Reidy

Aristotle does, on the other hand, state the law of contradicion at length in Metaphysics Gamma, part of it quoted in the last chapter of Atlas Shrugged. Excluded middle appears at least once, in passing, in Beta as an example of a truth nobody disputes. The closest he comes to stating the law of identity is a passing remark in Zeta, which Gotthelf first pointed out in this connection, that asking if something is itself or not is nonsensical. (And as long as I have the floor: "rational animal" was not his definition of man, nor does Rand attribute it to him.)

The review I liked best was by James Lennox at http://www.objectivistcenter.org/ct-35-The...s_Ayn_Rand.aspx. Peter

Re #8: Several years ago, in a Liberty review of Nathaniel Branden's autobiography, William Bradford asked why the Objectivists, since the late 50s, have gone in for spoken rather than printed exposition. A listener, unlike a reader, can't stop and think a point through, rephrase, spell out an argument or go back to check - just the sort of operations that thorough understanding requires. The answer might be that this brings in more money, but that's questionable. Unit revenues are greater for a live or taped lecture course or a recording than for a book, but production costs are higher, and you sell fewer copies. If the sellers have checked this out and determined that, after taking these facts into account, the spoken word still brings in a greater net, you have to wonder about the people who are buying it and why they prefer it this way. Re #3: did you know that, etymologically, "trichotomy" means "haircut"? My observation has been that philosophers do this less often than non-philosophers.

Hannah Arendt's Totalitarianism and the works of Robert Conquest are classics. Peter

I've sometimes wondered how the conspiracy theorists (much in evidence these days at RofR) missed the fact that Galt's speech and the Kennedy assasination took place on the same date, or (much more telling to the likes of the aforementioned) that Monica Lewinsky went to a school (Lewis and Clark) that once gave AR an honorary degree. Some people did point out that ML King's assasin, in his fugitive days, used the name Ernst Stavro Galt, an amalgam of characters from Fleming and Rand. Peter

The best evidence that whoever drew this didn't read the book is that, in the valley sequence, the characters showed that they knew all that.

To the best of my knowledge the answer to all your questions is no. According to the Journals Rand traced pictures of buildings she considered especially ugly (this was before photocopiers) as part of her architectural research. She drew cartoons on at least one of her letters to her husband. Early on, she worked as a movie extra and wardrobe clerk. These jobs would have exposed her to acting and other aspects of moviemaking (a field she studied in school in Russia). Her Second Career had me believing she had a pretty good understanding of how movies get made, just as The Fountainhead convinced me that she understood architectural creation. (I've sometimes wondered if her hostility to homosexuals got started when she had to deal with all those ditzy, hysterical queens in the wardrobe department at RKO.)

Has he considered the possibility that Viagra wasn't available before that?

Heavy-handed if you ask me.

I'm curious as to what fora you've been in touch with. (Like your paintings)

I don't think it's such a good question, because its point is an ad hominem attack. That said, Henry Mark Holzer fought in Korea. Many of the Objectivist establishment, starting with the Brandens, came from Canada, and Canada hasn't gone to war (as distinguished from contributing troops) at least since Korea. Peter

As of Wednesday morning, it looks like most voters took Peikoff's advice. He may be more influential than we realized. Peter

Further along the lines of what the last few posts have said, I notice that Tracinski at TIA Daily has been distancing himself explicitly from ARI orthodoxy. Last week he denounced Peikoff's by-now-infamous election advice. Today he began a series entitled "The Collapse of the Collapse of Civilization," saying that history has turned in freedom's favor and that the world that Rand and Orwell lived in is not the world today. He even notes, with examples, that his own publication bought into this until only a few years ago; if you hear about eastern Europe moving toward capitalism, they said in 1992, don't believe it. Tracinski won't blame [unnamed] "Objectivist intellectuals" for not seeing that things are looking up. I suspect they'll blame him for plenty. (This enterprise reminds me of "Kremlinology," whereby outside observers used to infer what was going on among the Soviet or Chinese rulers from their statements on topics like esthetics or the theory of dialectics.) Peter

I predict that eventually Peikoff will eventually be left alone at ARI, answering the phone, making coffee, administering the database, schmoozing donors and keeping the website current, all the while issuing his famous condemnations. Peter

A question about what Ellen says in #10. When Rand talked about talent in the sense of an innate knack rather than an acquired, mastered skill, did she ever use the word without scare-quotes? You can't tell from a talk, but, as I recall, she says much the same, with the quotes, in her 1959 intro to We the Living. This would make the passages Michael quotes consistent with the others; "talent" has one meaning (learned ability) and "'talent,'" in quotes, another (inborn ability). Her claim that nobody is born with aptitude (as distinguished from practiced skill) is plausible in the case of writing but not in music, dance or athletics. Maybe not math or the visual arts either. If she really believed this it might be just another of her eccentricities. The usual examples (woman president, homosexuality, cigarettes) were getting old anyway. Peter

I first heard it as gossip in 69 or 70. It was too weird to believe, so I didn't. Peter

It's at the beginning of book 4. That and the final chapter are my favorite passages in Rand. Peter

Maybe he said this - you don't build a career in showbiz without working on your PR - but his earliest extant compositions are little keyboard pieces, not symphonies. See http://www.classical.net/music/composer/works/mozart/. The fact that he didn't have to ask entails not that he already knew but that either he knew or he figured it out. Rand would be fine with the latter. Peter

As I recall Rand's statements denying innate ideas, this applied only to statable factual knowledge, not to aptitude or sensitivity. Where the the latter - high IQ, perfect pitch, athletic aptitude and so on - come from is a question for empirical psychology, not philosophy. None of these requires knowing facts that you haven't learned, so I don't see a problem for Rand. Peter

I'm in trouble now. Can someone help me? In #25 I said that Peikoff brags about not having read the secondary literature on Objectivism, and sure enough someone asked me for a source. This was an allusion to his widely-quoted claim that he hadn't read Barbara Branden's biography. Does anyone out there have a citation on this? Peter

Looks like Webb can kiss the vegetarian vote goodbye.

Robert Tracinski, in TIA Daily, is sticking to his recommendation, contra Peikoff, to vote Republican, accusing him of the "Dominique Francon" theory of voting. The outcome be interesting to watch, as TIA has usually toed the orthodox line in the past. Peter

The New Yorker said 1947 when they ran that photo in 96. I wonder about the 1925 date; she doesn't look more than 15. The Sheraton-Plaza was probably NBI, not a lecture tour. Some people are never satisfied. Peter

At a minimum, an authority on a topic would be well-acquainted with the secondary literature; a guy who brags that he doesn't read it isn't even a candidate. Peter

Happy to have you. Do you know Darryl Wright at Harvey Mudd? He's an Objectivist, but don't tell him you're talking to us. Little-known fact: the buildings at HMC are patterned on a house in LA that AR, according to her letters to Gerald Loeb, once considered buying. See http://you-are-here.com/architect/storer.html http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/tlc0031.jpg Peter