1. Harry Binswanger doesn’t like Harvard, and in particular its philosophy department. I’m no historian of philosophy, but I have read some works by the philosophers he mentions, and like many Objectivists, Binswanger wants to give the worst possible interpretation to these thinkers.
2. Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate discuss whether important to know Rand’s life to understand her philosophy. After listening to it three times, I’m not sure what Ghate and Brook think. In any event, contrary to Ghate, Rand’s post-Atlas Shrugged depression is well-documented. Ghate strangely says it’s hard to know much about Rand’s personality f you didn’t know her. Brook says, quoting Leonard Peikoff, that Rand didn’t consider herself a genius. This, if true, must be the first case of false humility in Rand’s life. Allan Gotthelf once told Rand, “You’ve done for consciousness what Aristotle did for existence,” to which Rand responded, “that’s true.”
3 comments:
I heard Rand on tape, in the Q and A part of a Peikoff lecture, tell the audience that if they wanted to learn philosophy, they should focus on "the three A's: Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand."
Seems to me that she regarded herself as a genius.
I think there are a few quotes where Rand said things to the effect that her success and ideas were the results not of her brains but instead her hard work. Tha would be consistent with the view that intelligence is mostly non-genetic.
-Neil
"But Harvard wants to destroy civilization. And it’s been doing a damn good job of it, too." It's a good job these people take themselves seriously, as writing like this, no one else will.
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