At no point in the book was Galt at any risk at all of being "left with less than" those benefiting from his hard work, other than the risk he himself intended to create for everyone, and, by extension, for everyone's "hard work."
More political leanings
by scary21 12 Replies latest jw friends
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blondie
Too complicated for me and once again many pick and choose what they want to use from her philosophy.
Philosophy doesn't seem to always mean it has a practical application in the human community at large.
I looked up some info on objectivism. Of course, this is not the be-all or end-all of explanations. But it seems way too complicated for some (probably including me) to spend time unraveling the core beliefs. I do not have a BS or a PhD in philosophy but I did minor in it, with exposure to various philosophers over time and how and if it could be applied in the larger real world of humanity.
(An old question was asked in my classes: Do things exist if you can't see, touch, smell, hear them, is it "real"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand)
Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception (see Direct and indirect realism), that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (see Rational egoism), that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally.
Academic philosophers have mostly ignored or rejected Rand's philosophy.[6] Nonetheless, Objectivism has been a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives.[7] The Objectivist movement, which Rand founded, attempts to spread her ideas to the public and in academic settings.[8]
The name "Objectivism" derives from the idea that human knowledge and values are objective: they exist and are determined by the nature of reality, to be discovered by one's mind, and are not created by the thoughts one has.[10] Rand stated that she chose the name because her preferred term for a philosophy based on the primacy of existence—"existentialism"—had already been taken.[11]
Rand characterized Objectivism as "a philosophy for living on earth", based on reality, and intended as a method of defining human nature and the nature of the world in which we live.[9]
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
— Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged[4] -
Afterburn
Thank you, blondie. I agree. I summed up that analysis with, "Galt does not care what would happen to other humans as a result of his professed "Objectivism" which is actually only a piss-poor mask for selfish vanity. He lacks the perspective required for valid Objectivism, as does every human."
Since an objective perspective is utterly impossible for humans, Objectivism, as a philosophy that relies upon a capacity humans do not possess, is mortally invalidated as a suitable philosophical model for the species, as a whole, to adopt or subscribe to. It proves most useful as an excuse for the wealthy and the vain to confirm their preexisting biases and to comfort themselves with the utterly false, and easily disproved, notion of their own capacity for objectivity.
The entire fictional model of thought is founded upon the fundamental flawed premise that humans can be objective.