tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post6636884821668262041..comments2024-03-27T05:47:21.295-07:00Comments on Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature: Ayn Rand & Epistemology 16Daniel Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06359277853862225286noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29196034.post-32974798201721050012012-09-26T04:09:13.220-07:002012-09-26T04:09:13.220-07:00The entire purpose of Rand's Doctrine of Immac...The entire purpose of Rand's Doctrine of Immaculate Definitions is to justify statements like <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/selfishness.html" rel="nofollow">this one</a>: <br><i><br />"The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word “selfishness” is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual “package-deal,” which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind.<br /><br />In popular usage, the word “selfishness” is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment.<br /><br />Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word “selfishness” is: concern with one’s own interests."<br /></i><br><br />That is not actually true, but by crafting a baffling epistemology shrouded in fog, Rand can make such claims with the proof <i>supposed</i> to exist while the actual lack of support remains <a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5214/5421585326_84c27dcfe7.jpg" rel="nofollow">hidden behind a cloud</a>. <br><br />Rand's epistemology is the weakest part of Objectivism. As epistemology, it is easy to dispense with: all one has to do is apply it to see that it doesn't work. It also helps to know why Rand needed to create it in the first place: to defend her propaganda. It is impossible to take her epistemology seriously when its entire content is transparently geared towards solving her polemical problems.Anon69noreply@blogger.com