Ayn Rand saw herself as a rationalist, one who uses empiricism and reason to get to the truth. She was hardly that as she used her unconfirmed intuitions to make for the Truth as she declared her system as complete and tolerated no deviance as her heir Leonard Peikoff also does.
Her egoism was nothing new but just her own view with her idiosyncratic definitions of egoism and altruism. To work, egoism must be universal, presupposing harmony amongst humans. She by definition stated that there are no rational conflicts amongst people when two people apply for the same job that neither had the right to it and so no conflict.No, that is an ignoratio elenchi-irrelevant- as one wins over the other; that is the nature of the conflict.
She uses a straw man in defining altruism as one enslaved to society when it only means helping others, and mutual altruism is no more than mutual back- scrubbing!
Our Social Contract provides for taxing for the benefit of all, and so she here makes the libertarian straw man of taking from the rich to give to the poor, and calling that theft!Government by vote has to establish how much taxation for what form of ensuring the general welfare..
No comments:
Post a Comment