Objectivism Lost in Translation

Atlas Summit 2015 -- Ayn Rand had strong views on the meaning of certain words: “selfishness,” “altruism,” “intrinsic,” and so on. So when Objectivists read non-Objectivists, they often assume that the latter are using these words as Rand did and interpret them accordingly.

However, these terms were in use in philosophy and ordinary English long before Rand appropriated them. If Objectivists want mutually beneficial transactions with the wider intellectual world in which they live, they need to understand—and be understood by—it much better. Neera Badhwar will analyze some passages from Objectivist and non-Objectivist writings with a view to retrieving what is getting lost in translation.

Neera K. Badhwar taught philosophy at the University of Oklahoma for 22 years, and is now affiliated with the Philosophy and Economics departments at George Mason University. She has published articles on ethical theory and moral psychology in *Ethics*, *Journal of Philosophy*, and other philosophy journals. Her book, *Well-Being: Happiness in a Worthwhile Life*, has recently been published by Oxford University Press. She has also published an article on Ayn Rand (co-authored with Roderick Long) in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, and is the lead author of the Objectivist Studies volume *Is Virtue Only a Means to Happiness?* (available on the Atlas Society website). She has been a Fellow at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green St. Univ. (twice), the NEH Visiting Professor at SUNY, Potsdam, and a recipient of various other awards. She plans to blog on the philosophy of liberty, write children's stories, and continue to write philosophy articles.

[boldstandard]

It seems odd that at 4:30 she asserts without any argument that "greed" should not be considered an Objectivist virtue, as though this were obvious. Does she not realize that Ayn Rand actually *did* use "greed" in this way, to describe virtuous activity?

In Atlas Shrugged there is an entire chapter called "The Utopia of Greed, " describing The Gulch.

[mughat]

Neera K. creates a straw man argument at @6:42 to 8 min. "American culture" is not a consistent altruism ideology.
Ayn Rand is right. The altruistic ideal practiced consistently does prevent the concept of a self-respecting and self-supporting man.

[perseuswong]

So this entire talk boils down to a persistent problem with Objectivism. The lack of clarity. And the assumption that Rand's principles are self-explanatory to a species that is stuck with an evolutionary disdain for the individual.

[justintempler]

I only made it to 7:31. The title should be: Objectivist Lost in Subjectivism.
Being passionate about concepts is what makes Objectivism, Objectivism.
What next? Are you going to replace the word "Capitalism" because people have a negative distorted view of it?

[stingrae]

I thought in 'Philosophy who needs it?' Rand does describe where her interpretations of altruism are coming from in philosophy e.g. Kant. I will reread but it was the reasoning in why she was so against some politics of the 1900s. If American culture was simply 'individuals qua individuals' than you wouldn't have democrat policies like 'LBJ's Great Society', that was directly the type of policy Rand was challenging because similarly styled policies had already happened in the 20s onwards. In other words like +mughat posts, American society in this talk is a strawman.

What Rand saw was Americans abandoning the principles and philosophy of the founding fathers, not quickly but in time it would lead to problems akin to those seen in soviet russia. Rand was a history major, which makes sense because the major lesson of history is, it repeats. I reckon her knowledge of history is how she ended up writing Anthem.

Why hasn't America fallen so far? Well a good starting point was the lack of statism in the formative years and a rejection of it from the War and becoming a republic. Enshrining the individual in the constitution is something other constitutions merely 'attempt' to do but are skittish to do so properly. Or perhaps it has fallen further than most expect and what we are seeing with this new 'social justice' culture is the eventual outcome and return to serfdom and collectivism.