OBJECTIVIST SCHOLAR, ALLAN GOTTHELF - R.I.P.

[Reidy]

In "Isn't Everyone Selfish?" (anthologized in VoS) Branden defines ethical egoism as the position that, since whatever we do willingly is, after all, what we wanted to do, all such acts are thereby self-interested. He then goes on to contrast this to Objectivism's version of egoism.

[PDS]

Brian Leiter has a notice of Allan Gotthelf’s death in his popular Leiter Reports.

A highly regarded scholar of Aristotle (especially his philosophy of biology), Professor Gotthelf was emeritus at the College of New Jersey, and had taught more recently, with support from the Anthem Foundation, at the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers University at New Brunswick. His Rutgers page has some information about his work. (He also (alas!) had a side interest in Ayn Rand—hence the Anthem Foundation support—though being much smarter and a much better scholar than Rand, he was capable of making her work seem more philosophically interesting than it actually was. He was particularly good at developing NeoAristotelian themes that he claimed to find in her work.)

To say that Gotthelf was much smarter and a much better scholar than Rand is not off the page of possibility, indeed the latter is actual for sure. But to say that Gotthelf made Rand’s work more philosophically interesting than it actually was speaks Prof. Leiter’s ignorance of or animus towards Rand’s work and Gotthelf’s work pertaining thereto.

I’d like to mention that when Leiter refers to Gotthelf having a side interest in Rand, “side interest” is not a putdown (though the parentheses for all Rand connection and the “alas!” are a putdown). It is simply a fact of the academic world that one could not have Rand as one’s primary scholarly contribution and attain a seat. You need to be expert in something else, and that will be your main sell, at least before tenure. That is fine really, as there is plenty in philosophy, besides Rand’s philosophy, of which it is thoroughly worthwhile to become expert. Prof. Leiter’s notice does transmit the widespread message to those interested in entering professional philosophy that they better not (for most if not all Departments and academic journals) show respect or affinity towards Rand and her philosophy before tenure, indeed, they better not mention they have noticed Rand and her ideas.

Academia gets embarrassing about this sometimes. I have great respect for the scholarship of Richard Kraut in Greek philosophy, as well as respect for his own position in ethics put forth in his What Is Good and Why? That work cashes ethics right here in our present civilization, with today’s personal and family situations, yet when Prof. Kraut poses an opponent philosopher of the egoist stripe, he poses Hobbes. He never mentions the name Rand in the book, even though she is the most famous proponent of egoism in our culture and even though the theory she formulated is far more sophisticated and developed than that of Hobbes. As is well-known here, I do not subscribe to ethical egoism of any stripe, but I do subscribe to objectivity and justice, and I can see a misrepresentation of Rand’s thought and an averting of the eye.

Not to name drop, but I went to law school with Brian Leiter and argued with him about Rand back in the day. He was an unabashed communist, more or less (he might have called himself an unreconstructed Trotskyite, if I recall), and that was when being a communist still meant something. I guarantee you that he knows more of Rand then he is letting on with his snide remark above.

He had an awful lot of Toohey-wannabe in him back then, and perusing his stuff, I see this hasn't changed much.

[9thdoctor]

In "Isn't Everyone Selfish?" (anthologized in VoS) Branden defines ethical egoism as the position that, since whatever we do willingly is, after all, what we wanted to do, all such acts are thereby self-interested. He then goes on to contrast this to Objectivism's version of egoism.

I think you meant "psychological egoism" instead of ethical.

[Guyau]

Notice at Classics, Philosophy, and Ancient Science at University of Pittsburgh:

It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of our friend and former colleague Allan Gotthelf on August 30th, 2013, at his home in Philadelphia. After taking early retirement from The College of New Jersey, Allan spent a year visiting at University of Texas, Austin, and then, supported by a fellowship from the Anthem Foundation for the Study of Objectivism, he became a Visiting Professor of History and Philosophy of Science here in 2003, a position he held until 2012, when he was appointed Anthem Foundation Distinguished Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University, the position he held at the time of his death. While in Pittsburgh he taught or co-taught many graduate seminars on Aristotle, served on a number of doctoral committees, played a central role as a member of the Classics, Philosophy, and Ancient Science Program, and organized a wide variety of workshops and conferences focused on Ancient Philosophy and Science and Epistemology. He will be missed as a scholar, teacher, and organizer, but no less as a warm, enthusiastic, and generous colleague and friend.

The full biographical sketch (excerpted in #3) that appeared in Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle, a festschrift (2010) in honor of Allan Gotthelf, can presently be read here.

From James Lennox,* on his association with Allan Gotthelf:

Allan and I first met in 1970 when I was an undergraduate Philosophy major at York University in Toronto. I had just completed an honors thesis on Aristotle's De Anima, and a mutual friend arranged a meeting so that I could discuss my interest both in Aristotle and in Ayn Rand with Allan. He recognized my passion for Aristotle and for philosophy and was enormously generous and encouraging, then and all through my graduate school years at the University of Toronto. I eventually chose to write my dissertation on the relationship between Aristotle's Metaphysics and his biological writings, and Allan, who was working on a dissertation on Aristotle's teleology, introduced me to David Balme and encouraged me to ask Balme to be my external reader. From the time that I graduated (1978) and began my career in the Department of HPS in Pittsburgh, Allan played a valuable mentoring role, involving me in conferences he organized and inviting me to join him in editing the groundbreaking collection Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology (Cambridge 1987). Allan, my daughter, and I shared an apartment in Cambridge in 1987 as we completed the editing of that volume. From then until the month before his death, Allan and I were continuously collaborating on projects related both to Aristotelian studies and to advancing scholarly interest in Objectivism. Concepts and Their Role in Knowledge, volume 2 of the Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies series of which we were co-editors, was published just a few months before Allan passed away. And the last work-related conversation he and I had concerned projects on which we were collaborating and which Allan knew he would not be able to see to fruition. Even in those last months, he was optimistically looking forward, thinking about how those projects could go forward without him.

[Guyau]

. . . I have great respect for the scholarship of Richard Kraut in Greek philosophy, as well as respect for his own position in ethics put forth in his What Is Good and Why? That work cashes ethics right here in our present civilization, with today’s personal and family situations, yet when Prof. Kraut poses an opponent philosopher of the egoist stripe, he poses Hobbes. He never mentions the name Rand in the book, even though she is the most famous proponent of egoism in our culture and even though the theory she formulated is far more sophisticated and developed than that of Hobbes. . . .

Further windows on this are displayed by Irfan Khawaja here.

[Guyau]

.

Colleague and Scholar – TCNJ

Allan’s lifelong contribution to the study of Aristotle was substantial. . . . Allan also received recognition as a scholar of Ayn Rand. . . . Allan’s pride in both his work on Aristotle and Rand and in The College of New Jersey and its students knew no bounds, and his support of our programs in both philosophy and classical studies was unstinting.

[merjet]

Further windows on this are displayed by Irfan Khawaja here.

Turn to p. 3 of the catalog, and you find Louis Pojman and Lewis Vaughn’s Philosophy: The Quest for Truth whose section VI is devoted to Ethics. Under section VI.B, there are three readings on egoism:

1. Plato, Why Should I Be Moral? Gyges’s Ring and Socrates’ Dilemma

2. Louis P. Pojman, Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand

3. Joel Feinberg, Psychological Egoism

Why a critique of Ayn Rand but no reading by Ayn Rand? That doesn’t sound to me like a “quest for truth.” It looks more like a quest for indoctrination. (Khawaja)

I guess Khawaja means the 2008, 2010 or 2013 edition. The 2005 edition included a reading Ayn Rand: In Defense of Ethical Egoism, which is at least partly excerpted from John Galt's speech. I don't have the book but used the Look Inside feature on Amazon, which shows only about the last 1/3rd of the reading. The later editions lack a Look Inside feature on Amazon.

[Neil Parille]

I just came across this post by the Maverick Philosopher, critical of Dr. Gotthelf's anti-theistic arguments:

http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2013/07/allan-gotthelf-on-ayn-rand-on-the-existence-of-god.html