Customer Reviews

The Objectivism Research CD Rom: The Works of Ayn Rand

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What did Miss Rand say about "privacy?" What did she write about "Ronald Reagan," "doctors," or "psycho-epistemology?" Previously, searching Miss Rand's works was a time-intensive process, requiring fumbling through more than a dozen books--with a high probability of missing an important reference or two. Thanks to the Objectivism Research CD-ROM, now this process is error-free and takes only a second or two.

The Objectivism Research CD-ROM is a must-have for anyone interested in Miss Rand's philosophy. The convenient search tool is impressively fast and powerful, making it very easy to find material by Miss Rand or Dr. Peikoff on any subject they wrote about.

That said, this CD is not a replacement for the printed copies of of the works it contains. Unlike other eBook formats (Acrobat or MS Reader), the CD doesn't use anti-aliasing to render text smoothly. You'll find it much more comfortable to have a printed copy whenever you want to read more than a few sentences. Also, note that the text is stored in a proprietary format on the CD; unfortunately, you can't load it onto your PalmPilot or PocketPC and take it with you.

Here are the works you'll find on this CD:

Fiction By Ayn Rand:
* Night of January 16th
* We the Living
* The Fountainhead
* Anthem
* Atlas Shrugged

Non-Fiction by Ayn Rand:
* "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal"
* For The New Intellectual
* Introduction To Objectivist Epistemology
* Journals Of Ayn Rand
* Letters Of Ayn Rand
* Only Path To Tomorrow
* The Art of Fiction
* The Art of Nonfiction
* The Ayn Rand Column (LA Times)
* The Ayn Rand Letter
* The Man-Haters
* The New Left
* The Objectivist
* The Objectivist Newsletter
* The Romantic Manifesto
* The Virtue Of Selfishness
* The Voice Of Reason

By Dr. Leonard Peikoff
* The Ominous Parallels
* Objectivism: The Philosophy Of Ayn Rand

Note that articles by Dr. Peikoff's appearing in Miss Rand's titles *are* included on the CD, but many articles by others (such as Alan Greenspan and Nathaniel Branden) have been removed.

I highly recommend this CD as part of your library of Objectivist works.

I have found this very useful for locating quotes and references. The interface is a little clunky for reading, but this was not the intention of the product, so that's okay. The magnification feature is useful. I wish it were possible to cut and paste more than a couple of lines at a time when using quotes in my research, but I can understand why they would be worried about large scale copying. Definitely worth the money.

This CD is a complete compotation of all of Ayn Rand's published works, her writing courses, as well as excerpts from her private journals and letters. In addition, it includes Dr. Leonard Peikoff's groundbreaking "Objectivism, The Philosophy of Ayn Rand."

The interface is solid, although I would prefer a more Google-like approach to advanced searches, which this interface lacks. In addition, cut and paste functions are limited. In contrast the print function allows one to print whole chapters, or "topics" as they are called. My understanding that limited cut and paste was a condition in the publication of this CD, hardly a concession compared to the value of being able to search though all of Ayn Rand's works in one easy package.

Clearly, this CD is solid value for those interested in studying Ayn Rand's philosophy.

Anyone trying to learn from Ayn Rand's books will find that after one has read six or more, it may be difficult to remember where you read what. Of course that is somewhat due to Ayn Rand's philosophy being consistent across her works. This tool allows you to find memorable passages quickly. This is particularly helpful when one finds a similar passage when reading one book and wants to compare it to what was said in another.

Before this CDROM came along I depended on Binswanger's _Lexicon_ to find the relevant Ayn Rand quote in a hurry. This has so much more. It has just about EVERYTHING -- philosophical, literary, and personal -- Ayn Rand ever wrote and you can find what you want in seconds. I wouldn't want to be without it.

Excellent product, research involving the works of Ayn Rand are simplified with the cross source search capabilities, one can search a single book or all the works at once. This CD is a valuable addition to any library which contains Rands works.

The work of Rand is brilliant, as we all know.
Most of the work is out there already. Often freely. Legally or not.
But the makers of the CDrom have taken the protection of the authors work as the most important feature it seems. One needs printing to PDF queues and exporting it to Word, to snap meaningful amounts of information out of it. It feels like smuggling... The entire interface reeks of 1994. In fact, one is tempted to export everything to OpenOffice, and work from here.

Nevertheless, the work itself is masterful, and now digitially available.

I love this CD-Rom. It is extremely convenient with its search feature and bookmarking system, and it includes almost all of Ayn Rand's works, along with works from other selected authors including Leonard Peikoff's OPAR.

Reading on the computer has been difficult for me in the past, but the CD-Rom offers an option to magnify the text, which makes it much easier for me to read. Reading the OPAR text was difficult for me because I don't like holding books for long periods of time, but I have been able to sit at my computer and read for hours while conveniently using Word Processing to take notes about points in the book.

It's so great to have all of this information in one piece of software - one can own all of these works without having to worry about having space for all of the physical book copies. Plus, it's worth noting that it is *so* much easier to look for information on the CD-Rom than it is to sift through pages (this is especially useful for those who write on Ayn Rand in essays or articles and are looking for particular quotes or information for citations).

A great value that is well worth the price.