Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

A Study of Galt's Speech, by Onkar Ghate


Recommended Posts

Based on the presentation A Study of Galt's Speech, by Onkar Ghate, the subject of an ARI e-mail in the ongoing celebration of Atlas Shrugged's sixtieth anniversary.

In the introductory talk, near the end, Onkar raises the point that originally Miss Rand had written her first draft to address Objectivism in hierarchal order. This is confirmed in writing elsewhere, as well by an Ayn Rand associate and member of the audience, Harry Binswanger.

Onkar offers the suggestion that it was reorganized to follow the theme of the book, the role of man's mind for survival.

Per the course outline, (included as a pdf in the purchase), the first 19 paragraphs are considered the introduction.

Per the novel, they oscillate between initially perceptually confirmable detail and their more abstract counterparts—from the question on everybody's mind (in the novel) at one time or another: "Who is John Galt?"—to the fact that was becoming increasingly undeniable: Where have the Hank Rearden's and the Ellis Wyatt's seemingly vanished to?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Onkar's talk has run its course, and has been started anew from the beginning in the mobile university.

Drawing from Galt's speech, Onkar reiterates to whom the speech is directed, the remnant of rational minds still remaining in the world, asking them to join the strike and hasten the reclamation of a world to be reshaped by moral virtue. Onkar indicated that Galt gave his speech thus, contrasting it with the Declaration of Independence being a public declaration of the causes underscoring them as a rational appeal to the rest of the world citing:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

By writing Atlas Shrugged, Rand likewise broadcasts Galt's speech to mankind, speaking to any mind that reads it, and reaching any mind that understands it. While not as dramatic as hijacking the radio-waves of the entire world for three hours, equally impressive is that the message is being continuously broadcast via a medium available anytime someone wants to settle down with her novel in the privacy of their own mind.

She lays out the incontrovertible demonstration of morality's foundation to and in existence, and in pondering this, consider the incontrovertible demonstrations provided by the ancient Greeks in geometry and mathematics that are universally held today. She shows morality is just, and like justice, can preserve or destroy depending on adherence to it or abandonment of it.

Onkar breaks Galt's Speech up as follows:

The introduction (as the first 19 paragraphs per For The New Intellectual)
The morality of life (paragraphs 20 through 88)
The morality of death (paragraphs 89 through 206)
Your choice is either the morality of life or the morality of death (paragraphs 207 through 296)

The course outline breaks these groupings up further by identifying the paragraphs in accordance with his outline of Galt's Speech provided for the presentation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...