Review
"Erickson has fun with his audience; he approaches Rand's philosophy by constructing an illuminating dialogue among four characters: Dr. Standford (sic), Miss Doxa, Penelope, and, the voice of the author, Philosophus, who is described as "polite," and " a distinguished looking gentleman of indeterminate age (24-5). The dialogue form, popular since the time of Plato, is an instructive instrument for dramatizing "the conflict of ideas" (xii).
"In examining Objectivism, Erickson concentrates almost exclusively on Rand's ideas alone. There is a subtle reference to the Peikoff-Kelly split, though Erickson does not mention Kelly by name.....
"The author draws many intriguing parallels between Rand's work and the work of others. He points to the early 20th century thinker, John Cook Wilson, as having anticipated Rand's idea that essence is an epistemological concept (1020. He draws analogies between Rand and Eugen Dhring, against whom Engels directed a famous critique (150), and between Rand and H.W. B. Joseph on the nature of identity and causality (152). He suggests that the work of the 19th century French intellectual, Charles Renouvier was a precursor to Rand's theory of free will. In addition, he proposes an interesting correlation between Rand's view of concepts and her grasp of the gold standard and its characteristics (291-3). His discussions of time and space are also thought-provoking. And like Robbins, Erickson seeks to defend an alternative philosophy--in this case, 'Factivity' (318). It is outside the scope of this essay to subject his or Robbins's system to any comprehensive examination.
"Also like Robbins, Erickson is at his most interesting when he focuses on the parallels between Objectivism and dialectical materialism (or 'diamat'). Erickson grapples with the various Russian Radical theses, and accepts Rand's revolt against dualism as an important characteristic of her overall project. He traces important similarities between Rand and Hegel in their repudiation of Kantian dichotomies (41-2), and points to a common 'emphasis on the objectivity of external reality' in Objectivism and Marxism-Leninism (21). Echoing Russian Radical, Erickson remarks that while Rand 'rejected much' from what she was taught by the Soviets, 'she held on to some of it' (98). Indeed, her system shows 'traces of what she rejected' (220)." -- "Bibliographic essay: A Renaissance in Rand Scholarship by Chris Matthew Sciabarra in Reason Papers 23 Fall 1998
Mr. Erickson does not argue against capitalism, nor is he a skeptic of reason. But he does refute several of her key doctrines. He reveals important connections between her philosophy and Lenin's Dialectical Materialism. He surmises that she changed those parts which were inconsistent with laissez faire capitalism and the inviolability of the law of identity, retaining such features as its atheism. He also shows the connection between her thought and Einstein's theory of relativity.
Mr. Erickson argues that Rand inconsistently held a view mid-way between monism and dualism or pluralism. Ayn Rand offered a new theory of the concept based on the idea of similarity. Mr. Erickson shows that significant parts of this theory are fallacious. She believed that her philosophy held the key to the solution of the problem of induction. He not only refutes this belief but shows how the problem was solved in large part by the late John Cook Wilson, Professor of Logic at Oxford University. Mr. Erickson also refutes Rand's attempt to solve the problem of universals; then he provides his answer.
In her theory of ethics, Rand attempted to solve the famous fact-value problem by arguing that the concept "value" is inexplicable in the absence of the concept "life." Mr. Erickson shows that, at most, her theory can account for those ideas dependent on physical survival and minimum mental health; that it cannot account for much of the higher values. Like Nietzsche, Ayn Rand explained the popularity of socialistic solutions based on the assumption of altruism, which she believed to be impossible. Mr. Erickson shows that her failure to understand altruism fully was due to an error in her theory of the concept. The result of her radical inconsistencies is that, despite her exaltation of individualism, she and her followers have ended up trying to institutionalize her philosophy. No deviations allowed! -- From Dean Turner, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Education University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
DAY I - To America With Love The movement of the sky is very much in evidence. It is Portland, Oregon in February. Three adults in their thirties are inside a restaurant, drinking various non-alcoholic beverages. Outside the wind and the rain are tearing at banners proclaiming an important game for the city's famous basketball team. The three barely know each other. They are Nolan Stanford, a history professor at a near-by college, Miss Doxa, an intense young woman lawyer, and Penelope, a much prettier young woman and also a millionairess through inheritance.
Stanford: It has been called the "American Century." During this period, more technological achievements have been made by Americans than that of any other country, besides which the achievements of our countrymen in the nineteenth century--such as, the telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, the gyrocompass, and the Pullman passenger railroad carriage--seem almost quaint by comparison. Yet, at American's center, there is a spiritual vacuum. Outside of science and technology, the intellectual Protestantism which gave the country its birth and beginnings has not had much influence since the twenties. In its place has come liberalism and conservatism. The liberals measure their progress by the degree and extent they have changed the institutions set up by the country's founders. The conservatives, who have been in retreat most of the time, have done little more than protest the excesses of their rival. As long ago as 1960, William F. Buckley, Jr. admitted in a speech that the "conservative spirit of America" was "a wasting battery, perhaps...."
Doxa: That is how it is with the old America championed by the conservatives. But there is a solution. It was provided by Ayn Rand. Arriving in America in 1925, she brought with her a love for her new country that was uniquely her own. After living here a while, she espied what you people call, "spiritual emptiness." This, she has filled with a philosophy of unbreached rationality. In 1991, only nine years after her death, a survey of Americans made by the Library of Congress as to which books have had the greatest influence on the respondents' lives, shows that her novel, Atlas Shrugged, was exceeded only by the Bible.
Penelope: That was a very interesting book, but I liked The Fountainhead more. What sort of life did she lead?
Doxa: A life of intense work. She began in Hollywood as a script writer. In the next decade, she wrote a successful Broadway play which was later made into a movie and published a novel protesting conditions in Soviet Russia. She composed a novelette which was, in a way, a forerunner of Orwell. In 1943 came that book which you liked so much. Out of this was made a successful movie starring Gary Cooper and Patricia O'Neill. But it was with the publication of "Atlas" in 1957 that her fame started growing by leaps and bounds. Although most of the book reviews were hostile, it sold to an ever greater audience through word of mouth.
Stanford: Yes, I know. It combined intense intellectuality with a romantic idealism, all set in a plot of high adventure--in a word, it had "splendour."
Doxa: So you have read it.
Stanford: Yes. But please go on.
Doxa: By the mid sixties, Ayn Rand was easily one of the most famous women in America. In 1964 came the best selling collection of essays, The Virtue Of Selfishness. There, she took on the hoary equation of self-interest with harm to others, affirming that a "'selfless,' 'disinterested' love is a contradiction in terms: it means that one is indifferent to that which one values." Then, throughout 1966 and 1967 came her philosophical masterpiece, Introduction To the Objectivist Epistemology, the most widely read work of philosophy written during the second half of the century. The dominant American philosophies, pragmatism and behaviorism, were served notice.
Penelope: Did she write any more novels?
Doxa: No, her last novel was unfinished. But she did write articles for her publications; several were put in book form. The most famous is Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, which included a piece by the then unknown, Alan Greenspan, now Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Ayn Rand died in 1982. Of the famous American intellectuals who reached international fame in the sixties, only she still has a following.
Stanford: There is also still a great interest in Buckminster Fuller. But tell us, why this fame?
