Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand - Softcover

Long, Roderick T.

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9781577240457: Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1577240456 ISBN 13: 9781577240457

Publisher: Objectivist Center, 2000

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Auburn University professor of philosophy offers new interpretations of Aristotle and Ayn Rand in ethics and epistemology. Among the issues at stake: Does Rand's thought contain Platonic, Humean, Hobbesian, and Kantian elements? Does Aristotle share Rand's committment to sense-perception as the foundation of knowledge? What is the meaning of the ethical standard of man's life-qua-man?,... and much more. Also contains two critical commentaries and a reply by the author. Sure to ignite debate.

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From the Author:

Two of the central questions in philosophy are: What are the foundations of knowledge? and What is the nature of human well-being? Ayn Rand regarded herself as a follower of Aristotle. I argue, however, that in answering the above two questions she unfortunately deviated from Aristotle in ways that subverted her own philosophical intentions. In particular, I maintain that Rand's rejection of Aristotle's coherentist, testimony-based epistemology in favor of her own version of foundationalist empiricism both opens the door to a corrosive skepticism that she rightly wishes to avoid, and forces her into defending an instrumental survival-oriented conception of the relation of morality to self-interest, even though a constitutive, flourishing-oriented relation along Aristotelian lines would more closely match her basic ethical insights. Hence Rand's admirers may still have something to learn from Aristotle, their "teacher's first teacher." I invite readers to visit my website: geocities.com/BerserkRL Roderick T. Long

About the Author:

Roderick T. Long is a professor of philosophy at Auburn University, as well as Editor of the Free Nation Foundation's journal Formulations. His principal research interests are moral psychology, Greek philosophy, and libertarian thought.

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