Comments on: Atlas Shrugged, awkward but valuable

By: Rafe

Rafe — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:35:54 +0000

Daniel Barnes, a sometime commenter on this site, has a good Ayn Rand blog, he is not a fan but he is interested in the ideas and he wanted to create a forum for civil discussion of Rand’s ideas.
http://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/

By: skepticlawyer

skepticlawyer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:21:16 +0000

Peter & Adrien:

It’s a phrase that deserves to be more widely known, at least in that context.

By: Peter Patton

Peter Patton — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:39:25 +0000

The Oppression Olympics.

Priceless.

By: Adrien

Adrien — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:46:03 +0000

.
Cheers, DB. I’ll have a look.

By: Adrien

Adrien — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:44:33 +0000

The Oppression Olympics
.
N’uk. And now for the opening ceremony of this great global ritual where people from all nations gather to whine… Sing the song:
.
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

By: dover_beach

dover_beach — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:43:02 +0000

I knew there was a reason I come here all the time. Local style. Where does that come from? That’s outstanding.

It’s from Oakeshott’s On Human Conduct, p. 109.

By: skepticlawyer

skepticlawyer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:05:28 +0000

Although that said Hart is very much 20th century, although he builds on a much older tradition in jurisprudence.

By: skepticlawyer

skepticlawyer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:04:45 +0000

I must admit that I think Nietzsche made all the postmodernists’ points for them before any of them came along. Could be wrong but that’s just my impression.

I also rate On the Genealogy of Morals, which I know people do some very strange things with, but is actually a very good piece of standalone classical scholarship. People in antiquity really did think like that, and to the extent that Christianity deviated from that pattern of thinking, it changed the world.

Nietzsche didn’t like the change, and when one considers the persistent and ongoing evasion of personal responsibility one sees everywhere, along with victimology (my supervisor calls it ‘The Oppression Olympics’), he may have a point.

Jason, are you allowed to have ‘economic philosophers’ in your top 5? (They were called ‘moral philosophers’ back in the day).

If so, my list would be:

1. Adam Smith
2. David Hume
3. Karl Marx
4. J.S. Mill
5. F.A. Hayek

I put Hayek last in my top group because he’s a 20th century philosopher, and I think the point was well made above that we don’t actually know what posterity will do with 20th century philosophers.

If you’re not allowed economic philosophers, then my list would be:

1. David Hume
2. Nietzsche
3. H.L.A Hart
4. Karl Popper
5. Robert Nozick

Once again Nozick is last for the same reason that Hayek is last in the top group.

By: Adrien

Adrien — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:30:24 +0000

their ‘imperfection’ is simply the appearance of local style
.
I knew there was a reason I come here all the time. Local style. Where does that come from? That’s outstanding.

By: rog

rog — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:03:04 +0000

Hey JC, I didnt “really hate Atlas” I just found it pompous, tedious and boring

I really liked Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn because they had some experience, Rand was always an existential wannabe