[I use Ayn Rand’s classic The Fountainhead in my Introduction to Philosophy course, analyzing the five major characters as moral-philosophical types. Here is a digest of the novel’s brilliant-manipulator villain, Ellsworth Toohey.] The ethics of altruism holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of […]
Ellsworth Toohey’s five strategies of altruism [repost] Read More »
My essay “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” is a 43-page study published in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (2009). Text version. Audiobook version: Part One, Part Two. The abstract: “Philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand are often identified as strong critics of altruism and arch advocates of egoism. In this essay, Stephen Hicks argues
“Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” now online Read More »
The poet John Enright‘s “Kant and Abstract Art” takes up Ayn Rand‘s claim in The Romantic Manifesto that “the father of modern art is Immanuel Kant (see his Critique of Judgment).” Rand does not elaborate, and Enright notes that some scoff at the claim. Rand’s claim is a strong one, in part because it makes
Kant and modern art: quotations from artists and art critics Read More »
Audio version of my 42-page journal article “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand.” Table of Contents: Part One: On Critiquing Altruism [MP3] [YouTube] [64 minutes] Three Nietzsches and Ayn RandSome Intellectuals on Nietzsche and RandEgoism, altruism, and “selfishness”A Nietzschean sketch: * God is dead * Nihilism’s symptoms * Two bio-psychological types * Psychology and morality *
*Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand* [audio-book version] Read More »
In a letter to his former master, Frederick Douglass explains his decision to escape from slavery: “The morality of the act, I dispose as follows: I am myself; you are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and
Frederick Douglass and Ayn Rand Read More »
Re-reading The Fountainhead made me wonder: Is the character Gordon Prescott based on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy?
The Fountainhead’s Gordon Prescott—Heidegger’s disciple? Read More »
“Tell something to children, tell them the whole thing right to the end, and they’ll still ask: Then what? What comes next?”
“Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers will always be children.”
Zamyatin: Children as bold philosophers Read More »
This New York Times extended article (behind paywall) on Rand’s influence includes some snark from philosophers over whether she really was a philosopher. Oh, come on. It reminds me of Friedrich Nietzsche’s reception by the philosophers at the University of Basel (I haven’t come across their names in the history books) when Nietzsche assumed his
When philosophers boycotted Nietzsche at Basel Read More »