tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post4730232932089008112..comments2024-03-27T05:47:21.295-07:00Comments on Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature: Rand and Empirical Responsibility, 8Daniel Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06359277853862225286noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-23857414822513370812011-03-31T22:09:08.974-07:002011-03-31T22:09:08.974-07:00Hi Jeffrey
If you are interested, you may want to...Hi Jeffrey<br /><br />If you are interested, you may want to read Greg's 16-part series of critiques of Rand's ethics, starting <a href="http://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/2008/01/motivation.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. I have a little houskeeping to do here at the ARCHNblog to make Greg's various series a little easier to read in order, but for the meantime you can find the rest of them just by searching the blog.Daniel Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06359277853862225286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-28268598923517850572011-03-31T21:53:25.418-07:002011-03-31T21:53:25.418-07:00Yep, that's the biggest problem I have found w...Yep, that's the biggest problem I have found with Objectivism: is 'good' really objective? Hume's analysis is a tough nut to crack. I realzed this when I read Andrew Bernstein's book Capitalism Unbound. In his futile attempt to overcome Hume, he says at one point: "Human Beings must choose values, they must choose life, they must choose egoism" (77). Well-says who? I argue this with an Objectivist friend all the time, and this is the best answer he could give me (to be fair, I haven't finished the long and dry Objectivism: the philosophy of Ayn Rand yet, so...): 1)if you choose reality as your starting point, which I think we all do 2)choosing life=choosing reality (I guess this means that when you die you aren't in reality anymore, but he said no, not sure what else it means...) 3)you've already choosen life, so now you ought to do what furthers it.<br /><br />Hrmm...I'm not sold yet, that's why I came here, this is a pretty good anti-rand blog.<br /><br />Interestingly, tonight this friend and I watched the podcast of Yaron Brooks's speech in USC called 'Why Ideas matter". Through my friend (he provided the wording but got the insipration from me) I asked:why choose life?<br /><br />Dr. Brooks said there really is no why, other than "it's pretty good".<br /><br />Pretty good? What, we have an emotional preference for it?<br /><br />Objectivism is on pretty thin ice here.Jeffrey Newholmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-72660175495934302762011-02-22T11:57:07.901-08:002011-02-22T11:57:07.901-08:00Glad you're Ok Daniel. Yes, Ari turned up I th...Glad you're Ok Daniel. Yes, Ari turned up I think, he knows a thing or two about earthquakes so he and the Oracle were concerned also.stuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05084026545492206558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-69099184268069350732011-02-22T11:31:38.312-08:002011-02-22T11:31:38.312-08:00Hi Caroljane
Thanks for your concern. I'm in ...Hi Caroljane<br /><br />Thanks for your concern. I'm in Auckland, which is in the upper North Island, well away from the quakes. Christchurch is, however, in very bad shape indeed. I appreciate your concern.<br /><br />Also, I hadn't noticed your earlier comment re Aristotle's dating service. Did that post show up eventually? I seem to recall it did. Sometimes Blogger throws a gear for some reason, so apologies.Daniel Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06359277853862225286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-16990091131592767352011-02-22T10:22:31.688-08:002011-02-22T10:22:31.688-08:00Daniel, just heard bout the earthquake in NZ.Don&#...Daniel, just heard bout the earthquake in NZ.Don't know where you live there, let us know you're OK.stuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05084026545492206558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-13031180118077219442011-01-02T16:16:02.980-08:002011-01-02T16:16:02.980-08:00Daniel, what happened to my suggestion for the ARC...Daniel, what happened to my suggestion for the ARCHN dating advice line, "Ask Aristotle"? I posted it twice and it disappeared into the ether. As a seriously lazy person plus very old, I feel overexerted and underappreciated.<br /><br />If it is my fault (maybe it is, I have only sole-owned a computer for a few months and basically treat it like a typewriter with benefits) what am I doing wrong?stuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05084026545492206558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-6211759416020709502011-01-01T09:40:01.399-08:002011-01-01T09:40:01.399-08:00I like this blog a lot because you quote extensive...I like this blog a lot because you quote extensively from these old philosophers whose ideas and arguments so misunderstood that her refutations of them come across as Quixotic, philosophical non-sequiturs. Rand's output as a philosopher puts me in mind of the following passage from Cervantes:<br /><br />"In Sevilla there as a madman who had the strangest, most comical notion that any madman ever had. What he did was to make a tube out of a reed that he sharpened at one end, and then he would catch a dog on the street, or somewhere else, hold down one of its hind legs with his foot, lift the other with his hand, fit the tube into the right place, and blow until he had made the animal as round as a ball, and then, holding it up, he would give the dog two little pats on its belly and let it go, saying to the onlookers, and there were always a good number of them:<br />'Now do your graces think it's an easy job to blow up a dog?'"Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-44107593098752391972011-01-01T05:14:43.779-08:002011-01-01T05:14:43.779-08:00Merry New Year to you too!
It's so funny that...Merry New Year to you too!<br /><br />It's so funny that Rand's article on VOS that claims to refute Hume is trying to do something along the lines that Hume did - link virtues to fundamental human drives. Of course, the fact that the drives themselves are not "rational" but are specified by Rand is not apparent to her...Xtra Lajhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17166565583455141813noreply@blogger.com