Reader from Aurora,
Thank you for your request. At 64, I have been studying Rand's philosophy since I was 19. To study Rand's philosophy, you start, of course, with her non-fiction, with emphasis on The Virtue of Selfishness, the book on the factual roots of morality and its application to living life. Then, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in which morality is applied to the areas of society, economics and government. Her book on theory of knowledge, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, is more difficult reading, but an essential core of her method of thinking and analyzing philosophical subjects. After that, you can read any of her non-fiction.
For the beginner's level reading of other authors than Rand, you start with Andrew Bernstein's Objectivism In One Lesson and Craig Biddle's Loving Life. For intermediate works, mostly recordings (unfortunately), you can go to AynRandBookstore (dot com) and browse by title. At the scholarly level, one looks to Dr. Tara Smith of the University of Texas/Austin and her 3 titles, Moral Rights and Political Freedom, Viable Values, and Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics, though you might read these in reverse order. On Ayn Rand by Allan Gotthelf is an excellent distillation of Rand's philosophy in a brief space insisted on by the publisher. He also has a brilliant presentation of Rand's theory of concepts which one can find by searching the Internet, yet unpublished. On the topic of sense evidence (the base of knowledge), the early David Kelley has a brilliant book, The Evidence of The Senses.
The monumental and readable presentation of the entire logical structure of Objectivism is in Leonard Peikoff's book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Peikoff paid close attention to Rand as she answered his thousands of detailed questions during their 30-year friendship and he has mastered the art of explanation. Peikoff has gone beyond being a teacher of philosophy; he has become a philosopher, offering us a startling, clean solution to the problem of induction, which unfortunately has not seen book form yet. Watch for a book by Dr. David Harriman in which he presents the theory and applies it to the philosophy of science. Also, Leonard Peikoff's exploration of the philosophical roots of Nazism, from a solidly Objectivist reference point, found in Ominous Parallels, is not to be missed in today's Progressive approach to dictatorship in America.
There are hours and hours of mind-tingling enjoyment and insight in the 4-book series edited by Robert Mayhew: Essays on Ayn Rand's Anthem, Essays on Ayn Rand's We The Living, Essays on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, and Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion by Edward W. Younkins is a similar effort with points of insight.
Now, there is a recent popular-level presentation of Objectivism in book form, which you are sure to run across. It is the book form of his lectures at NBI (Nathaniel Branden Institute) given almost 50 years ago. I wanted to recommend this book, because I took all those courses and they were endorsed by Ayn Rand, herself, while she was alive. I've read the book in the last 5 weeks. It is thorough, accurate, given in a lecturer's style (and so are looser than a book on philosophy would usually be). It is a good presentation. You'll enjoy it, but I cannot endorse it, because Mr. Branden, could not leave off his utterly erroneous and bitter essay, given at a speech decades ago, after Rand broke off relations with him. As a psychologist and a teacher of Rand's philosophy, he was much more honest before that break. I can't do a full critique here of the errors in that essay. Had he left it out of the book, The Vision of Ayn Rand, it would have been a good, though belated, addition to the list. Also by Nathaniel Branden is The Psychology of Self-Esteem, whose chapters were published during her lifetime in Rand's publications The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist magazine. Branden, pursuant to his study with Rand of her philosophy and many conversations with her, expounded and gave important definitions in psychology and self-esteem in this book. No new philosophical identifications appear in his later, helpful, books on self-esteem.
Since the history of the Objectivist movement has yet to be written and yet is a source of rumor, commentary and both admiration and disdain, you might as well read James Valliant's book, The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics. It is uneven in its reasoning from evidence, unbalanced in its bias against the Brandens, yet it gives enough pinpoint evidence of the deception Ayn Rand was exposed to by her closest and intimate associates that one can form one's own opinion of their subsequent psychologizing about her. And, it gives previously unseen, even if painful, excerpts from her diary.
Since "balanced" is a word with no meaning, when accuracy is absent, I point you to The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies to see some of the most misguided attempts to do critical studies of Rand's philosophy, though there are a few nuggets among the rubble. A far better journal is The Objective Standard (dot com) and you'd better hurry, if you want to get a complete set. Email or phone and beg, if you have to. It is a journal which applies Rand's ideas and those developed by her best students to social, economic and political topics.
There is a new volume coming out late this year (hopefully) with essays on Rand's philosophy. At HBList (dot com) you can ask Harry Binswanger about it. He is in the last phase of completing a book (brilliant, judging by the portions revealed on that List) on Consciousness. This is a topic he's lectured on for years (see recordings at aynrandbookstore dot com), but the book is not simply a book form of those lectures, as far as I can tell. Also look up Binswanger's book on The Biological Roots of Teleological Concepts.
If you are offended by sarcastic and evidentially-unsupported insults against Rand, please spare yourself by avoiding all the biographies on Ayn Rand available today, including Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller, which is only marginally better than Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns, which is disappointingly NOT about Rand and the American Right. Even more distasteful is the old James Baker book, Ayn Rand, which demonstrates the art of sarcasm at its lowest form and goes on for several chapters explaining why you are still in your psychological adolescence, if you take Rand seriously. If you can find an old copy of Who Is Ayn Rand by the Brandens, a book they certainly considered accurate and objective at the time they wrote and released it, it will give you some enjoyment and sense of the woman and her contributions to psychology, literature and ethics. A full and reliable biography is being prepared by Shoshana Milgram, but we wait for that. The brief book, Ayn Rand by Jeffrey Britting will do us well in the meantime, as will Facets of Ayn Rand by Charles Sures and Mary Ann Sures, who was her personal secretary for years.
Books which make application of Objectivist concepts in specialized areas include, In Defense of the Corporation by Robert Hessen, In Defense of Advertising: Arguments from Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism by Jerry Kirkpatrick, and Ayn Rand and Business by Theodore Kinni and Donna Greiner.
Deserving separate mention is George Reisman's monumental book on economics, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, which combines what he learned from the great Ludwig von Mises, the moral view of Ayn Rand and his own brilliant thinking.
For Research you need Harry Binswanger's The Ayn Rand Lexicon, the Glossary of Objectivist Definitions edited by Allison Kunze and Jean Moroney, plus the all-inclusive The Objectivism Research CD Rom: The Works of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff.
Now, on the "negative" side. I use that term to include not merely the hostile, but the uncomprehending works critical of Objectivism, the philosophy. 1.With Charity Toward None: An Analysis of Ayn Rand's Philosophy by William F. O'Neill, 2. Reconsidering Ayn Rand by Michael B. Yang, and 3. Without a Prayer: Ayn Rand and the Close of Her System by John W. Robbins are so uncomprehending of Rand's philosophy that to call the unfair is beside the point. Objectivism and the Corruption of Rationality: A Critique of Ayn Rand's Epistemology by Scott Ryan is a better attempt to critique Rand's theory of concepts, but Ryan comes at it from the Idealist view of reality and man's mind. Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra has some interesting insights in a few places. But, he is easily confused by locations and number similarities. Rand lived in Russia; so did other Russian thinkers, therefore, she borrowed her ideas from them, Sciabarra "reasons". Some of Rand's deepest philosophical concepts are opposite two other points of view; that makes a set of 3 views on a particular philosophical problem, therefore, she is a Hegelian, dialectical thinker. You think I exaggerate, but his supporting arguments do not support his conclusions, nor does he give a clear idea of what dialectical "thinking" is. A debate to be held elsewhere. A book worth reading, but with your Objectivist magnifying glass over every sentence.
More fair in tone is the earliest attempt at an academic understanding of parts of Objectivism in The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand by Douglas J Uyl and Douglas B Rasmussen. But, these collected authors come at Rand from the lens of other philosophical methods and, so, get her wrong. You can see they are not antagonistic, but you will sense that they are not talking about Objectivism, as you, a reader of Ayn Rand, know it.
What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi is a worthy attempt to present Rand's view of art, with some disagreements with her. A book well-worth reading.
The Ayn Rand Cult by Jeff Walker is obnoxious in attitude and misinformation, as are the Ayn Rand titles by Jerome Tuccille and by Albert Ellis.
No doubt you'll find other titles. If you want to ask, I'm pbeaird at yahoo.
Thank you for your request. At 64, I have been studying Rand's philosophy since I was 19. To study Rand's philosophy, you start, of course, with her non-fiction, with emphasis on The Virtue of Selfishness, the book on the factual roots of morality and its application to living life. Then, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in which morality is applied to the areas of society, economics and government. Her book on theory of knowledge, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, is more difficult reading, but an essential core of her method of thinking and analyzing philosophical subjects. After that, you can read any of her non-fiction.
For the beginner's level reading of other authors than Rand, you start with Andrew Bernstein's Objectivism In One Lesson and Craig Biddle's Loving Life. For intermediate works, mostly recordings (unfortunately), you can go to AynRandBookstore (dot com) and browse by title. At the scholarly level, one looks to Dr. Tara Smith of the University of Texas/Austin and her 3 titles, Moral Rights and Political Freedom, Viable Values, and Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics, though you might read these in reverse order. On Ayn Rand by Allan Gotthelf is an excellent distillation of Rand's philosophy in a brief space insisted on by the publisher. He also has a brilliant presentation of Rand's theory of concepts which one can find by searching the Internet, yet unpublished. On the topic of sense evidence (the base of knowledge), the early David Kelley has a brilliant book, The Evidence of The Senses.
The monumental and readable presentation of the entire logical structure of Objectivism is in Leonard Peikoff's book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Peikoff paid close attention to Rand as she answered his thousands of detailed questions during their 30-year friendship and he has mastered the art of explanation. Peikoff has gone beyond being a teacher of philosophy; he has become a philosopher, offering us a startling, clean solution to the problem of induction, which unfortunately has not seen book form yet. Watch for a book by Dr. David Harriman in which he presents the theory and applies it to the philosophy of science. Also, Leonard Peikoff's exploration of the philosophical roots of Nazism, from a solidly Objectivist reference point, found in Ominous Parallels, is not to be missed in today's Progressive approach to dictatorship in America.
There are hours and hours of mind-tingling enjoyment and insight in the 4-book series edited by Robert Mayhew: Essays on Ayn Rand's Anthem, Essays on Ayn Rand's We The Living, Essays on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, and Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion by Edward W. Younkins is a similar effort with points of insight.
Now, there is a recent popular-level presentation of Objectivism in book form, which you are sure to run across. It is the book form of his lectures at NBI (Nathaniel Branden Institute) given almost 50 years ago. I wanted to recommend this book, because I took all those courses and they were endorsed by Ayn Rand, herself, while she was alive. I've read the book in the last 5 weeks. It is thorough, accurate, given in a lecturer's style (and so are looser than a book on philosophy would usually be). It is a good presentation. You'll enjoy it, but I cannot endorse it, because Mr. Branden, could not leave off his utterly erroneous and bitter essay, given at a speech decades ago, after Rand broke off relations with him. As a psychologist and a teacher of Rand's philosophy, he was much more honest before that break. I can't do a full critique here of the errors in that essay. Had he left it out of the book, The Vision of Ayn Rand, it would have been a good, though belated, addition to the list. Also by Nathaniel Branden is The Psychology of Self-Esteem, whose chapters were published during her lifetime in Rand's publications The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist magazine. Branden, pursuant to his study with Rand of her philosophy and many conversations with her, expounded and gave important definitions in psychology and self-esteem in this book. No new philosophical identifications appear in his later, helpful, books on self-esteem.
Since the history of the Objectivist movement has yet to be written and yet is a source of rumor, commentary and both admiration and disdain, you might as well read James Valliant's book, The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics. It is uneven in its reasoning from evidence, unbalanced in its bias against the Brandens, yet it gives enough pinpoint evidence of the deception Ayn Rand was exposed to by her closest and intimate associates that one can form one's own opinion of their subsequent psychologizing about her. And, it gives previously unseen, even if painful, excerpts from her diary.
Since "balanced" is a word with no meaning, when accuracy is absent, I point you to The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies to see some of the most misguided attempts to do critical studies of Rand's philosophy, though there are a few nuggets among the rubble. A far better journal is The Objective Standard (dot com) and you'd better hurry, if you want to get a complete set. Email or phone and beg, if you have to. It is a journal which applies Rand's ideas and those developed by her best students to social, economic and political topics.
There is a new volume coming out late this year (hopefully) with essays on Rand's philosophy. At HBList (dot com) you can ask Harry Binswanger about it. He is in the last phase of completing a book (brilliant, judging by the portions revealed on that List) on Consciousness. This is a topic he's lectured on for years (see recordings at aynrandbookstore dot com), but the book is not simply a book form of those lectures, as far as I can tell. Also look up Binswanger's book on The Biological Roots of Teleological Concepts.
If you are offended by sarcastic and evidentially-unsupported insults against Rand, please spare yourself by avoiding all the biographies on Ayn Rand available today, including Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller, which is only marginally better than Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns, which is disappointingly NOT about Rand and the American Right. Even more distasteful is the old James Baker book, Ayn Rand, which demonstrates the art of sarcasm at its lowest form and goes on for several chapters explaining why you are still in your psychological adolescence, if you take Rand seriously. If you can find an old copy of Who Is Ayn Rand by the Brandens, a book they certainly considered accurate and objective at the time they wrote and released it, it will give you some enjoyment and sense of the woman and her contributions to psychology, literature and ethics. A full and reliable biography is being prepared by Shoshana Milgram, but we wait for that. The brief book, Ayn Rand by Jeffrey Britting will do us well in the meantime, as will Facets of Ayn Rand by Charles Sures and Mary Ann Sures, who was her personal secretary for years.
Books which make application of Objectivist concepts in specialized areas include, In Defense of the Corporation by Robert Hessen, In Defense of Advertising: Arguments from Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism by Jerry Kirkpatrick, and Ayn Rand and Business by Theodore Kinni and Donna Greiner.
Deserving separate mention is George Reisman's monumental book on economics, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, which combines what he learned from the great Ludwig von Mises, the moral view of Ayn Rand and his own brilliant thinking.
For Research you need Harry Binswanger's The Ayn Rand Lexicon, the Glossary of Objectivist Definitions edited by Allison Kunze and Jean Moroney, plus the all-inclusive The Objectivism Research CD Rom: The Works of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff.
Now, on the "negative" side. I use that term to include not merely the hostile, but the uncomprehending works critical of Objectivism, the philosophy. 1.With Charity Toward None: An Analysis of Ayn Rand's Philosophy by William F. O'Neill, 2. Reconsidering Ayn Rand by Michael B. Yang, and 3. Without a Prayer: Ayn Rand and the Close of Her System by John W. Robbins are so uncomprehending of Rand's philosophy that to call the unfair is beside the point. Objectivism and the Corruption of Rationality: A Critique of Ayn Rand's Epistemology by Scott Ryan is a better attempt to critique Rand's theory of concepts, but Ryan comes at it from the Idealist view of reality and man's mind. Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra has some interesting insights in a few places. But, he is easily confused by locations and number similarities. Rand lived in Russia; so did other Russian thinkers, therefore, she borrowed her ideas from them, Sciabarra "reasons". Some of Rand's deepest philosophical concepts are opposite two other points of view; that makes a set of 3 views on a particular philosophical problem, therefore, she is a Hegelian, dialectical thinker. You think I exaggerate, but his supporting arguments do not support his conclusions, nor does he give a clear idea of what dialectical "thinking" is. A debate to be held elsewhere. A book worth reading, but with your Objectivist magnifying glass over every sentence.
More fair in tone is the earliest attempt at an academic understanding of parts of Objectivism in The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand by Douglas J Uyl and Douglas B Rasmussen. But, these collected authors come at Rand from the lens of other philosophical methods and, so, get her wrong. You can see they are not antagonistic, but you will sense that they are not talking about Objectivism, as you, a reader of Ayn Rand, know it.
What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi is a worthy attempt to present Rand's view of art, with some disagreements with her. A book well-worth reading.
The Ayn Rand Cult by Jeff Walker is obnoxious in attitude and misinformation, as are the Ayn Rand titles by Jerome Tuccille and by Albert Ellis.
No doubt you'll find other titles. If you want to ask, I'm pbeaird at yahoo.
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