The Passion of James Valliant’s Criticism, Part III


Neil Parille

Recommended Posts

Brant,

As Aristotle understood a long, long time ago, the study of moral philosophy has a limited role to play in making a good life for yourself. And moral philosophy as such cannot tell you how to decide or act in particular cases.

Some Objectivists have yet to learn this.

Meanwhile, my "discussion" with Jim Valliant is not exactly for everyone. Not even in Rand-land.

One reason it could go on forever (though not with my ongoing contributions...): Mr. Valliant has put so many of those hypocritical concessions (those statements that run counter, maybe on purpose, to the preponderance of what he is saying) in his book that he can always fall back on the concessions and claim that they most accurately reflect his views.

Of course, espousing contradictory views is not supposed to be a good thing, from an Objectivist standpoint, or from many others :)

As the "discussions" have been winding along, Mr. Valliant has been leaving quite an online trail of dodging and weaving and general-purpose obfuscation.

I doubt that his cumulative record will end up appealing to much of anyone. The farthest-gone zealots may praise what he has written, as Lindsay Perigo has been doing, but not on account of reading it with any care.

Robert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 51
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I ended my debates with Mr. Valliant a couple weeks ago. Anyone who is interested in the merits of PARC can read what I said and Mr. Valliant's responses. (Or even better, compare what Mr. Valliant says with the Branden books.)

I don't think my debate with Mr. Valliant will be all that beneficial to future Rand biographers, although it may provide a valuable insight into ARI-think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now