A Truth in Packaging Issue

[9thdoctor]

Let me be a minority of one. I like both the Mayhew book and Younians book. I found good things in both.

Not the issue. This has developed from a truth in advertising dispute into a case of libel.

BTW, big news, Tore Boeckmann has deleted his post claiming plagiarism.

[Robert Campbell]

ND,

I'm no fan of the laws of libel, slander, and defamation.

But if there is any legitimate sphere for the law of libel, it's making false and malicious charges about someone's product or service, in order to hurt sales or destroy business.

Tore Boeckmann has now deleted his second post alleging plagiarism—the one you challenged him to produce, and the one I replied to at some length.

As of this writing, his first comment alleging plagiarism is still up.

So is Ed Cline's prediction that Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion could end up like a book about the bombing of Hiroshima that turned out to be full of made-up stuff.

Robert Campbell

[9thdoctor]

As of this writing, his first comment alleging plagiarism is still up.

Boeckmann has edited his first post, taking out the innuendo and adding the clear accusation of plagiarism to it. I copied his original posts to this thread yesterday. I thought he’d retreated, instead he’s doubling down.

[Robert Campbell]

ND,

He sure is doubling down.

Robert Campbell

[dan2100]

Let me be a minority of one. I like both the Mayhew book and Younians book. I found good things in both.

I haven't read either yet. I am hoping to get through some books by and on Augustine first.

Would you care to tell what you found appealing in both?

[dan2100]

Dan,

It's been mentioned. I don't recall much discussion of the Bertonneau piece on OL, but it may have taken place when I wasn't very active here.

I read the Bertonneau two or three years ago. Would have to reread it to be able to participate in a discussion of it.

Robert Campbell

Maybe it's worth creating a separate topic somewhere on this site. I have been in contact with Bertonneau for a while now and it might be interesting if he also answered criticisms.

Regarding the Bertonneau essay, I started a separate topic called "Bertonneau contra Rand" here:

http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8360

[Rich Engle]

Sciabarra probably woke up with a nervous eye-tic, and didn't know quite why.

[dan2100]

Sciabarra probably woke up with a nervous eye-tic, and didn't know quite why.

Just a guess -- and I don't know Cohen and have only corresponded with Sciabarra via email -- but maybe her move was either to please her new in group or because of some other issues. On the latter, I don't know what to speculate, but it just sounds too simple for it to be one little slip like that. These sorts of denunciations often do look to me, too, like someone is searching for a way to explain away bad behavior rather than as the real reason for something.

[James Heaps-Nelson]

Sciabarra probably woke up with a nervous eye-tic, and didn't know quite why.

Rich,

Didn't you get the memo. JARS is not an officially recognized scholarly journal for Serious Objectivists TM. Publishing there is not only gauche, it is tantamount to treason :-). Only officially allowed venues should be considered proper means of communication.

Jim

[dan2100]

Sciabarra probably woke up with a nervous eye-tic, and didn't know quite why.

Rich,

Didn't you get the memo. JARS is not an officially recognized scholarly journal for Serious Objectivists TM. Publishing there is not only gauche, it is tantamount to treason :-). Only officially allowed venues should be considered proper means of communication.

Jim

The ARI faction ever remains a self-parody.

[9thdoctor]

Ms. Cohen's conversion took place partly in the pages of the old SOLOHQ. She also backed out on a speaking commitment at a TAS event. I'd say "noisy" in the right adjective in her case.

I wonder if there’s ever explicit instruction given: to get to the next level you’re going to have to make a spectacle. Or if Cohen, Hsieh, etc. just know it without being told. I’m not sure where I heard this, but wasn’t Valliant involved in sponsoring Nathaniel Branden’s Benefits and Hazards lecture in the early 80’s? After something like that, if you think you’re going to make it to Operating Thetan, you know it’s going to take more than auditing and aceing the e-meter. Thus was PARC conceived?

[Robert Campbell]

I wonder if there's ever explicit instruction given: to get to the next level you're going to have to make a spectacle. Or if Cohen, Hsieh, etc. just know it without being told. I'm not sure where I heard this, but wasn't Valliant involved in sponsoring Nathaniel Branden's Benefits and Hazards lecture in the early 80's? After something like that, if you think you're going to make it to Operating Thetan, you know it's going to take more than auditing and aceing the e-meter. Thus was PARC conceived?

ND,

Nobody's written a handbook, that's for sure.

But certain melodramatic gestures are widely reproduced in action, as are certain talking points.

Figuring out how the novices and postulants learn these things would be a fascinating sociological project.

I don't know whether Jim Valliant had as much to do with the Benefits and Hazards talk as he now pretends. The guy has a flair for exaggeration. But, yes, any such involvement later became a sin that needed expiating.

Robert Campbell

[Chris Grieb]

I wonder if there's ever explicit instruction given: to get to the next level you're going to have to make a spectacle. Or if Cohen, Hsieh, etc. just know it without being told. I'm not sure where I heard this, but wasn't Valliant involved in sponsoring Nathaniel Branden's Benefits and Hazards lecture in the early 80's? After something like that, if you think you're going to make it to Operating Thetan, you know it's going to take more than auditing and aceing the e-meter. Thus was PARC conceived?

ND,

Nobody's written a handbook, that's for sure.

But certain melodramatic gestures are widely reproduced in action, as are certain talking points.

Figuring out how the novices and postulants learn these things would be a fascinating sociological project.

I don't know whether Jim Valliant had as much to do with the Benefits and Hazards talk as he now pretends. The guy has a flair for exaggeration. But, yes, any such involvement later became a sin that needs expiation.

Robert Campbell

Robert; I too have the feeling that simply saying you now think the Brandens are the "spawn of the devil" but it must be accompanied the equivalent of burning the Branden books in the public square.

Is there anyone out there who helped on the Benefits and Hazards talk who can tell what the role Valliant played if any.

[Robert Campbell]

It's interesting to follow the Product Descriptions of Bob Mayhew's four edited volumes on Ayn Rand's novels.

In order of publication, they go like this:

http://www.amazon.co...70337456&sr=1-8

Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, offers an early form of the author's nascent philosophy--the philosophy Rand later called Objectivism. Robert Mayhew's collection of entirely new essays brings together pre-eminent scholars of Rand's writing. In part a history of We the Living, from its earliest drafts to the Italian film later based upon it, Mayhew's collection goes on to explore the enduring significance of Rand's first novel as a work both of philosophy and of literature.

http://www.amazon.co...70337456&sr=1-7

The essays in this collection treat historical, literary, and philosophical topics related to Ayn Rand's Anthem, an anti-utopia fantasy set in the future. The first book-length study on Anthem, this collection covers subjects such as free will, political freedom, and the connection between freedom and individual thought and privacy.

http://www.amazon.co...70337456&sr=1-4

In this unique study of The Fountainhead, Dr. Robert Mayhew brings together historical, literary, and philosophical essays that analyze the novel's style, its use of humor, and its virtues of productivity, independence, and integrity. The essays make extensive use of previously unpublished material from the Ayn Rand Archives, offering a new collection of material to explore and consider.

http://www.amazon.co...70337456&sr=1-3

This is the first scholarly study of Atlas Shrugged, covering in detail the historical, literary, and philosophical aspects of Ayn Rand's magnum opus. Topics explored in depth include the history behind the novel's creation, publication, and reception; its nature as a romantic novel; and its presentation of a radical new philosophy.

The first three make obviously correct or defensible claims for the books in question.

The last, not so obviously.

The first three books were not in competition with existing edited volumes on the same novels.

The fourth book was.

Robert Campbell