{"title":"Should \"The Metaphysics of Man\" Be a Sixth Branch of Objectivist Philosophy?","authors":"Dave Tyson","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.22.1.0136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.22.1.0136","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The author proposes to convert Ayn Rand's theory of man into a sixth branch of her Objectivist philosophy called the metaphysics of man (more widely referred to by names such as philosophical anthropology). This branch would be distinct from both the metaphysics of reality (more generally called ontology) and epistemology. Along with consolidating all the axioms about the fundamental nature of man (and thus eliminating the various bridge theories, including the bridge theory of man, the anteroom to epistemology, and metaphysical value-judgments about man), this new framework will simplify and clarify the structure of Objectivism.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"136 - 164"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45152272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Glimpses of the Mystical Dimension of Ayn Rand's Thought","authors":"Philippe Chamy","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.22.1.0093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.22.1.0093","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article presents ideas long considered to be almost exclusively Rand's, in connection to their expression in the literature of mysticism. The author argues that these ideas, far from being unique to Rand, are hallmarks of mysticism.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"135 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42048825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Empiricist's New Clothes: David Hume and the Theft of Philosophy","authors":"Dennis C. Hardin","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.22.1.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.22.1.0001","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:David Hume's attacks on causality and induction along with his celebrated is-ought dichotomy dealt a blow to the human mind from which Western civilization has never fully recovered. Centuries after his death, Hume remains immensely popular among academic philosophers, which only bolsters the myth that his skeptical arguments are unanswerable. In fact, his arguments are seriously flawed. The first part of this paper clarifies the basics of Hume's philosophy, focusing on the epistemology in the Treatise and Enquiry. The second part exposes the mistaken premises and assumptions in Hume's arguments, demonstrating how Objectivism redeems the validity of human knowledge.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"1 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48821762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: Dedicating—and Rededicating","authors":"C. Sciabarra","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies introduces four new Advisory Board members—Laurence I. Gould, Kirsti Minsaas, Aeon J. Skoble, and Edward W. Younkins—as well as a new Associate Editor: Roger E. Bissell. This issue is dedicated to the memory of Advisory Board member and JARS contributor, the late Steven Horwitz.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"v - viii"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42594624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The First Russian Biography of Ayn Rand","authors":"A. Grigorovskaya","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.0244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.0244","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article reviews the first book in Russian to reflect on Rand’s life and work in the context of her native land. It publishes some key documents from Rand’s Russian past for the first time and presents one of the most important independent and objective analyses of Rand’s legacy.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"244 - 247"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46518499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hunting the Pseudo-Philosopher: Perils and Pitfalls","authors":"R. Long","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.0247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.0247","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:In False Wisdom, Gary H. Merrill develops criteria for distinguishing genuine from pseudo-philosophy, and then applies his criteria to several case studies, including Ayn Rand, all of whom he finds to be pseudo-philosophers. While offering a mostly helpful overview of better and worse ways of doing philosophy, Merrill fails to motivate adequately his way of distinguishing pseudo-philosophy from mere philosophical vices, errors, or failings. He is inconsistent in his characterization of the criteria for pseudo-philosophy and his application of those criteria, harbors a narrow conception of what counts as philosophy, and displays a lack of interpretive charity toward several thinkers.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"247 - 288"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46553469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Flourishing in a Risky World","authors":"W. Bates","doi":"10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.0240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.21.2.0240","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The reviewer discusses how Kathleen Touchstone’s book, Freedom, Eudaemonia, and Risk, raises the big question of why a person would rationally choose to risk their life, as well as prompting readers to think deeply about other issues including the natural rights of children, the point at which human life begins, the virtue of parenting, rules of thumb for charitable giving, and the bequest motive in risking death. He considers that Touchstone makes an important contribution in explaining the role that a person’s concept of identity plays in principled risk-taking and by emphasizing that life is not riskless.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"240 - 244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48552161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Journey to Fulfillment","authors":"S. Marvin","doi":"10.5325/JAYNRANDSTUD.21.1.0114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/JAYNRANDSTUD.21.1.0114","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The Tao of Roark: Variations on a Theme from Ayn Rand, by Peter Saint-Andre, is a guide to personal development. He begins with the theme of youthful discovery in The Fountainhead and its protagonist, Howard Roark, progressing through forty-eight \"variations,\" familiar to close readers of Rand's novel: principles, virtues, and evaluations, which begin with reason and the integration of emotions. This is the intellectual and emotional journey of the author, shared, to inspire the reader.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"114 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49099519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Selfish versus Selfish","authors":"Merlin Jetton","doi":"10.5325/JAYNRANDSTUD.21.1.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/JAYNRANDSTUD.21.1.0042","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Ayn Rand's controversial use of \"selfish\" and \"selfishness\" has arguably done as much or more to supply \"grist\" to her critics and drive people away from her philosophy than to persuade people to adopt it. This article is about her meaning of \"selfish\" and the common, popular meaning. Succinctly, the former is a high-level abstraction, philosophical, and mainly a way of thinking, whereas the latter is a low-level abstraction, not philosophical, and mainly a way of acting. They also have different contrast terms.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"42 - 55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46905920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mental Integrations as Functional Wholes","authors":"Abhijeet Melkani","doi":"10.5325/JAYNRANDSTUD.21.1.0056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/JAYNRANDSTUD.21.1.0056","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:It is argued that a mental integration is formed only if the result is a functional whole. This idea is then used to clarify the definition of a concept and discuss problems in which an instance may belong to different conceptual classes depending on the context. The same idea is also applied to the rules for dealing with an entity when it is formed out of sub-entities. Specific examples of how such rules are frequently violated in literature as well as colloquially are discussed.","PeriodicalId":35149,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":"56 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48057788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}