1. In 2022, correspondence was discovered from Murray Rothbard to Frank Meyer concerning his involvement with Ayn Rand and Objectivism. I haven’t had the time to read the essay in full, but here is the abstract:
Relying on live-ink letters discovered in an Altoona, Pennsylvania, warehouse in 2022, this article provides a fresh look at an old controversy: Murray Rothbard’s bitter parting from the inner orbit of Ayn Rand. The correspondence from Rothbard to National Review senior editor Frank S. Meyer pertaining to the Randians details Rothbard’s rollercoaster of responses toward the Collective. The letters on Rand begin shortly before the release of Atlas Shrugged in October 1957 and end after the publication of an unsigned 1961 Newsweek article belittling the novelist. The newly discovered correspondence undermines the persistent claim that Rothbard fabricated unflattering descriptions of the Objectivists in response to their accusations of plagiarism. The letters, sent long before Nathaniel Branden leveled those charges, reflect the general description of the group in Rothbard’s “Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult,” issued in 1972. The article further details the influence of Meyer’s Molding of Communists on Rothbard in his structuring of “The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult.”
2. Objectivist writer Craig Biddle has a series of videos on religion and reason. See here (concerning William Craig). Biddle thinks that – as Rand said – faith means believing something without reason or that is opposed to reason. Biddle knows that there are plenty of religious believers who think that their faith is supported by reason, faith means trust, etc. but, seems to think that at the end of the day they are “really” operating on faith as Rand defined it.
The overvaluing of definitions is a sub theme of Objectivism -- definitions don’t just describe how words are used, but somehow (at least if you get them correct) give a deeper understanding of the world. For example, as Rand wrote in The Virtue of Selfishness, “[y]et the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word ‘selfishness’ is: concern with one's own interests.” I don’t know any dictionary that defines “selfishness” that way and dictionaries don’t normally give “exact” definitions.* Likewise, in her essay “Racism,” Rand defines racism as “the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.” I’d say that racism includes an element of invidiousness. However, taken to the extreme, according to Rand, if you believe Joe White Guy is smarter than Bill White Guy and this has something to do with genes, you might as well be George Wallace or even Adolf Hitler.
The latest version of “definitionalism” is the constant use by Ayn Rand Institute Objectivists is the endless attack on “tribalism,” which apparently means anything that the ARI speaker doesn’t like. ARI Charman of the Board Yaron Brook seems to think that every issue from immigration to free trade to abortion could be resolved if you get the definition of tribalism correct (and apply it to anyone Brook doesn’t like). Would that resolving life’s most complicated questions be so easy.
In any event, as libertarian philosopher David Gordon wrote me, “Biddle misstates Craig's position. Craig is saying, if we have good reason to think someone is trustworthy, then we have good reason to accept what he tells us. He is not saying that reason and faith are the same concept, as Biddle claims. Craig is a trained philosopher, and Biddle is out of his depth.”
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*A prominent Objectivist once told me that the dictionaries of the world should be rewritten to define “selfishness” according to the Randian definition even if that definition is still in the minority of normal usage.
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