The Virtue of Selfishness
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
C. M. Hernert
-
By:
-
Ayn Rand
About this listen
Ms. Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in this insightful piece of nonfiction.
©1961 Ayn Rand; 1961 by the Objectivist Newsletter Incorporated (P)2000 Blackstone AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
Anthem
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“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.
-
-
Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
- By Kari on 02-17-16
By: Ayn Rand
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. 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.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
For the New Intellectual
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
- By Avid reader on 08-11-05
By: Ayn Rand
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
Anthem
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“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.
-
-
Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
- By Kari on 02-17-16
By: Ayn Rand
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. 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.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
For the New Intellectual
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
- By Avid reader on 08-11-05
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Romantic Manifesto
- A Philosophy of Literature
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Essential AYN
- By Mica on 07-15-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
The Fountainhead
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 32 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Fountainhead
- By Zachary on 06-04-10
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
- By: Dr. Nathaniel Branden
- Narrated by: Dr. Nathaniel Branden
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immense in scope and vision and filled with brilliant insights into human nature, this program is the ultimate work on the psychology of self-esteem. Listen and find out the strength Dr. Branden's six pillars will award you.
-
-
Like listening to a psych professor but no help.
- By Leslie, children's author and teacher😊 on 02-14-15
-
Return of the Primitive
- The Anti-Industrial Revolution
- By: Ayn Rand, Peter Schwartz
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Extreemly relevant to our current climate
- By Mica on 01-18-10
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
Objectivism
- The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
- By: Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Johanna Ward
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The very best overview of Objectivism
- By L. Hattery on 06-24-05
By: Leonard Peikoff
-
Ayn Rand Answers
- The Best of Her Q & A
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand occasionally lectured in order to bring her philosophy of Objectivism to a wider audience and apply it to current cultural and political issues. These taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand's ideas and beliefs, but a fresh and spontaneous insight into Ayn Rand herself.
-
-
It sounds like Ayn Rand
- By Anonymous User on 06-09-18
By: Ayn Rand
-
Ideal
- The Novel and the Play
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane, Robin Field
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally conceived as a novel but then transformed into a play by Ayn Rand, Ideal is the story of beautiful but tormented actress Kay Gonda. Accused of murder, she is on the run and turns for help to six fans who have written letters to her, each telling her that she represents their ideal - a respectable family man, a far-left activist, a cynical artist, an evangelist, a playboy, and a lost soul.
-
-
Budding Rand
- By Anthony on 07-07-15
By: Ayn Rand
-
Broken Money
- Why Our Financial System Is Failing Us and How We Can Make It Better
- By: Lyn Alden
- Narrated by: Guy Swann
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Broken Money explores the history of money through the lens of technology. Politics can affect things temporarily and locally, but technology is what drives things forward globally and permanently. The book's goal is for the listener to walk away with a deep understanding of money and monetary history, both in terms of theoretical foundations and in terms of practical implications.
-
-
Turns into an advertisement for Bitcoin
- By Dan B on 04-23-24
By: Lyn Alden
-
Human Action
- A Treatise on Economics
- By: Ludwig von Mises
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 47 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Human Action is the most important book on political economy you will ever own. It was (and remains) the most comprehensive, systematic, forthright, and powerful defense of the economics of liberty ever written. This is the Scholar's Edition: accept no substitute. You will treasure this volume. The Scholar's Edition is the original, unaltered treatise (originally published in 1949) that shaped a generation of Austrians and made possible the intellectual movement that is leading the global charge for free markets.
-
-
Better be prepared to bookmark
- By Zephyr on 07-15-14
By: Ludwig von Mises
-
Discrimination and Disparities
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discrimination and Disparities challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. It is listenable enough for people with no prior knowledge of economics. Yet the empirical evidence with which it backs up its analysis spans the globe and challenges beliefs across the ideological spectrum.
-
-
Hard Pill To Swallow - I’m better for it
- By Charles on 01-14-19
By: Thomas Sowell
-
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Noah Lugeons on 09-11-18
Related to this topic
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. 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.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
Escape from Freedom
- By: Erich Fromm
- Narrated by: Anthony Haden Salerno
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
lf a man cannot stand freedom, he will probably turn fascist. This, in the fewest possible words, is the essential argument in this modem classic, Escape from Freedom. The author, Erich Fromm, is a distinguished psychologist, late of Berlin and Heidelberg, now of New York City.
-
-
Why is this not required reading in high school?
- By Xander on 09-07-16
By: Erich Fromm
-
Kant's Foundations of Ethics
- By: Immanuel Kant
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Best on The Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals
- By JCW on 07-28-18
By: Immanuel Kant
-
The Irony of American History
- By: Reinhold Niebuhr
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Superlative Book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-10
By: Reinhold Niebuhr
-
A New Textbook of Americanism
- By: Jonathan Hoenig - editor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hoenig
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most people have no idea what the United States represents. Ayn Rand did grasp America's political essence down to its roots. Seventy-two years in the making, this book illuminates why the United States is "the only moral country in the history of the world" and features never-before-published discussions with Ayn Rand, plus work from Leonard Peikoff and the New Intellectuals.
-
-
A Great Introduction to Objectionism
- By Lester C Liby on 06-27-19
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. 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.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
Escape from Freedom
- By: Erich Fromm
- Narrated by: Anthony Haden Salerno
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
lf a man cannot stand freedom, he will probably turn fascist. This, in the fewest possible words, is the essential argument in this modem classic, Escape from Freedom. The author, Erich Fromm, is a distinguished psychologist, late of Berlin and Heidelberg, now of New York City.
-
-
Why is this not required reading in high school?
- By Xander on 09-07-16
By: Erich Fromm
-
Kant's Foundations of Ethics
- By: Immanuel Kant
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Best on The Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals
- By JCW on 07-28-18
By: Immanuel Kant
-
The Irony of American History
- By: Reinhold Niebuhr
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Superlative Book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-10
By: Reinhold Niebuhr
-
A New Textbook of Americanism
- By: Jonathan Hoenig - editor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hoenig
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most people have no idea what the United States represents. Ayn Rand did grasp America's political essence down to its roots. Seventy-two years in the making, this book illuminates why the United States is "the only moral country in the history of the world" and features never-before-published discussions with Ayn Rand, plus work from Leonard Peikoff and the New Intellectuals.
-
-
A Great Introduction to Objectionism
- By Lester C Liby on 06-27-19
-
A Short History of Ethics
- By: Alasdair MacIntyre
- Narrated by: Tim Dalgleish
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Short History of Ethics is a significant contribution written by one of the most important living philosophers. It remains an important work, ideal for all students interested in ethics and morality.
-
-
Great philosopher made ridiculous by accents
- By Olivia Walling on 10-04-17
-
On Liberty
- By: John Stuart Mill
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Must read
- By Trevor M. on 08-04-21
By: John Stuart Mill
-
The Secret Knowledge
- On the Dismantling of American Culture
- By: David Mamet
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past 30 years, David Mamet has been a controversial and defining force in theater and film, championing the most cherished liberal values along the way. In some of the great movies and plays of our time, his characters have explored the ethics of the business world, embodied the struggles of the oppressed, and faced the flaws of the capitalist system. But in recent years Mamet has had a change of heart.
-
-
Mamet's Rubicon
- By Kirk on 08-13-11
By: David Mamet
-
The Origins of Totalitarianism
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic, definitive account of totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism", beginning with the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in the 19th century and continuing through the New Imperialism period from 1884 to World War I.
-
-
Vast and intricate analysis of horror
- By Roger on 08-04-08
By: Hannah Arendt
-
The Demon in Democracy
- Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies
- By: Ryszard Legutko, John O'Sullivan, Teresa Adelson
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryszard Legutko lived and suffered under communism for decades - and he fought with the Polish anti-communist movement to abolish it. Having lived for two decades under a liberal democracy, however, he has discovered that these two political systems have a lot more in common than one might think. They both stem from the same historical roots in early modernity, and accept similar presuppositions about history, society, religion, politics, culture, and human nature.
-
-
Important book on political philosophy
- By Wayne on 08-02-19
By: Ryszard Legutko, and others
-
Theory and History
- An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution (LvMI)
- By: Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises moved beyond economics in his later years to address questions regarding the foundation of all social science. But unlike Hayek's attempts, Mises' writings on these matters have received less attention than they deserve. Theory and History, writes Rothbard in his introduction, "remains by far the most neglected masterwork of Mises". Here Mises defends his all-important idea of methodological dualism: one approach to the hard sciences and another for the social sciences.
-
-
Without This Book, You Are Uneducated
- By Michael D. Rubin on 10-03-18
By: Ludwig von Mises, and others
-
America's Revolutionary Mind
- A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It
- By: C. Bradley Thompson
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind; and, second, to shed light on what John Adams once called the "real American Revolution"; that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the 15 years before 1776.
-
-
Excellent study of Revolutionary Thinking
- By Amazon Customer on 03-24-21
-
Utilitarianism
- By: John Stuart Mill
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This expanded edition of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism includes the text of his 1868 speech to the British House of Commons defending the use of capital punishment in cases of aggravated murder. The speech is significant both because its topic remains timely and because its arguments illustrate the applicability of the principle of utility to questions of large-scale social policy.
-
-
A dramatic reading of JSM's 'Utilitarianism'
- By Darwin8u on 12-24-12
By: John Stuart Mill
-
Anarchy
- By: Errico Malatesta
- Narrated by: Caroline Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Anarchy" (1907) is a political classic written by famous anarchist Errico Malatesta. "Anarchy is a word which comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, without government: the state of a people without any constituted authority. Before such an organization had begun to be considered possible and desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to be taken as the aim of a party (which party has now become one of the most important factors in modern social warfare)."
-
-
Malatesta is a Fantastic writer.
- By Elly on 08-28-21
By: Errico Malatesta
-
Last Call for Liberty
- How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat
- By: Os Guinness
- Narrated by: Os Guinness
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.
-
-
Thought Provoking Work On Liberty In America
- By Ezekiel on 05-28-19
By: Os Guinness
-
The End of History and the Last Man
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.
-
-
An important discussion expertly narrated
- By Kevin Teeple on 06-27-19
By: Francis Fukuyama
-
On Revolution
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah Arendt's penetrating observations on the modern world, based on a profound knowledge of the past, have been fundamental to our understanding of our political landscape. On Revolution is her classic exploration of a phenomenon that has reshaped the globe. From the 18th-century rebellions in America and France to the explosive changes of the 20th century, Arendt traces the changing face of revolution and its relationship to war while underscoring the crucial role such events will play in the future.
-
-
Insightful Analysis of Differing Revolutions
- By Roger on 01-10-18
By: Hannah Arendt
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
How to Disappear
- Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency
- By: Akiko Busch
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How to Disappear is a unique and exhilarating accomplishment, overturning the dangerous modern assumption that somehow fame and visibility equate to success and happiness. Busch presents a field guide to invisibility, reacquainting us with the merits of remaining inconspicuousness, and finding genuine alternatives to a life of perpetual exposure. Accessing timeless truths in order to speak to our most urgent contemporary problems, she inspires us to develop a deeper appreciation for personal privacy in a vast and intrusive world.
-
-
Not a Guide on How to Disappear
- By Cat Wilson on 10-04-23
By: Akiko Busch
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. 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.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Power of Strangers
- The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World
- By: Joe Keohane
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane sets out on a journey to discover what happens when we bridge the distance between us and people we don’t know. He learns that while we’re wired to sometimes fear, distrust, and even hate strangers, people and societies that have learned to connect with strangers benefit immensely.
-
-
Not worth a credit
- By Eringatang on 07-24-21
By: Joe Keohane
-
Confirmation Bias
- Inside Washington's War Over the Supreme Court, from Scalia's Death to Justice Kavanaugh
- By: Carl Hulse
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times presents a richly detailed, news-breaking, and conversation-changing look at the unprecedented political fight to fill the Supreme Court seat made vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death - using it to explain the paralyzing and all but irreversible dysfunction across all three branches in the nation’s capital.
-
-
Bias is right
- By Shelle Houser on 07-07-19
By: Carl Hulse
-
Ex Libris
- 100+ Books to Read and Reread
- By: Michiko Kakutani
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Books can connect people across time zones and zip codes, across cultures, national boundaries, and historical eras”, Kakutani writes in her introduction to Ex Libris. Here listeners will discover novels and memoirs by some of the most gifted writers working today; favorite classics worth listening or relistening; and nonfiction works, both old and new, that illuminate our social and political landscape and some of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to medicine to the consequences of digital innovation.
By: Michiko Kakutani
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
How to Disappear
- Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency
- By: Akiko Busch
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How to Disappear is a unique and exhilarating accomplishment, overturning the dangerous modern assumption that somehow fame and visibility equate to success and happiness. Busch presents a field guide to invisibility, reacquainting us with the merits of remaining inconspicuousness, and finding genuine alternatives to a life of perpetual exposure. Accessing timeless truths in order to speak to our most urgent contemporary problems, she inspires us to develop a deeper appreciation for personal privacy in a vast and intrusive world.
-
-
Not a Guide on How to Disappear
- By Cat Wilson on 10-04-23
By: Akiko Busch
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. 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.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Power of Strangers
- The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World
- By: Joe Keohane
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane sets out on a journey to discover what happens when we bridge the distance between us and people we don’t know. He learns that while we’re wired to sometimes fear, distrust, and even hate strangers, people and societies that have learned to connect with strangers benefit immensely.
-
-
Not worth a credit
- By Eringatang on 07-24-21
By: Joe Keohane
-
Confirmation Bias
- Inside Washington's War Over the Supreme Court, from Scalia's Death to Justice Kavanaugh
- By: Carl Hulse
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times presents a richly detailed, news-breaking, and conversation-changing look at the unprecedented political fight to fill the Supreme Court seat made vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death - using it to explain the paralyzing and all but irreversible dysfunction across all three branches in the nation’s capital.
-
-
Bias is right
- By Shelle Houser on 07-07-19
By: Carl Hulse
-
Ex Libris
- 100+ Books to Read and Reread
- By: Michiko Kakutani
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Books can connect people across time zones and zip codes, across cultures, national boundaries, and historical eras”, Kakutani writes in her introduction to Ex Libris. Here listeners will discover novels and memoirs by some of the most gifted writers working today; favorite classics worth listening or relistening; and nonfiction works, both old and new, that illuminate our social and political landscape and some of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to medicine to the consequences of digital innovation.
By: Michiko Kakutani
-
Who Ate the First Oyster?
- The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History
- By: Cody Cassidy
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This madcap adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations. With a sharp sense of humor and boundless enthusiasm for the wonders of our ancient ancestors, Who Ate the First Oyster? profiles the perpetrators of the greatest firsts and catastrophes of prehistory.
-
-
It could be better...
- By Alex on 04-06-21
By: Cody Cassidy
-
Fewer, Richer, Greener
- Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance
- By: Laurence B. Siegel
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our world seems to be experiencing stagnant economic growth, climatic deterioration, dwindling natural resources, and an unsustainable level of population growth. The world is doomed, they argue, and there are just too many problems to overcome. But is this really the case? In Fewer, Richer, Greener, author Laurence B. Siegel reveals that the world has improved - and will continue to improve - in almost every dimension imaginable.
-
-
Good stuff and thought provoking
- By Charles N. Wendt on 02-25-20
-
Math Without Numbers
- By: Milo Beckman
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an audiobook about math, but it contains no numbers. Math Without Numbers is a vivid, conversational, and wholly original guide to the three main branches of abstract math - topology, analysis, and algebra - which turn out to be surprisingly easy to grasp. This audiobook upends the conventional approach to math, inviting you to think creatively about shape and dimension, the infinite and infinitesimal, symmetries, proofs, and how these concepts all fit together. Join this freewheeling tour of the inimitable joys and unsolved mysteries of this curiously powerful subject.
-
-
please leave your politics at home
- By david malaguti on 09-23-23
By: Milo Beckman
-
To Boldly Grow
- Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard
- By: Tamar Haspel
- Narrated by: Tamar Haspel
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and self-proclaimed “crappy gardener” Tamar Haspel is on a mission: to show us that raising or gathering our own food is not as hard as it’s often made out to be. When she and her husband move from Manhattan to two acres on Cape Cod, they decide to adopt a more active approach to their diet: raising chickens, growing tomatoes, even foraging for mushrooms and hunting their own meat. They have more ambition than practical know-how, but that’s not about to stop them from trying…even if sometimes their reach exceeds their (often muddy) grasp.
-
-
Funny, Smart, and Growth Encouraging
- By CLF on 03-28-23
By: Tamar Haspel
-
The Asking
- New and Selected Poems
- By: Jane Hirshfield
- Narrated by: Jane Hirshfield
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Asking takes its title from the closing line of one of its newly appearing poems: “don’t despair of this falling world, not yet didn’t it give you the asking.” In its substantial opening section of new work, Jane Hirshfield continues her signature affirmation of the central contradictions, uncertainties, and harvests of astonishment that shape our human lives. A forefront spokesperson for the biosphere and the alliance of science and imagination, Hirshfield offers, as indispensable compass, the choice to embrace what comes. I
-
-
Brilliance
- By Paul Adams on 10-26-23
By: Jane Hirshfield
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Semicolon
- The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark
- By: Cecelia Watson
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A pause-resisting, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark. Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don’t need guides at all and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
-
-
Silly me; I thought it was about semicolons
- By Jeffrey D on 08-15-19
By: Cecelia Watson
-
For the New Intellectual
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
- By Avid reader on 08-11-05
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Shortest History of Europe
- By: John Hirst
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated historian John Hirst offers a fascinating exploration of the qualities that made Europe a world-changing civilization. The Shortest History of Europe begins with a rapid overview of European civilization, describing its birth from an unlikely mixture of classical learning and Christianity and German warrior culture. Over the centuries, this unstable blend produced highly distinctive characters - pious knights and belligerent popes, and beyond - and its coming apart provided the dynamic of European history in modern times.
-
-
Political Cheap Shots Instead of History
- By Anonymous User on 08-25-24
By: John Hirst
-
Life Inside the Bubble
- Why a Top-Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away from It All
- By: Dan Bongino
- Narrated by: Mark F. Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He swore to take a bullet for the President and left it all behind to take a bullet for the American people. Why would a successful, twelve-year Secret Service agent resign his position in the prime of his career to run for political office against all the odds? New York Times bestseller, Life Inside the Bubble is an intimate look at life inside the presidential "bubble," a haze of staffers, consultants, cronies, acolytes, bureaucrats and lobbyists that creates the "alternate reality" in which monumental policy decisions are made.
-
-
Tales from a whining baby!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-20
By: Dan Bongino
-
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
- Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
- By: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.
-
-
Everyone dies except Americans
- By preetam on 06-22-22
By: Peter Zeihan
-
Time of the Magicians
- Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy
- By: Wolfram Eilenberger, Shaun Whiteside
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, in search of spiritual clarity.
-
-
Narrator butchers foreign many language quotations
- By William G. Brown on 08-31-20
By: Wolfram Eilenberger, and others
What listeners say about The Virtue of Selfishness
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- John
- 12-12-05
Good Luck!
Although Ms. Rand can be very black & white about things (as most in this field tend to be) I found much of what she discusses in this book to be brilliant. I think it would be a better read, as her thoughts deserve more contemplation than the three seconds given between most sentences. WARNING: The narrator is extremely difficult to listen to! Her voice is boring and very cold, giving the impression that we are listening to something evil. If you've recently had some coffee and are in the mood to be challenged then this audiobook is for you. Overall good stuff.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
55 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Williamb
- 04-26-14
Don't Blank-Out
What did you love best about The Virtue of Selfishness?
This is a well put together chain of reason and logic. I believe that Socrates would have been won over by Ayn Rand with this one work. Ayn is very patient and very systematic in this presentation. I have spent time studying several popular philosophies, and traditional beliefs. There is so much built-in contradiction in so many philosophies that are explained with impenetrable mysteries that end in unreasonable statements. The clarity of Ayn Rand presents a startling contrast to all those philosophies. She asks only for clear reasoning, not for a leap of faith.
It is a frustrating experience to speak with someone who chooses not to think beyond a point. Art Markman points out in "Smart Thinking" that thinking uses a lot of energy and that the human brain is designed to conserve energy. This may explain the abdication of thinking and reasoning that so many choose when faced with the challenge of thinking all the way through a philosophical presentation.
Please listen to this several times before you decide Ayn Rand, Objectivist philosophy is just wrong. If you are a libertarian, but you have no philosophical underpinning for your beliefs, listen closely to Ayn Rand's challenging essays on Objectivism. If you get tired of thinking, take a break and come back to it, don't give up. Don't decide that your brain is not qualified to reason it out. To allow others to think for you to stop thinking things through and understand clearly what you believe is to throw yourself on the pyre of another's unreasoning sacrifice. It is blanking out. Make yourself valuable to yourself. Work for yourself. You get what you want by providing what others seek or need.
Whether you call it enlightened self interest or selfishness, you are attaining what you seek in a society of peers who reward others who produce what they want. Ayn Rand uses the term selfish to get your attention. To act selfishly, she indicates, it to make your own decisions based on your own resources, perspectives, goals. Helping others is an act of goodwill, not of duty. A charity is only a charity if contribution is voluntary. To give with another's money is taking, not giving.
Is it abusing others to give them a task or job and pay them what at the level they request? As soon as one is rewarded based on need versus based on what they earn, that entire society will parish. Reward for accomplishment is reasonable. One way to look at it is to say that the only thing worth more than gold is trust. I offer my pay (gold) to someone I trust to deliver something I want (plumbing or food, etc.). This is exactly what I offer to those who pay me, trust that I will deliver what I promise. My reputation and demonstrated skills result in the value of what I offer. The value is different to others based on their need or desire.
Ayn Rand lays these simple, reasonable principles end to end in a very logical presentation.
You may ask who will protect me or others from people or organizations who do not deliver what they promise. The role of a government is simple. It is to review the promise as presented (contract) and help enforce this promise for the weaker participant in the contract. Simpler contracts and straight forward trades make it easier for contract participants to understand what to deliver and when. Complex agreements will require help to define the agreement. As it stands now, all the rules, laws, subtleties to commitments makes it impossible for anyone to know where a commitment begins and ends without professional assistance. By complicating the contract with interfering laws and inferences, all parties enter into unknown risks, The one with more influence and professional assistance gains advantages in this system. Reducing government interference benefits the ones with limited means and influence.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mrjones
- 09-21-22
Thinking, explained right.
Anyone and everyone should be exposed to the words that are so honestly spoken in this piece.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Millis
- 10-29-22
Inimitable Philosophy
A superbly written book on arguably one of the most important components a person must address. Becoming proud of your individualism
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Big AJ
- 12-09-22
Compelling case for individualsm
I now understand the hype behind Ayn Rand. Any hardworking successful person listening to this book will recognize the fundamental truths behind Rand’s ideas. The narrator is excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Greg
- 08-19-08
I shrugged
Very thought provoking. Better to read on paper. She is either way smarter than me, or has a hard time putting her thoughts together in a million words or less. I chose this book because I wanted to read something by Ayn. This was among the thinnest. I liked it, but I thought it was a bit pretentious. I'm sure Ayn was great fun at parties.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. R. Hobson
- 10-27-20
Tired of being accused of selfishness?
This book really gets down into the meat and potatoes of what makes the collectivist tick, their reasons for doing so, and tools to better recognize and defeat their fallacious arguments. The Corona Scamdemic has revealed a nasty truth about humanity that I thought was behind us after observing the abject failure that was the Soviet Union.
The unquestioning compliance and cowardice throughout this crisis by citizens, doctors, academia, entertainers, and government officials have left me dismayed and angry. I am now better equipped to fight the wave of stupidity that is currently engulfing the west.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James
- 03-01-17
An excellent overview of enlightened self-interest
The speeches and essays included here challenge the reader to maintain an objective sense of morality and argue for adherence to capitalism as a moral economic reality. I found very little to disagree with in theory here...The rub always comes when unfettered capitalists use government power and influence to their own advantage/vested interest at the immoral expense of others...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Allison
- 06-11-14
Excellent Reader, Troubling Text
I picked up this audiobook in hopes of broadening my world view as I'd never read Rand before. I found her theoretical writing to be thoughtful and enlightening when applied to how individuals should conduct their own lives according to their personal values. I was troubled, however, with the sections dealing with public policy (or lack thereof) and public life. Rand seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature, of the value of culture, and of the sustainability of widespread systems.
I will say that the reader, C. M. Hernert, is excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christian
- 05-10-19
thought provoking
interesting philosophical principles where individuality is defined and contrasted to mysticism and altruism. Worth reading.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!