Customer Reviews

The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought (Ayn Rand Library)

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Amazon.com would do well to select a different Editorial Review, as the one from Publishers Weekly above displays some (willful?) misunderstanding of Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. In several books, Rand explains why she opposes monopolies. Yet, Publishers Weekly calls her a staunch proponent of "monopoly capitalism" -- a contradiction in terms, given that only government can hand out legal monopolies. The review also cites "Rand's strident right-wing rhetoric," employing two all-too-common biased journalistic terms -- 'right-wing' (a characterization which any thinker who reads Rand's passionate defenses of the right to abortion would find laughable), and 'rhetoric' (a dismissive term for those who don't have enough brainpower to successfully explain their disapproval).

Just because Amazon.com is headquartered in Seattle shouldn't mean that it has to adopt the silly political biases common to the region.

These 31 pieces include magazine articles and lectures spanning twenty years, from 1961 to 1981. Four of the chapters are by Leonard Peikoff and one each by John Herman Randall and Peter Schwartz, and the book concludes with an epilogue by Peikoff.

Part One: Philosophy, consists of chapters elaborating on Rand's Objectivist philosophy. These include a discussion of the ideas of Aristotle, discussions on ethics, psychology, the ethics of altruism and a criticism of religion.

Part Two: Culture, investigates intellectuals, the culture vacuum, the flaws of liberal pragmatists, conservatives and businessmen. The death of Marilyn Monroe and the flight of Apollo 11 are discussed here. This section ends with a look at anti-Americanism in academia and the anti-conceptual methodology in the education system.

Part Three: Politics, explores various political issues like antitrust legislation, foreign aid, socialized medicine, women in politics and includes a scathing attack on the political movement called Libertarianism. The epilogue is the editor's memoirs of his 30 year association with Ayn Rand.

Each chapter begins with information indicating the original source of the article or lecture. In some instances there are references in brackets within the text itself or otherwise they appear as numbered footnotes at the end.

In my opinion, the best pieces are The Sanction Of The Victim (Chapter 15), Apollo 11 (Chapter 17), Assault From the Ivory Tower: The Professors' War Against America (Chapter 19), Medicine: The Death Of A Profession (Chapter 30), while the worst is About A Woman President (Chapter 26) in which Rand claims that the office is no place for a woman. Perhaps Ayn Rand would have changed her mind had she lived long enough to witness the achievements of Margaret Thatcher.

Whether one agrees with her philosophy or nor, Rand was a brilliant writer and prescient and original thinker. All her work remains stimulating today and much of it now seems prophetic. Not all of these pieces are great but they are all worth reading.

This volume contains a selection of lesser known columns, articles and essays from Ayn Rand's impressive oeuvre. The essays, etc. are arranged into three broad sections: Philosophy, Culture and Politics.

Page after page reveals profound insights into the intellectual atmosphere of the times. The writing is always informative and thought provoking, and quite often brilliant.

In short, this volume is especially suitable for readers already familiar with the gist of Ayn Rand's philosophy and literary writing.

This book is a collection of Essays and articles that Ayn Rand wrote.

Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982) immigrated from Russia to the United States and supported the philosophies of its founding fathers. Her main philosophy is the freedom of the individual. She is against any government control of the people. Only when the people are given freedom can a nation thrive. Ayn Rand was puzzled at how Americans took this freedom for granted, and some even opposed it. She believed that America has distanced herself from the beliefs of its founding fathers.

"Who is the Final Authority in Ethics?" Ayn Rand argued that morality is part of life so to speak, and it is there for all of us to grasp, and therefore should not be dictated by religion, politics, government or any other controlling agency.

Rand held that the only moral social system is laissez-faire capitalism. Contrary to what most believe (or want us to believe), Rand was against monopolies.

Though many admired Ayn Rand for her philosophies and concern for the individual (harming an individual for the good of the many is not justified), many opposed her. Noam Chomsky declared Rand to be "one of the most evil figures of modern intellectual history." Conservative commentator William F. Buckley declared: "Ayn Rand is dead. So, incidentally, is the philosophy she sought to launch dead; it was in fact stillborn."

Rand firmly believed in the philosophy of Aristotle (and was very influenced by it), and argued that many scholars throughout the ages have changed the meaning of Aristotle's philosophy to advance their own agendas. I found this quite intriguing. Though I read Aristotle back in school, I honestly cannot remember his philosophy. I can't wait to delve back into Aristotle's writings.

Rand was an atheist, and she criticized religion (for it controls the individuals), but encouraged altruism. Religion therefore should be a means of doing good and being kind to one another, but without the control it places on individuals. Believing in God places control on the individual's life.

She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system called Objectivism. The essence of Objectivism 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 has some really thought provoking ideas. In her book `Atlas Shrugged,' she wrote, "The entire history of science is a progression of exploded fallacies, not of achievements." She also asked, can we change the world, or is everything is as it should be? In other words, can we change ANYTHING around us, or do we merely think we can change (or have changed) it by taking already existing paths? Interestingly, in many religions, including all three major monotheistic religions--Christianity, Islam, and Judaism--on the creation of the world, God said to the universe be, and it was. If we follow this beginning, then everything is and always has been. In other words, we cannot change anything but merely go on the many paths available to us (and this makes us think that we have changed something). I find this idea very interesting.

This book is an excellent introduction to Rand's philosophy. I did find some articles confusing and hard to read and understand. This book isn't an entertaining read, but rather an informative and though-provoking book to read like a textbook.

This is an excellent collection of essays that should be included in the library of every fan of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. This book contains several great essays by Ayn Rand, which include her thoughts on abortion, the Apollo missions, Vietnam and working for the government. This collection also includes several insightful higher level philosophical essays including the following:

* "Who is the Final Authority in Ethics?" where Ayn Rand clarifies that morality ultimately stems from facts of reality, not from a religious, political or legal authority
* "The Sanction of the Victims" where Ayn Rand emphasizes the importance of never voluntarily relinquishing any of your rights or accepting unearned guilt.

Most importantly, I think the contributions in this volume that are not by Ayn Rand are also incredibly valuable. These include:

* "Religion vs. America" where Dr. Leonard Peikoff almost prophetically warns of the increased blending religion and politics (this is published in 1990).

* "The American School: Why Johnny Cannot Think" where Dr. Peikoff analyzes how public schools teach children to not think in principles or develop proper concepts but instead teach children to be concrete-bound and develop short-term pragmatic solutions to complex problems.

* "Medicine: The Death of a Profession" where Dr. Peikoff articulates how health care is not a right and how the increased government involvement in health care will slow advancements in medicine to a crawl.

* "Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty" where Peter Schwartz delineates the stark differences between the views of the Libertarian Party and the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Although I think this book is definitely accessible to all, I think that those who are just getting familiar with Ayn Rand's non-fiction works will find many of the essays in both The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal to be more interesting places to start.

Pop culture leads most thought these days, but please don't confuse it with wisdom. Here you will find wisdom, the kind that does not require learning, only realization. It comes tightly compressed and delivered with remarkable clarity and precision.

This collection of Ayn Rand's essays includes some hard-to-find classics ("Global Balkanization," "The Sanction of the Victims," and "Apollo 11," for example) and a couple of duds (notably "About a Woman President").

The biggest duds, however, are the additional essays provided by Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz, who apparently couldn't leave well enough alone. Peikoff's essays aren't terrible, but his placing them next to Rand's simply makes obvious what a pretentious and derivative thinker he really is. And Schwartz's ill-considered ravings against "Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty" (particularly his attacks on the late great Murray Rothbard, compared to whom Schwartz is a gnat), far from meriting description as the "voice of reason," do not deserve to be published here or anywhere else.

Buy this book for Rand's essays, but read around the extras thrown in by a couple of mediocre hangers-on.

Following the death of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) several posthumous collections of Rand's essays, seminars and even jottings she scribbled in books she read ("marginalia") have been published.

THE VOICE OF REASON contains essays by Rand and her associates Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz. The essays by Rand are not her best. Those by Peikoff and Schwartz lack Rand's fiery prose, but it at least appears that they (unlike Rand) have read more than the New York Times.

Rand's lack of citations often gives her an aura of "plausible deniability." If you criticize Rand's misunderstanding of Kant, you'll get responses such as: (1) her interpretation of Kant was mainstream at the time (by whom? Blank out); or (2) it is a combined summary and interpretation of Kant based on what a Kantian would believe if he interpreted Kant based on his alleged premises (that's what Objectivists call "context dropping" when it's done to Rand).

Peikoff and Schwartz don't have this luxury. Particularly outrageous is Peter Schwartz's essay "Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty." The problem for Objectivists is that libertarian politics is quite similar to Rand's politics. Since Rand wanted Objectivism to be the only game in town for believers in freedom, she made (more than once) the absurd statement that libertarians "plagiarize" her ideas (or arguing somewhat inconsistently their ideas had nothing in common with hers). Schwartz tries to provide documents for Rand's jeremiad against libertarianism. The libertarian movement is quite broad and contains more than a few odd ducks. Some libertarians, though certainly not all, hold subjectivist ethics. By painting libertarianism with a broad brush, Schwartz tries to show that all libertarians are loons. Schwartz launches a particularly misguided attack on Murray Rothbard asserting that Rothbard had "utter scorn for ideas-even his own." The quote from Rothbard which Schwartz (inaccurately) reproduces does not support this contention; it actually stands for the opposite. Of course, anyone familiar with even a portion of Rothbard's vast output has to laugh at the claim that Rothbard didn't take ideas seriously.

Rand did not advocate "monopoly capitalism", she REPEATEDLY advocated "laissez-faire capitalism", i.e. "leave-alone" capitalism. 'No gov tinkering. Like economist Milton Friedman, she argued that monopolies cannot happen sans government tinkering and rigging the free market system to fail in its natural checks and balances behavior.

Ayn Rand applies reason to a variety of significant matters with stunning and convincing effect. A must read for any person who has been raised on pablum in public/private schools and the media and who desires a true, meaningful educational experience.

Jim