How do you like Nietzsche and Rand's philosophies

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Hi Seeker,

I don’t know much about Nieztche. As for Rand, I think the question that she misses when she asks “Who is John Galt?” is “Where does John Galt come from?” She seems to think that such individuals arise in a vacuum and doesn’t understand the social context that is necessary for individuals like her to evolve and later deny that she has a social context. Notice that children are conspicuously absent in her books. Her individualism fails to take into account that there are no individuals without society.

What do you think of Rand?

Best,
Leela
 
Society cannot exist without individuals.

But there will always be those who attempt to turn people into good little unthinking unfeeling blindly loyal robots in the name of serving society.
 
I appreciate Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morals is one of the more fascinating texts I’ve studied and commented upon thus far in my undergraduate career. I really got into it.
 
dumbseeker said:
How do you like Nietzsche and Rand’s philosophies?
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Ayn Rand.
Objectively speaking, It doesn’t really function very well.Unless you’re an Atheist who only cares about yourself.

Subjectively, I think it stimulates a very good work ethic that a lot of people could benefit from.It’s good fiction.

Even that polish or rusian guy who writes in her stead now.

Nietzsche? Ask God.He’s still alive and kickin’!!😛
 
Nietzsche is pietzsche (although I disagree with him on some points like ethics), Rand is a self-obsessed lunatic.
 
You might want to read this book by 2 Catholic philosophers, DeMarco and Wiker. The authors group their chapters on Rand, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer together under the heading “The Will Worshippers”.

It’s an interesting book with an overview of many popular figures of recent time from a Catholic perspective.

amazon.com/Architects-Culture-Death-Donald-Marco/dp/1586170163

The Architects of the Culture of Death by DeMarco and Wiker
 
Janet_S said:
You might want to read this book by 2 Catholic philosophers, DeMarco and Wiker. The authors group their chapters on Rand, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer together under the heading “The Will Worshippers”.

It’s an interesting book with an overview of many popular figures of recent time from a Catholic perspective.

amazon.com/Architects-Culture-Death-Donald-Marco/dp/1586170163

The Architects of the Culture of Death by DeMarco and Wiker
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:hmmm:
I WILL check it out(actually).
Thanks Janet!👍
 
Janet_S said:
You might want to read this book by 2 Catholic philosophers, DeMarco and Wiker. The authors group their chapters on Rand, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer together under the heading “The Will Worshippers”.

It’s an interesting book with an overview of many popular figures of recent time from a Catholic perspective.

amazon.com/Architects-Culture-Death-Donald-Marco/dp/1586170163

The Architects of the Culture of Death by DeMarco and Wiker
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That looks like an excellent book – thanks for the recommendation. I like both authors from other things I’ve read from them.
 
Dear Friends,

I have heard about this figure of Nietzche for a long time but i do not know exactly what is his philosophical character aside from his famous saying the God is dead…

if some of you who happen know or study this figure could you tell me abit more about him.

thanks!

injo
 
injo said:
Dear Friends,

I have heard about this figure of Nietzche for a long time but i do not know exactly what is his philosophical character aside from his famous saying the God is dead…

if some of you who happen know or study this figure could you tell me abit more about him.
Click to expand...
Best primary source introduction to Nietzsche’s thought: On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo, translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale, and edited, with commentary, by Kaufmann (Vintage Books).

Best introductory book about Nietzsche the man and his thought: Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann (Princeton University Press).

Also, the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Nietzsche, by Robert Wicks, is decent. You can read it here:

plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/
 
injo said:
Dear Friends,

I have heard about this figure of Nietzche for a long time but i do not know exactly what is his philosophical character aside from his famous saying the God is dead…

if some of you who happen know or study this figure could you tell me abit more about him.

thanks!

injo
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Nietzsche greatly influenced the Nazi’s and is also very popular with various ‘super-race’ types.Thus,you will find his junk on the bookshelves of a lot of neo-pagans and racisits…

Ayn Rand,on the other hand,is basically selfishness vs altruism.and is also very atheistic.
 
reggieM said:
That looks like an excellent book – thanks for the recommendation. I like both authors from other things I’ve read from them.
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Yep I’ll second that - it’s a great read. Rand considered altruism to be evil…no wonder so many people at my ultra-liberal university were in love with her.
 
mattkubes said:
Yep I’ll second that - it’s a great read. Rand considered altruism to be evil…no wonder so many people at my ultra-liberal university were in love with her.
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I read The Fountainhead years ago; some college student recommended it to me. I didn’t notice her atheism then, probably because I was an atheist when I read it. But I do remember thinking she must be against Communism.

Now that I think about it, that book wasn’t so great. I wonder why she remains so popular when there are so many better books to read?
 
Janet_S said:
I read The Fountainhead years ago; some college student recommended it to me. I didn’t notice her atheism then, probably because I was an atheist when I read it. But I do remember thinking she must be against Communism.

Now that I think about it, that book wasn’t so great. I wonder why she remains so popular when there are so many better books to read?
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Atlas Shrugged is actually pretty good as far as actual writing was concerned.
It is definitely atheistic.Especially when you get to John Galt’s pirated radio diatribe.(and it just goes on and on and on and on and on and…)It almost makes selfishness sound plausible. The overall message or moral (if you could call it that) of the story is humanistic-even Satanic in its content.
The libertarians seem to take to her.I was a fan for a long time myself.But,as I got closer to God in my journey, I came to realize the fallacies of her philosophy. What she and Leonard Peirkov ( I think that is her successors name)promote is very anti-christian.
 
I like both of them alright.

Nietzsche was more hostile toward ideas he was closest to sharing, and was very close to the Christian ideal of the importance of struggle with this world, and the ever-present danger of nihilism. Also, the virtue of the human superman carries a semblance of the Christ-image (the superman need not be a military genius, but could be the crippled artist that inspired the genius).

Rand certainly opened my eyes to the pointlessness (and evil, in that it denies people the ability to do great good) of enforced charity. Also, her take on how the world relates to greatness is interesting to consider, and her epistemology and metaphysics could certainly have turned her into a champion of the Pope’s philosophy for Europe now. Absolutes matter.

She was without question a great genius, though not very philosophically innovative (she will never be seen as one of the great philosophers; rather, I think she will be remembered as one of humanity’s greatest writers). And she, like Nietzsche, was very arrogant; she said to a friend who asked her to shorten the diatribe in Atlas Shrugged, “Would you, by making the Bible more readable, remove the words of Jesus?”
 
Dear friends,
thanks so much for your (name removed by moderator)ut…
i wish that i could get these books…

do you know why he came up with the wonderful tought of God is Dead?

thanks!

injo
Cajetan said:
Best primary source introduction to
Nietzsche’s thought: On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo, translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale, and edited, with commentary, by Kaufmann (Vintage Books).

Best introductory book about Nietzsche the man and his thought: Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann (Princeton University Press).

Also, the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Nietzsche, by Robert Wicks, is decent. You can read it here:

plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/
Click to expand...
 
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