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Title: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand, Anna Fields ISBN: 0-7861-9831-1 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 12 List Price(USD): $96.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (79 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Rand's best nonfiction -- read it!
Comment: In what is probably her best work of nonfiction, Ayn Rand sets out to provide a _moral_ basis for capitalism, a social/political order in which the human rights to life and property are respected and there are no (other) limitations on freedom of trade. That capitalism is today to some degree a _known_ ideal is in some measure due to the influence of Rand's ideas as represented in this volume.
One of this book's great strengths is its inclusion of helpful essays by Nathaniel Branden, Robert Hessen, and Alan Greenspan. This is the _only_ volume of nonfiction published during her lifetime to include essays by anyone other than herself and Branden. It is also the only such book to include a bibliography of recommended reading. (Non-Objectivist works are listed with a caveat that the ideas contained therein may not be fully consonant with Rand's.)
And they are more than helpful: their presence suggests _why_ this volume represents Rand's best work. That she was willing and able to include essays by, and references to, other writers surely indicates that she was confident enough in her own views to acknowledge her need for supplementation outside her own areas of strength.
In my own view, Rand was a first-rate political thinker, a pretty good ethicist, a lousy epistemologist, and not a metaphysician at all to speak of. (In the latter three fields, she would have profited from closer attention to the writings of Brand Blanshard, whom she respected highly despite some disagreements. _The Letters of Ayn Rand_ indicates that he sent her a signed copy of _Reason And Goodness_ when it was published.) Her philosophy is at heart an attempt to ground her defense of capitalism in ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics, and it becomes gradually less successful the further she wanders from her strengths.
But in political theory, she was on firm ground -- and she knew it. And in this collection of essays she is at her best, arguing that the only proper function of government is the protection of individual rights, that individual rights are the only kind there are, that apparent failures of the free market are actually failures of the _government_ to restrict itself to its proper role, and generally, that capitalism is the only economic system fully consonant with man's nature as a value-seeking agent who survives and thrives through the application of reason to reality.
So if you plan to read one nonfiction work by Rand, this is the one to read. If she sparks your interest, then go on to read the flawed but helpful _Philosophy: Who Needs It_ and _The Virtue Of Selfishness_.
Then stop, unless you're just morbidly curious. Her works in epistemology and aesthetics do not measure up to the standards set in these collections and are of interest largely for the chroniclers of the bizarre personality cult that grew up around her. To find out about _that_, read Jeff Walker's idiosyncratic but interesting _The Ayn Rand Cult_.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Must Read
Comment: For those who have not given Atlas Shrugged a shot, perhaps intimidated by its girth, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal seems to summarize its best points. While I don't consider myself a true objectivist--I am one of the mixed up individuals who CAN advocate 100% lasse-faire free market policy and yet entertain the idea of a realm "beyond the grave"--Capitalism spends its time advocating (mostly) the areas where objective concepts can work. Ayn demonstrates the roots of war, persecution of big business, child labor, copyrights, leftist student rebellion, and "extremism". Also, ironic commentary by the market "bubble popper" himself, Alan Greenspan, show how much a man can change in 30 years, as he blasts antitrust laws and the abolition of the gold standard. All in all, this collection of ideas will really make one realize exactly why Tom Daschle can persuade 1/2 the American public that the rich are getting more tax returns than they deserve in thirty seconds (Lexus and Muffler). Logic and reason cannot win without the facts--our society doesn't have time for the facts. The Keyensian socialism that is running rampant in government economics and university economic departments MUST be aware that their policies are simply illogical "band-aid on broken leg" policy--it is an ideological philosophy that is shared among them. All in poverty is better than wealth discrepency. One quote shown throughout this our history (and this book) is simply "At the cost of WHOM?". Keep that in mind when watching both our lefties and righties and their great new programs offerred (clips for 30 seconds) on your local news.
Rating: 5
Summary: Awesome
Comment: Call me a free market maniac but this book is simply awesome.
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Title: Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451163931 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff ISBN: 0451191145 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: For the New Intellectual by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451163087 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: March, 1984 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Philosophy: Who Needs It by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451138937 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: April, 1985 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: We the Living by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451187849 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: January, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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