Tag: Objectivism

5,500 words

1. The Metaphysics of Presence

In the last installment, we introduced Heidegger’s claim that Western metaphysics ends with Nietzsche. For Heidegger, metaphysics is the expression of an anthropocentrism that culminates in the meaninglessness and inhumanity of modern technological civilization. With Nietzsche, metaphysics comes full circle and “reverses” Platonism. Nietzsche prepares the ground for the ultimate result of metaphysics, which is not actually a work of philosophy. It is modern technological civilization itself. (more…)

3,614 words

Ayn Rand’s lecture “Philosophy: Who Needs It” is a brief and compelling introduction to what philosophy is and why it is crucially important.[1] The title is not a question. But if you read it that way, Rand’s answer is: “Everyone.” (more…)

3,921 words

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

There are many reasons to think that we are living in the world of Atlas Shrugged. Doesn’t it seem today as if literally everything is broken or in freefall? Manufacturing, transportation, infrastructure, public safety, the justice system, housing, education, the food supply, journalism, the arts, and more — these are broken in our world of today, and broken in the world of Atlas Shrugged. But how they got broken is, in many ways, quite different from what Rand depicts. (more…)

3,062 words

Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

They say that libertarianism and Ayn Rand’s Objectivism are gateway drugs to the radical Right. I am living proof of this. Many years ago, whenever we saw signs of breakdown or inefficiency in our society, my Objectivist friends and I would all cluck “We’re living in the world of Atlas Shrugged!” Oddly, we felt a certain satisfaction in that. But it was quite silly, because today the world of 30 or 35 years ago seems almost like a lost Eden. (more…)

4,270 words

It’s been 80 years since Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead was published by Bobbs-Merrill, and almost exactly 37 years since I first read it. I was in college at the time and, although I did not realize it, searching for some source of meaning in my life. The previous year I had gone through a Satanist phase, occasioned by reading Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible and failing to see the humor in it. That had been followed by a very, very brief Marxist phase. (more…)