The Ideas of Ayn Rand - Softcover

Merrill, Ronald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081269158X ISBN 13: 9780812691580

Publisher: Open Court, 1999

Synopsis

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) is known to millions for her blockbuster novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In the 1960s her 'Objectivist' ideas, featuring esthetic romanticism, laissez-faire capitalism, atheism, and 'the virtue of selfishness', were promoted in an organized movement, which split apart after Rand's falling-out with her protégé Nathaniel Branden. This debacle threw Rand's growing community of followers into disarray, but she continues to attract readers and to exert a major, if largely subterranean, influence on thinking and policy.

The Ideas of Ayn Rand provides, for the first time, a comprehensive survey of Rand's wide ranging contributions: her literary techniques; her espousal and then rejection of a Nietzschean outlook; her contradictory attitude to feminism; her forays into ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics; the development of her political creed; her influence on-and hostility to-both conservatism and libertarianism. Dr. Merrill's standpoint is friendly yet critical. He presents a fresh and original interpretation of Rand's ideas, exposing unexpected facets of the Objectivist vision and arguing that Rand's thought is more complex, more subtle, and more profound than her enemies, or even her friends, have heretofore suspected.

About this title

Synopsis

"The Ideas of Ayn Rand" tells of Ayn Rand (1905-1982), who is best-known for her blockbuster novels, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged". In the 1960s her "Objectivist" ideas, featuring laissez-faire capitalism, atheism, "the virtue of selfishness", and aesthetic romanticism, were promoted in an organized movement, which split apart following Rand's falling-out with protege Nathaniel Branden. Despite this debacle, she continues to attract readers and to exert a major, if largely subterranean, influence on thinking and policy. Recent works on Rand have focussed on the details of her biography: her struggle as a refugee from Soviet Russia to become a literary success in the US, her career as a Hollywood screen writer, and her tortured private life. "The Ideas of Ayn Rand" offers an examination of the development of Rand's thought, with the events of her life presented as necessary background. Dr Merrill's standpoint is neither hostile nor uncritical. He gives a detailed analysis of all Rand's important fiction works, illustrating the development of her writing technique.

He demonstrates the influence of Nietzsche upon Rand's early thought, and her subsequent, not entirely candid attempts to deny that influence. The author aims to give a fresh interpretation of Rand's views on metaphysics and ethics, and a critical account of her political activities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Open Court
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081269158X
• ISBN 13: 9780812691580
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 191