Ayn Rand's Philosophy at a Crossroads
Column by Fred Stitt and Kate Herrick -
Jun 15, 2009
46 ratings from readers
Atlas Shrugged is topping the best-seller lists more than 50 years after its original publication, and the world has never been more in need of its ideas. Can we rise to the occasion?
Why would we say Ayn Rand's Objectivism is at a crossroads? After all, the philosophy seems to be flourishing.
For example, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has had millions of readers, selling more copies annually now than ever. Hundreds of thousands have read her essays, and students of her most advanced philosophic ideas can be found in universities, think tanks, corporations, and public institutions around the world.
Entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, and leaders in advanced technology have also declared their debt to Ayn Rand — for the creative and moral liberation they experienced from learning and applying her ideas.
Many thinkers and doers have said that the primary personal benefit of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism is simple and basic: It clears the mind and provides effective tools for productive thinking and reality-based problem solving.
And everyone familiar with Ayn Rand's works knows well the social benefits — that to the degree that Objectivism is applied politically, people are free to work, invent, achieve, and create material and intellectual wealth virtually
without limit.
But there are problems. Despite its extraordinary, well-demonstrated benefits, Objectivism is widely misunderstood and opposed, especially in academic circles. Objectivist values of reason and freedom are under attack throughout our culture and worldwide.
The need for an expansion of the theory and practice of Objectivism has never been greater.
The future of humanity depends on the expansion of rationality and freedom — the need is acute.
Other pro-reason, pro-freedom movements that deserve support and collaboration: humanists, exponents of scientific method, many libertarian and free-market advocates. But within these movements, too, there is often a shallow understanding, or major misunderstanding, of Objectivism and what it offers.
And there are "internal" problems as well. There are rancorous, often petty, debates within the movement that annoy and discourage newcomers to the philosophy. If self-professed defenders of reason resort to personal insult attacks, instead of reasoned arguments, against those with whom they disagree, it doesn't say much for the success of the philosophy in action.
And if, as some argue, Objectivism is a finished product with no room for deeper understanding and application of its principles, then there's little opportunity for others to help deepen and enhance the movement — providing another disincentive for newcomers.
So we confront two parallel problems:a world-wide crisis of need for solutions, and a movement with solutions that is divided and suffering diminished effectiveness within itself.
By the nature of reality and the power of the human intellect, any set of problems is solvable. We expect to make good headway on the most crucial issues facing the Objectivist movement at the Free Minds 09 conference in Las Vegas early in July.
You're invited to join with a national gathering of thinkers, educators, and doers at the Embassy Suites hotel in Las Vegas, June 30 to July 8, to honor the past and help create the future of the applications and dissemination of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.
See www.FreeMinds09.org for details.
Fred Stitt is founder and director of the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, and a former instructor in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He and Kate Herrick are co-founders of the Free Minds 09 conference.
