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Author Merrill, Ronald E., author.

Title The ideas of Ayn Rand / Ronald E. Merrill.

Publication Info. La Salle, IL : Open Court, [1991]
©1991

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Location Call No. Status
 University of Saint Joseph: Pope Pius XII Library - Standard Shelving Location  191 R186M    Check Shelf
Description xii, 191 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-186) and index.
Contents Preface -- The controversial Ayn Rand. The objectivist movement ; The 'Ayn Rand cult': fact and fancy ; The great schism ; The miracle of the rose ; The resurrection of Ayn Rand ; The whole rand -- Rand's life in print. Rand's thinking in context ; The evolution of objectivism ; The Randian style -- The Nietzschean period. The Nietzschean vision ; Literary influences ; Rand's early fiction ; Red pawn ; Penthouse legend ; We the living ; The them ; Trio for heroes ; A cinematic style ; The changes ; The failure of Nietzsche -- The transition period. The enigma of ideal ; Think twice ; The fountainhead ; The break with Nietzsche ; A traditional antithesis ; The impossible villain ; Intellectual snobbery ; A seamless patchwork ; Acquital unsatisfactory ; The embryo of objectivism ; Anthem ; 'The simplest thing in the world' -- Full integration. A departure in style ; Judaic symbolism ; Plot, plot, plot ; The technique of philosophical integration ; Rand's heroes: the roots ; Dagny Taggart and the Randian woman ; Francisco D'Anconia ; Hank Rearden ; Who is John Galt? ; Bit-part heroes ; The villains ; The secondary heroes ; The Branden critique ; Rand and repression ; The Randian lovers ; Paradox solved ; Beyond the taggart terminal -- The philosophical period. Objectivism versus academia ; Metaphysical roots ; An epistemological radical ; Rand's theory of concepts ; The analytic-synthetic dichotomy ; Epistemology in practice ; The objectivist ethics ; Ethics and values: two lines of argument ; The Randian argument ; Ends and ends in themselves ; The means test ; Rand and the Aristotelian legacy ; From is to ought: is there aught, or is all for nought? ; What is the meaning of life, anyway? ; The objections to objectivist ethics ; Simple misrepresentations ; From leaking lifeboats to the asteroid test ; The galt-like golfer ; Robert Nozick versus the Count of Monte Cristo ; Human nature and its consequences ; The ethics of the future ; From theory to how-to ; Objectivist esthetics ; Esthetic differences and definitions -- The political period. A poltiical odyssey ; The radical for capitalism ; The Goldwater decade ; Roots of the new conservatism ; Rand's critique of conservatism ; The evolution of libertarianism ; The essence of libertarianism ; Roots of the political conflict ; Objectivism versus libertarianism: the case for the plaintiff ; Objectivism versus libertarianism: the case for the defendant ; Objectivism and the theory of government ; Rand's view of man and society ; The final decline ; The path less travelled -- The future of objectivism. A second crusade? ; Or the ivory tower? ; The schoolroom or the polling booth ; Back to the future ; What is to be done? ; Life support systems ; The tactics of sanction ; The first of their return ... -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Summary "Ayn Rand (1905-1982) is known to millions for her blockbuster novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In the 1960s her 'Objectivist' ideas, featuring esthetic romanticism, laissez-faire capitalism, atheism, and the 'virtue of selfishness', were promoted in an organized movement, which split apart after Rand's falling-out with her protégé Nathaniel Branden. This debacle threw Rand's growing community of followers into disarray, but she continues to attract readers and to exert a major, if largely subterranean, influence on thinking and policy. The Ideas of Ayn Rand provides, for the first time, a comprehensive survey of Rand's wide-ranging contributions: her literary techniques ; her espousal and then rejection of a Nietschean outlook; her contradictory attitude to feminism ; her forays into ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics; the development of her political creed; her influence on -- and hostility to -- both conservatism and libertarianism. Dr. Merrill's standpoint is friendly yet critical. He presents a fresh and original interpretation of Rand's ideas, exposing unexpected facets of the Objectivist vision and arguing that Rand's thought is more complex, more subtle, and more profound than her enemies, or even her friends, have heretofore suspected"--Back cover.
Subject Rand, Ayn -- Philosophy.
Objectivism (Philosophy)
Rand, Ayn. (OCoLC)fst00018052
Objectivism (Philosophy) (OCoLC)fst01042814
Philosophy. (OCoLC)fst01060777
Rand, Ayn.
Indexed Term Objectivism (Philosophy)
Rand, Ayn Philosophy
Other Form: Online version: Merrill, Ronald E. Ideas of Ayn Rand. La Salle, Ill. : Open Court, ©1991 (OCoLC)610106681
ISBN 0812691571
9780812691573
081269158X (pbk.)
9780812691580 (pbk.)
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