Customer Reviews

Why Businessmen Need Philosophy

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Business people find themselves under continual assault from government regulations, threats of lawsuits and under-appreciation of their positive role. The media, activists, politicians and even many religious officials cling to the cliché of business people as greedy, selfish or operating at the expense of others. The positive virtues of business people-self-sufficiency, responsibility and investment in the future--often are ignored by those who see business people as exploiters, cash cows for the government, or guinea pigs for government social policies.

Those suffering under the weight of such attacks will find encouragement and articulate arguments on their behalf in Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, a book-collection of essays that champions the free market and individual rights. Published by the Ayn Rand Institute, a free market and individualism advocacy group, the book lays a solid foundation of reasoned argument of how business people in a free economy exemplify the positive principles on which this country was founded.

"Some critics point to the homeless and blame their poverty on greedy private businessmen who exploit the public. Others, such as [economist] John Kenneth Galbraith, say that American are too affluent and too materialistic, and blame greedy private businessmen...," says philosopher and commentator Leonard Peikoff, who forcefully argues against this negative attitude. "Who are the most denounced and vilified men in the country? You are-you, the businessmen."

The book is an exuberant, enthusiastic reaffirmation of the business person as providing the moral and economic foundation to the country. It provides a spirited defense of small and large business, argues the necessity of a foundation of honesty and fair dealing as growing from a free market economy and states the philosophical basis of why no one has a right to take the earnings of another.

The book argues against the welfare state that relies on the false premise that the desire for another's property creates a right to take it. "The (American) system guarantees you the chance to work for what you want-not to be given it without effort by somebody else," Peikoff says. "We are seeing a total abandonment by the intellectuals and the politicians of the moral principles on which the U.S. was founded. The rule now is for politicians to ignore and violate men's actual rights, while arguing about a whole list of rights never dreamed of in this country's founding documents-rights...."

For those weary of overflowing government regulations and laws dictating their professional lives and businesses, and for those working people who need reaffirmation of their vital role in society, this book serves them well.

Or: The moral is the pracitical.

An excellent collection of essays including two glorious diamonds by Ayn Rand (that have been in limited print/availability). Thanks to ARI for making these essays available, and Rand's other unpublished works available--as she wished.

This is an excellent book to use to introduce your business friends to the importance of philosophy--and why businessmen need it. It is the second book you should give them--right after Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. As Atlas Shrugged was ridiculed and misrepresented, so is this book to be despised and smeared by all the lice out there--all the more reason to buy several copies of it!

This book is an excellent collection of essays about very relevant topics. Most people think business and philosophy are two opposite ends of a spectrum. That idea - the false dichotomy between the theoretical and the practical - is one of the most destructive 'ideas' of our time. This book does much to combat that view, but on a case-by-case basis. For wider-ranging analysis, one should read "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" by Ayn Rand.

This book is excellent, and I highly recommend it. I hope, however, that casual browsers of the Customer Reviews will realize that many of the ostensibly "pro-Ayn Rand" reviews on this web site -- such as the previous one by "A Reader, September 13" -- are smear jobs written by Ayn Rand's enemies, not genuine reviews written by Objectivists (who are, with some exceptions, literate and rationally polite people).

The article titled 'Why Businessmen Should Be Honest' is one of the best summations of Objectivism that I have read. In a simple and complete way this article traces from the fundamental alternative of life or death, all the way to honesty. This one article makes the whole book worthwhile. Third, the articles by Ayn Rand and Leonard Piekoff are short and sweet. Buy this book

Unlike other books I have recently read by Peter F. Drucker and Kenneth and William Hopper, for example, the ethics necessary for the establishment of a business and with which to develop the necessary management, is based on rational-egoism and not upon the ethics of Puritan Christianity and pragmatism as a counter to the threat of aggression from members of society who consider that the fruits of one's business are as much theirs, as stakeholders, as they are to the owner/s of the business/es.

Such an ethics is so pervasive in B-Schools in Europe and America, that an MBA is essentially credentialism in state propaganda. In fact, B-Schools in Europe (EU) are now very popular with aspiring state administrators and politicians from America because of the EU's more entrenched social policies.

The result of this is that, any business person and/or manager is now an enemy of the state if he or she does not sacrifice themselves to stakeholder demands. One notable victim of this attack on business and management has been Lord Conrad Black who has had to suffer imprisonment and vilification because he did not sacrifice his interests to those of his shareholders who could have sold their shares at any time, or bought Conrad Black out, and run the company as they saw fit. However, like Michael Milkin, the shareholders did not have the skills with which to make themselves the money that Conrad Black was already making for them. This outcome for Conrad Black, is a reflection of the law as it currently stands vis-a-vis the legislation of Prop 211 which failed to get passed, but amounted to the same thing in practice.

Such an attack on business and its owners is destroying the west's ability to compete in the global markets on account of the sheer hampering effect that such policies have on business performance. Furthermore, no one in their right mind would consider establishing a business in the current business climate. Which means that, Youngstown, Ohio will have to get used to living off the earnings of pole-dancers.

This book will be of value to the bussinessman who seeks to understand the role of ethics in bussiness and the reasons behind the many political threats to his liberty.

No producer should be without this book.

Ayn Rand claimed that the individual must be the beneficiary of his actions and that this approach to ethics evaporates interpersonal conflicts (primarily, because people would renounce seeking the unearned.)

Ben Mordecai calls this ludicious. In reality, it is true.

The individual must be the beneficiary of his actions or else there is no reason (or long-term capacity) for him to act at all. A farmer who did not benefit from his farming would starve. The farmer must benefit from his actions for him to live and farm again next year. He must benefit if he is to survive. He must benefit from his actions if he is to have any values at all. And he must benefit if we are to eat!

Further, if everyone, including the farmer, respected property rights, there would be no moral conflicts between men because there would be no unjust claims, (except those that arise from geniune misunderstandings.) Those who selfishly respect the principle of property rights get fed in abundance.

The opposite principle is collectivism, wherein, the individual is cruxified on the collectivist altar. The individual must give away his privacy, his property, his liberty, his life in communism. A society based on selflessness creates the conditions of human destruction and mass murder because values are intentionally renounced-as in the medieval era, Nazi Germany, and the Communist Block.

Surely, if it is better to have a society based on voluntary contract for mutual benefit than to have a society glued together by force and terror, we must acknowledge the truth that moral values proceed from the principle that the individual is and must be the beneficiary of his actions.

The attempt to have altruism serve as the foundation of the free market is the attempt to expand a business by giving away the store.

That wide-spread conservative anti-capitalist smear is a vice this book works hard to stop.

...Ayn Rand had never said that personal success, if that simply means making a fortune, is the purpose of life. Happiness is the purpose of life, and achieving a happy life requires the practice of independence, productivity, honesty, integrity, and the like.

Wouldn't you want all the would-be Bill Gates of the world to accept such an ethic? Or would you rather they think that success is measured solely in terms of the size of their stock portfolios?

Just something to ponder.

This book strives to convince that goverment should get its hands off from businessmen, large corporations, and the freedom of free markets. Whether you agree or not that capitalism and free trade is what the world needs, this book has some interesting views on the topic of goverment-economy interaction. The opinion that underlines the entire book is that businessmen are the productive people of our world, the ones who made the ascend from caves to skycrapers possible, and that goverments should leave them alone.

So is this Ayn Rand's book any good? Actually, this book is not written by Ayn Rand! From the 190 pages tihs book contains, only 12 were written by Ayn Rand! You may like or not the book but it is hard to deny that it is wrong to sell the book under her name. The reason why I write about this, is that although it would be bad to exploit any author's name to make money for yourself, in Ayn Rand's case it is absolutely ridiculous and ironical. She came up with the theory of second-handedness, and in fact, the other contributors of the book refer to this principle a couple of times! Actually the whole book is various writers rehasing things that AynRand has written, and selling it under her name. Still I won't give it one star because objectively, the book is pretty interesting. The three stars I give are based entirely by the content of the book and I disregard the fact that I feel offended by the publisher trying to rip us off.

The biggest contributor to this book is Leonard Peikoff, who also wrote the essay that gives "Ayn Rand's book" its title. I find his views to be extremely extreme. He adresses the common accusations of capitalism being greedy, selfish and parasitical with some scary arguments. He advocates exploring nature to the fullest, stating that nature is our enemy and not our friend. He states that the moral thing to do is to leave Wall Street alone to do as it pleases. He argues that the businessman should strive to sell as high as possible amd generally care for his profit and nothing else (any altruistic urges should make him feel ashamed of himself). Confidently, with an air of authority, he states that the Founding Fathers weren't very religious, so Americans can do as they please without considering going to hell for their sins! Some of his arguments are interesting and they actually have some merit, but there's no sense of balance anywhere. Everything is taken to the extreme. Reading his essays, many times I felt scared that people with such beliefs exist in the world today. You get the impression that evil, corrupted capitalists, industrialists and stock brockers hired a smart guy to come up with arguments to morally legitimize their deeds. I understand that businessmen are needed for the world to go forwrad and that not all of them are greedy devils eager to exploit other people, but when Peikoff tries hard to present them all as saints, disregarding the dark side of the moon as nonexistent, then I know something's wrong.

Ayn Rand's essay "The money-making personality" is fantastic. It distinguishes between money-makers and money approprietors and state that to "make" money, you have to produce something. You must be a productive person. Money doesn't grow from the earth but you have to "make" them. An inspiring essay.

From the rest, I highlight "The dollar and the Gun" by Harry Binswanger. He compares 'economic power' with 'political force' and makes some very intersting points.

Overall, this is an interesting book. Most of the material is covered in the books written by Ayn Rand, so, if someone asked if I would recommend him to buy this book, I would hesitate a little, and then reply in a timid tone "The book is interesting, but I can't recommend it."