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Translating Oism into Academic Philosophy Writing

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TLDR Summary: Any advice for translating Objectivist views to communicate to academic non-Objectivist scholars?

So I'm in an undergrad philosophy class where I have a rare chance to actually write a paper about Objectivism. It turns out that when I start discussing my paper ideas with my professor she's just quite baffled. Not hostile or dismissive, just it's clear she isn't connecting what I'm trying to communicate. Attempting to explain things using the standard Objectivist terms I'm used to (identity, intrinsic, skeptic, the crow, unit, etc.) just led to more questions that would only require explaining the entire background justification for Oism.

This encounter was surprising for me. I expected a non-Objectivist philosopher to be at least unfamiliar or somewhat confused, but what I didn't expect was the sense of being completely alien and unintelligible. Partly this is because, on its face, Objectivism seems to be a rather straight-forward philosophy. There aren't really that many specialized terms, and its often accused of being too "simple".

However, I hadn't realized that in eschewing the often cumbersome "academic speak" type of language in Rand's writing, I had to struggle to begin trying to translate what I meant into something more scholarly friendly. The upside to Rand's usage of everyday language is that just about anybody, even non-philosophers, can read and start to understand her ideas. But the downside is that it is mostly isolated from standard terminology used to discuss proper academic philosophy.

Just to provide you all with an example. I was trying to communicate what would most-closely be considered Rand's view of metaphysics and the closest approximation seemed to be direct-realism. Of course I know that Rand wouldn't consider Oism as a form of Realism proper, and and it might suggest unwanted historical baggage related to religion.

So I would love to hear any advice or see some helpful links (maybe to old forum posts) that could help with this.

Also I did see this Blackwell Companion book on Rand on Amazon, but it's not out until 2016. It could be a great help for this type of problem.

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405186844.html

 

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You are fortunate that your teacher was bewildered rather than snide or hostile.

Rand wasn't trained in academic philosophy as practitioners in the English-speaking world understand it, and she didn't write for an academic audience. Squaring her with that tradition is a bigger job than it may appear at first.

You use "translation", and this is a very good metaphor. In beginning foreign-language courses we learn to do simple translations, a few sentences at a time, between English and the new language, but we have to know the new one pretty well to do a good translation of a serious literary work in either direction. A couple of other metaphors are learning to play a musical instrument or to dance. We start with simple technical exercises, accustoming ourselves to getting our feet or our fingers or feet in the right place at the right time, and we go on to soar only after that. Philosophy, too, requires straightforward technical skills. What's a clear statement? How do you tell a good argument from a bad one? Are two claims mutually consistent? If you get to be good at this, the answer to your original question - what does Objectivism look like in academic terminology? - will begin to suggest itself. In the meantime try putting Rand aside while you're at work.

I used to write Randroid papers and exam essays that embarrass me decades later. When I got a better command of philosophical method I was able to work Objectivist ideas in the natural course of things.

That said, if you want to see more examples of what Objectivist academics do, check out the site of the Ayn Rand Society of the APA, especially the Publications page. For even more, look up the individual authors at their school websites for more of their writings. Or join the Society and get copies of the presentations. The ARS/APA is one of few places where orthodox and apostate Objectivists ae on good terms with each other.

Edited by Reidy
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There is some work by Objectivists that attempts to relate Objectivism to academic philosophy.

http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Their-Role-Knowledge-Philosophical/dp/0822944243

Thanks. I just checked out this book a couple days ago at my school library (can't believe they have it). It's been one of my few references so far but I have only been able to read a short amount so far.

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I used to write Randroid papers and exam essays that embarrass me decades later. When I got a better command of philosophical method I was able to work Objectivist ideas in the natural course of things.

That said, if you want to see more examples of what Objectivist academics do, check out the site of the Ayn Rand Society of the APA, especially the Publications page. For even more, look up the individual authors at their school websites for more of their writings. Or join the Society and get copies of the presentations. The ARS/APA is one of few places where orthodox and apostate Objectivists ae on good terms with each other.

Thanks. I think I have a pretty decent grasp of the ideas to not make the mistake of a top-down rationalistic Randroid kind of approach. A few results come up on my school's scholarly article search as well as journal articles and the like. But the vast majority are political in nature, which is the most superficial and least interesting aspect of Oism. There really is a dearth of quality academic Objectivist material, and that includes critical material that treats Oism honestly.

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Tara Smith, Allan Gotthelf, Gregory Salmieri and James Lennox are some Objectivist academics with books in print. Smith works in ethics, and what I've seen of her writing is pretty explicitly Randian.  The others are in Greek philosophy, and their writings in this field don't deal with Rand expressly.

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The aforementioned anthology on concepts and their role in knowledge has a companion ethics volume: 

http://www.aynrandsociety.org/publications

http://www.amazon.com/Metaethics-Egoism-Virtue-Normative-Philosophical/dp/0822944006/ref=la_B001HMQL6M_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367121549&sr=1-2

More books in the series are on their way.

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