rand
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Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with human nature, with the creative requirement of survival, and with a free society.
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Beyond brilliant
- By R. Aiken on 10-29-03
By: Ayn Rand
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The very best overview of Objectivism
- By L. Hattery on 06-24-05
By: Leonard Peikoff
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The Voice of Reason
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Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
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In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, she demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth. Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message.
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Essential AYN
- By Mica on 07-15-08
By: Ayn Rand
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Anthem
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
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“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil.” Deep issues of conscience are explored in Ayn Rand’s dystopian tale of a man who dares to fight against a system that invades his very mind and identity.
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Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
- By Kari on 02-17-16
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For the New Intellectual
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This is Ayn Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the "atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion" that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy, an ethic of rational self-interest, that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice.
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Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
- By Avid reader on 08-11-05
By: Ayn Rand
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Return of the Primitive
- The Anti-Industrial Revolution
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In the 1960s and early '70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left: a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism.
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Extreemly relevant to our current climate
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The Fountainhead
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One of the 20th century's most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion. The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, a genius; Gail Wynand, a newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire; and Dominique Francon, a devastating beauty.
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The Fountainhead
- By Zachary on 06-04-10
By: Ayn Rand
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Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
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In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts? In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, one man sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike.
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Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
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The Fountainhead
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Abridged
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The Fountainhead studies the conflict between artistic genius and social convention, a theme Ayn Rand later developed into the idealistic philosophy knows as Objectivism. Rand's hero is Howard Roark, a brilliant young architect who won't compromise his integrity, especially in the unconventional buildings he designs.
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Be aware that this is an abridged version
- By Kindle Customer on 11-01-17
By: Ayn Rand
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Anthem
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Paul Meier
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Rand's Protagonist, Equality 7-2521, describes a surreal world of faceless, nameless drones who "exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen." Alone, this daring young man defies the will of the ruling councils and discovers the forbidden freedoms that prevailed during the Unmentionable Times. In other words, he finds and celebrates the power of the self. In doing so, he becomes the prototypical Rand hero, a bold risk-taker who shuns conformity and unabashedly embraces egoism.
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Great Narration
- By Steve on 02-05-07
By: Ayn Rand
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The Art of Nonfiction
- By: Ayn Rand
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- Unabridged
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Rand takes listeners step by step through the writing process, providing insightful observations and invaluable techniques along the way. She discusses the psychological aspects of writing and the roles played by the conscious and subconscious mind. She talks about articles and books, explaining how to select a subject and theme, how to identify your audience, and how to write the first draft.
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Great Content, but the narrator is annoying
- By Ms on 01-26-09
By: Ayn Rand
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The Art of Fiction
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Ayn Rand discusses how a writer combines abstract ideas with concrete action and description to achieve a unity of theme, plot, characterization, and style, the four essential elements of fiction. Here, too, are Rand's illuminating analyses of passages from famous writers, rewrites of scenes from her own works, and fascinating rules for building dramatic plots and characters with depth.
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Get Stein on Writing
- By Lois on 12-04-09
By: Ayn Rand
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Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
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As passionate as it is profound, Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential novels of our time. In it, Rand dramatizes the main tenets of objectivism, her philosophy of rational selfishness. She explores the ramifications of her radical thinking in a world that penalizes human intelligence and integrity.
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Edward Hermann's masterful performance.
- By Shawn Levasseur on 07-17-08
By: Ayn Rand
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Anthem
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Anthem by Ayn Rand is a dystopian novella that unfolds in a future society where individuality is eradicated, and collectivism reigns supreme. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521, dares to defy the oppressive system and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. As he grapples with forbidden thoughts and explores the forbidden concept of "I," he uncovers the power of individualism and the pursuit of personal identity.
By: Ayn Rand
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Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 52 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he fight his hardest battle not against his enemies, but against the woman he loves? Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's magnum opus and launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon.
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Epic in Scope, Simplistic Characters
- By Rich on 02-04-08
By: Ayn Rand
What listeners say about Philosophy
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- Denis Vlasov
- 02-15-24
the truth
Works for present time just as well and still is true today. She was a great mind I wish more people would listen to her books.
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- Luisa
- 03-08-18
Nice overall book!
It was an interesting book to listen if you're in to philosophy. It really explain how modern society use it and how modern people think and act.
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- Riccardo C. Repetti
- 02-02-20
Everyone needs it!
Excellent in-depth introduction to Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Objectivism may be simplified as the opposite of subjectivism. Subjectivism is the view that all values, norms, standards, criteria, principles, judgments, perceptions, facts, explanations, reasonings, and cognitions and evaluations of any kind lack any validity, truth, or objective grounding in any fixed, stable reality existing outside our minds, but instead only appear as if they do because they are projections of our preferences, emotions, motives, biases, dispositions, psychological tendencies, and other subjective, contingent factors about our psychological make-up. Two major forms of subjectivism are individual relativism and group relativism. Individual relativism says that all such matter are relative to the individual, whose preferences, etc. set his or her own standards. Group relativism holds that group preferences, etc. set the standards for the group. What is true for you is not true for me, says the individual relativist. What is true for them is not true for us, say the group relativists. Both imply that there is no truth. By contrast, Objectivism acknowledges that subjective phenomena exist at both the individual and group levels, and that either can taint our understanding of reality, but that there does exist a mind-independent reality with a fixed nature, fixed, identifiable, perceivable characteristics, and that reality serves as the basis for determining whether our judgments about it are correct or not. If our claims correspond to reality, they are true; otherwise not. The claim that "this is a review of an Ayn Rand book" is true because it is a review of an Ayn Rand book, not merely because I think it is. This is Rand's metaphysics (her theory about the nature of reality), the basis for her Objectivism.
From this follows her epistemology, ethics, politics, economics, and aesthetics. Epistemology, the study of the nature of knowledge, that is in line with Objectivist metaphysics has it that because there is a fixed reality, we can know it by means of perception and reasoning. We perceive real objects, forming concepts that categorize them, such as "book review" or "word" or "person", and reason about what kinds of things they are, based on identification of their natures, what makes them what they are, which can be crystallized in definitions, e.g., a book review is a (typically written) evaluation of a book by a reader of that book. We can know what book reviews are because they exist in mind-independent reality, so we can check reality to see if it contains a book review, what a book review is, and what it is not, and whether a given piece of writing counts as a book review. Thus, Objectivist epistemology has it that we can attain knowledge by use of perception, conception, and reasoning.
Objectivist ethics follows suit, identifying what ethics is, based on what man is, a rational self-interested, autonomous (free-will-possessing, volitional) being, and thus man's interests in life and happiness determine that whatever is in man's interests, whatever supports his life and his happiness, is the good for man. Man, like any living being, needs certain things in order to survive, but unlike most other beings, man must use his reason to produce the goods he needs to survive. Thus, man ought to be productive, and, given his right to life and to the pursuit of happiness, nobody has a right to enslave another man or use force or the threat of force to make him produce for another. Individual freedom for every man follows from the right to life and the right to the pursuit of happiness, and demands that nobody use force against another except in self defense. Thus, altruism cannot be forced on anyone, although anyone may choose to help another, and it is rational to do so if doing so is in one's self-interest. Thus, Objectivist ethics is an ethics of rational self-interest, not altruism.
Objectivist ethics, being an ethic of rational self-interest, determines Objectivist politics, economics, and aesthetics. Given individual rights to life and the pursuit of happiness, the only just political system is one that imposes no altruistic obligations on anyone against their will, and thus demands respect for individual rights, liberty, and all the freedoms that this entails, such as freedom of speech, association, the press, to own property, to exchange values, goods, and services voluntarily, etc. Thus, capitalism is the only economic system that is politically just. Government has no right to interfere with the rights of autonomous individuals engaged in free exchange according to their mutual rational self-interest. The only legitimate role for government in an Objectivist society would be that of security, securing the rights of free individuals. This means that a just government would be restricted primarily to a militia to protect the society from external aggression, a police force to protect citizens from each other, and a judicial system to adjudicate putative violations of individual rights.
Lastly, Objectivist aesthetics acknowledges the nature of man as a rational, autonomous, self-interested volitional being, and places a high value on man;'s freedom, his free will, his nature as an end unto himself, as a being that values himself for his own sake, and encourages art in any form that emphasizes or is at least consistent with that reality, particularly aspirational art, art that depicts what man can and ought to be, not just what man is or has been, although while Objectivist art is aspirational and thus imaginative and not limited to reality or representation in art, it acknowledges the importance of the relationship between cognition of reality, which is representational, and aspiration for a better future, which is non-representational, imaginative, creative, and productive. These values are emphasized in the Fountainhead, Rand's work on architecture in which the ideal man is depicted as eschewing the copy-cat tradition of placing Greco-Roman facades on municipal buildings, which is unoriginal and uncreative, while championing a kind of architecture that fuses creative design (what could be) with structural necessity (what is), producing beautiful buildings that reflect the aspirational ethic of striving to produce the best in man.
Having read the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand's two feats of genius, helped me have a sense for this philosophy, but this collection of her explanatory essays, Philosophy: Who Needs It, enabled me to understand Objectivism enough to write this review. The above are summaries of those of her views that define Objectivism. The book argues, for, defends, and explains these views in forceful, insightful, often humorous, often polemical terms. If anything, it is a refreshingly coherent philosophy, with every component logically entailed by, and entailing, every other component, which is exceedingly rare among philosophical systems. Anyone who wishes to criticize Rand, which is becoming a renewed past-time among intellectuals on the left of late, cannot coherently do so without understanding her position. To understand it, I highly recommend this collection.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-30-18
Amazing
A truly in depth comprehensive look into objectivism, the individual, and capitalism.
No punch held as she address less the fundamental issues of the day
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- Juan Cano-Arribi Company
- 01-14-24
Magnífico. Absolutamente recomendable.
Interesantísimo de principio a fin. A destacar el capítulo sobre el detective filosófico, el de causalidad vs deber o las refutaciones de John Rawls y B.F.Skinner.
Maravillosa lectura de Lloyd James. Se entiende francamente bien, aunque tu nivel de inglés no sea precisamente nativo.
En resumen, absolutamente recomendable.
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- Iván
- 06-23-17
Excellent text, awfully sloppy narration
It's clear from the numerous out-of-place pauses, badly pronounced words and expressions and in some cases words changed (!) that the narrator has not taken the time to read and understand the material first. Compared to the (few) other books I've listened to this narration is barely acceptable.
Still, this is a book everyone should read or listen to, given how many great and important ideas it contains.
I have
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5 people found this helpful
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- D. Campbell
- 11-15-23
What a prophet!
What a prophet! As relevant today as it was in the mid 1970's. We observe that the march of state control has continued, but these essays tell us why and offer unique suggestions on how to combat it. We must know what we want, and why, and work to spread the best ideas (not just bitch about current conditions). May her ideas and legacy stoke our minds today, and live far into the future. Then we will have a chance.
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- Lawrence
- 02-11-15
A rational individual needs intellectual ammo
I believe that this is the 4th Ayn Rand book a person should read/hear. 1st is Atlas Shrugged, likely the most important book ever written. Next Capitalism-The Unknown Ideal and The Virtue of Selfish can be read in either order, but Ms Rand does reference the latter in the Capitalism.
I believe that if enough people read all 4 this country could still reach its incredible potential.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Justin Gardner
- 09-29-15
A necessity for all men to read
If you are not familiar with Ayn Rand, I suggest you start with this book. It is a great overview of her ideas, and is absolutely true in stating the need of philosophy for all men. Happy reading!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sierra Bravo
- 05-21-09
Deep and provocative
This is not light listening. It is best on long trips, as it is difficult to follow some of the deeper arguments if you take it in 20-minute commute segments. It is a great book, actually a collection of essays, but like any philosophy it takes some thinking to follow. Though I cannot say I subscribe to Ms. Rand's views on all things the clearness of her arguments are difficult to refute. Ms. Rand is pretty rough on both the right and the left and points out the hypocrisy in both positions. If you are not willing to examine your political beliefs then stay away as they will be challenged. Finally it should be noted that most of these essays were made in the late 60s and early 70s. Ms. Rand promotes that America is great because of its beliefs, but that it is vulnerable because it does not understand the premises behind those beliefs. I suspect she would look at America today as an opportunity for greatness lost.
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39 people found this helpful