The Philosophy of Ayn Rand

Description:
This video is a broad overview of the philosophy of Ayn Rand. It goes over themes covered in her two most famous works—Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. It looks at the so called “Five Pillars of Objectivism” and goes over some in depth. The basic idea behind Objectivism is rational self-ineterest, the notion that you should put yourself above all else. This stems from a belief in objective reality and man’s capacity to reason. The politics of Objectivism are Laissez Faire Capitalism. Also, has anyone noticed that descriptions are about the most boring thing to write? Other things… Yaron Brook’s interview on the Rubin Report was instrumental to the making this video. If you haven’t played the video game Bioshock, you should absolutely go do that. Ayn Rand doesn’t really have an opinion one way or the other on weather or not you should save a drowning child (assuming you have know personal connection with the child). Rand thinks people like Immanuel Kant and Peter Singer are essentially evil. Also, who in the fuck is John Galt?

Outline:
Paragraph 1 - Story
Paragraph 2 - Introduction
Paragraph 3 - What is Objectivism?
Paragraph 4 - Zero Sum Game Critique
Paragraph 5 - Free Will Critique
Paragraph 6 - Laissez Faire Capitalism
Paragraph 7 - The Drowning Child
Paragraph 8 - Conclusion

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Videos:

Notes:
Reality exists as an objective absolute. Man’s mind—reason—is his means of perceiving it. And that man needs a rational morality. A philosophy not based on arbitrary things like emotion.

REASON is only guide to action. Man must lead by independent judgement of his own mind.

Each man must live as an and of himself and follow in his own rational self interest.

FREE WILL

Disdain for altruism

Objective Reality (facts are facts whether we like it or not), Reason (the interpreter of material provided by mans senses is “man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival), Self-Interest (man—every man—is an end to himself, not an end for others), Capitalism (laissez faire, traders by free voluntary exchange)

Defines altruism as the contention that service to others is the only moral justification for his existence, that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty

[QuestionEverythingButWHY]

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
― Ayn Rand

[Soul_Eater_]

I love the clip at the beginning. The guy is essentially saying "You are evil incarnate" and she says "Yes".

[ProgrammedForDamage]

Whenever I think of the drowning child thought experiment it makes me recall the quote from Sir Arthur Eddington - "Even if religion and morality are dismissed as illusion, the word "Ought" still has sway."

[debbiee.]

Even in the 12 step addiction recovery program, one of the sayings go”this is a selfish program” because it’s of priority to self care and look at that when you self care, you actually learn to get sober.

[nickgurevich]

I’m reading “Capitalism: the unknown ideal” by Ayn Rand. I find most of her ideas to be foreign to my world view, her arguments unconvincing, and her examples ill fitting. Yet, I admire her intellectual and moral courage to state unambiguously what she feels and thinks, and let the chips fall where they may. Regrettably, too few of our public figures are brave enough to do that.

[myafaire]

I would not want to live in a world without altruism. Our Constitution states that the government is to provide for the COMMON (shared) GOOD. I'm grateful that I have compassion for others. Helping others is the greatest joy in life.

[dzhellek]

3:52 Somehow I knew Bioshock would come up somewhere.

[forshor]

With the drowning child experiment I still think it's a good idea to save the child since it's still in your best interest to do so as you'll find a lot of joy in saving him and a lot of pain in the weight you'd inevitably carry if you chose to let a child die.
However I agree there's no obligation to do so from compassion, but an obligation out of self interest to your psyche.

[Julia-mnhf]

Wouldn't the notion that free will does not exist obliterate any and all ethical systems? How can one choose to do the "morally correct" thing when they can't choose to do anything at all? I believe this goes for every ethical system, not just objectivism.

[WhiteWolf]

The highest tribute to Ayn Rand, is that her critics must distort 
everything she stood for in order to attack her. She advocated reason,  
not force; the individual’s rights to freedom of action, speech, and 
association; self-responsibility, NOT self-indulgence; and a 
live-and-let-live society in which each individual is treated as an 
END, not the MEANS of others’ ends. How many critics would dare 
honestly state these ideas and say, ” . . .and that’s what I reject"?

[carson]

When you saw the thumbnail at 3 am and thought it was about No Country for Old Men

[EarthSurferUSA]

You are a sharp young man Mr. Grey Winsler. Her philosophy actually mirrors the founding of the USA, and she understood the USA was based on individualism, self interest and a free market. I think the existence of the USA actually validated her thoughts of freedom. She loved the way the USA was founded, and despised the evil of being told you are to live your life for the state. But I have something I doubt you have yet Mr Winsler. I am old enough to have experienced some of our founding of individual liberty. I earned degrees, worked for a lot of employers, and started my own business. My business is in a recreational industry (engines for RC cars) that has no regulation, (just taxes), and it is the most exciting thing that ever happened to me, (and I used to race motocross). Man, after working for all those people, (most who worked for somebody else, and learned, before they started their business), and all that part time school, when my business took off, I felt a sense of freedom that I never knew existed. You have not experienced that yet Mr. Winsler, and most have no idea it exists.

Capitalism belongs to the citizens, so we can use our minds to chase our dreams, creating the glory of all of mankind---while getting rich!!! It is called communism when the government runs the economy, (into the ground).

Can anybody answer me this? How can any of us follow our dreams, with out capitalism in our hands, and a brain in our head?

Answer: We can't.

[myk]

I personally found that people who hate her the most, never read her. At least read For the New Intellectual, cover to cover. All of her prophecies have come true or are coming true.

[theycallmerisky]

People who preach rand like billionaires and politicians seem to forget that rand spoke of RATIONAL self interest

[tomdienstbier]

Finally a good video on Objectivism! Thank you sir, for not jumping to conclusions and blind hate, and having an open mind (or rather an active mind, as Ayn Rand would say)
I would like to extend on a few points you made in the video. First, the drowning child. Here's what Rand herself said:
"The proper method of judging when or whether one should help another person is by refefence to one's own rational self-interest and one's own hierarchy of values: the time, money or effort one gives or the risk one takes should be proportionate to the value of the person in relation to one's own happiness.
To illustrate this on the altruists' favorite example: the issue of saving a drowning person. If the person to be saved is a stranger, it is morally proper to save him only when the danger to one's own life is minimal; when the danger is great, it would be immoral to attempt it: only a lack of self-esteem could permit one to value one's life no higher than that of any random stragner. (And, conversely, if one is drowning, one cannot expect a stranger to risk his life for one's sake, remembering tha one's life cannot expect a stranger to risk his life for one's sake, remembering that one's life cannot be as valuable to him as his own.) If the person to be saved is not a stranger, then the risk one should be willing to take is greater in proportion to the greatness of that person's value to oneself. If it is the man or woman one loves, then one can be willing to give one's own life to save him or her - for the selfish reason that life without the loved person could be unbearable."

Regarding the free will issue, here's what Rand said about that:
"Man’s consciousness shares with animals the first two stages of its development: sensations and perceptions; but it is the third state, conceptions, that makes him man. Sensations are integrated into perceptions automatically, by the brain of a man or of an animal. But to integrate perceptions into conceptions by a process of abstraction, is a feat that man alone has the power to perform—and he has to perform it by choice. The process of abstraction, and of concept-formation is a process of reason, of thought; it is not automatic nor instinctive nor involuntary nor infallible. Man has to initiate it, to sustain it and to bear responsibility for its results. The pre-conceptual level of consciousness is nonvolitional; volition begins with the first syllogism. Man has the choice to think or to evade—to maintain a state of full awareness or to drift from moment to moment, in a semi-conscious daze, at the mercy of whatever associational whims the unfocused mechanism of his consciousness produces."

And lastly, I think it is worth pointing out that Rand herself directly rejected the kind of society we see in BioShock:
"Anarchy, as a political concept, is a naive floating abstraction: . . . a society without an organized government would be at the mercy of the first criminal who came along and who would precipitate it into the chaos of gang warfare. But the possibility of human immorality is not the only objection to anarchy: even a society whose every member were fully rational and faultlessly moral, could not function in a state of anarchy; it is the need of objective laws and of an arbiter for honest disagreements among men that necessitates the establishment of a government."

[joshehud]

I loved your final comment and how we judge people by how happy they make others, and I agree with Rand in that there’s nothing wrong with helping others. Helping others is one of the pillars of Judaism for example (the religious philosophy I hold to) but I find tremendously abhorrent is trying to impose helping others which then makes solidarity absent. Take taxes for example, they’re supposed to be for a greater good but then you could go to jail if you refuse to pay them. I don’t see it as act of solidarity, rather as an act of violence.

[thecasualobserver]

I'm very intrigued by rands philosophy. But I have the feeling that its quite ahead of our time. People generally refuse to think that way.

[darrenwendroff]

I've just started to study Ann Rand. I rejected her for a while based on the things I had heard of her philosophy or the people that follow her philosophy but I began to think about how most philosophers become the object of our projections, to the egos projections, similar to how neitchze's concept of the superman became a projection for the nazis. I believe Rand's idea of objectiveism is more related to the idea of rejecting the collective idea of morality, which can be represented in society or nationality or religion. What Rand perhaps describes is an ideal state, it sounds like game theory, where we all get what we need but work together without taking from each other. Of course we do not live in anything close to this state, the ego rules, especially in Western society but in all humans societies, thus I believe rand is misunderstood or perhaps appropriated to one's own ends. Interesting stuff though, thank you for the video, I'll continue to study more

[mjbrickey]

There are so many bits of knowledge to be borrowed from Rand. Although I have not adopted her philosophies as my own, I do understand how she came up with her ideals. Following her own philosophy, she passed on her nuggets of wisdom and did good things. She is her best example.

[lucas]

Rand's philosophy changed my life. What an amazing women that graced our world!