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From: rhonda@chinet.UUCP (Rhonda Scribner)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Objectivism
Message-ID: <1045@chinet.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-May-87 22:32:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: chinet.1045
Posted: Thu May 21 22:32:39 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 16:20:08 EDT
References: <318@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU> <6033@diamond.BBN.COM>
Reply-To: rhonda@chinet.UUCP (Rhonda Scribner)
Distribution: world
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 30
Summary: Why the hostility?

In article <6033@diamond.BBN.COM> aweinste@Diamond.BBN.COM (Anders Weinstein) writes:
>>  I have been reading some of Ayn Rand's writings lately...
>
>AAAARRRRRRRRRRGH! There's no escape! Head for the hills!
>
>A former reader of talk.philosophy.misc.,
>Anders Weinstein

Why is it that just mentioning the name of Ayn Rand causes such hostile
reactions?  This person wasn't even spouting Rand doctrine as gospel, as
I have seen many times (and that can be annoying).  He was asking for
information.  He, much like me, has apparently read some works by Rand,
thought they were interesting, and had some questions.  If I remember his
exact words (omitted by the author here) he said that he didn't agree
fully with Rand, but she seemed to make some sense, yet mainstream
philosophy ignores her.  More than that, it seems, they scowl at her and
her followers with remarks like this every chance they get.

I'm not speaking as an Objectivist or anything, since I'm not one.  But
you have to admit, it makes you wonder why the philosophers and many others
shout down Rand and Objectivism so loudly.  Perhaps it's because she does
have it all absolutely right, and recognizing this would put the philosophers
out of a job. ;-)  I don't really believe that, of course.  From what I've
read of Rand, she has some excellent ideas about the nature of philosophy,
knowledge, and ethics that she doesn't actually put in practice as objectively
as she thinks she does.  But it's still interesting to see so many people
so anxious to mock this set of ideas.  When that many people mock something
that ferociously without bothering to acknowledge it seriously, I tend to
think that maybe it's something worth looking at.
								-- Rhonda