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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/07/14 in all areas

  1. After 240+ posts of contention over TGR, how is a conclusion reached that it is nearly self-evident? In a letter to John Hospers, Ayn Rand wrote: In paragraphs 2 and 3, page 2 of your comments, you provide a full and unanswerable refutation of the Golden Rule and the Kantian imperative, when you give examples of how two opposite, arbitrary policies (of an altruistic and "egoistic" nature) could be pursued in strict compliance with either of those rules. Once you demonstrate it, it is sufficient ground to invalidate both rules as guiding principles of action. Paragraphs 2 and 3 and page 2 of comments were not published in the Letters of Ayn Rand. Clearly, though, Hospers included what Miss Rand considered to be a thorough refutation via logical analysis. After pointing out that TGR leads to ethical subjectivism she clarifies to Hospers that she doesn't base her ethics or politics on TGR. Hospers wrote: "Your insisting (rightly, I believe) that Mr. A, B and C have the same rights that you do, would seem to lead naturally to the Golden Rule... and to the Kantian categorical imperative .... " Rand responded: My answer is that I base men's equal rights on a much deeper premise and issue than either of these two rules [TGR and TKCI]—and, therefore, these two rules are irrelevant to my ethics. I do not regard them as necessarily antagonistic to my ethics, but as irrelevant and unimportant by reason of their ambiguity and superficiality. From the phrasing in this exchange - Hospers may have been suggesting that Miss Rand's egoism somehow rested on it. In another passage from the same letter: If, however, these two rules [TGR and TKCI] are advocated as ethical primaries—then I am emphatically opposed to them. In their literal wording, both rules advocate ethical subjectivism, with one's wish as the standard of moral value; both declare, in effect, that one may do anything one wishes, provided one is willing to universalize one's wish. Wikipedia has a fairly extensive page on TGR. Ethical subjectivism, on this matter, is a rather succinct summary.
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  2. I think what made Rapture fall was the lack of a military/police force capable of dealing with any rights violations coming from the use of plasmids. I remember a recording in which Ryan says, "the government won't stop the use of plasmids - let the free market decide." It seems that whoever wanted to characterize Rand's philosophy, failed to do so accurately; they assumed Objectivists are in favor of anarchy.
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  3. Clearly, at the bottom of the ocean!
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