THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF AYN RAND
THE PHILOSOPHICAL ACHIEVEMENT OF AYN RAND
She made utterly clear that existence is absolute, and now there is no escape from reality, she elevated FACTS to the level of reverential acceptance.
IN the history of philosophy, this basic fact has been incredibly obfuscated.
Basically…
By “religion” as tradition that still continues. And in the subconscious in the best of people.
We are still not able to accept that we live simply in a universe that is governed by law through it is really known to be true in our century and in fact from the past 350 years.
Ayn Rand ended that obfuscation, and hence we are now freed!!
Simply and yet profoundly. It is really an astounding thing. But it will obviously take many more centuries to spred and take deep root.
All modern philosophers, gook the path of simply obfuscating and bringing in a nihilism. Mainly Kant, Hegel and Marx.
2) She emphasized the law of identity, in that she made it utterly clear that a thing is what it is, and hence follows its nature in action , and that is "why" there are no "contradictory" behaviours in entities.
3) She said--there is such a thing as knowledge and logic, and this aspect of her philosophy is the most un-understood/mis-understood. For her, knowledge, truth was not a dry thing...no!! But...
The very nature of man, and his power, and his value,hence, as MAN!! That LIGHT that shines when you get/grasp/understand something, she elevated that into a new religion, the religion of man, and ....
4) ROOTED that as his greatest VALUE. REASON the faculty that makes man, man and that operates naturally with FOCUS in us integrates NOT empty things, BUT the material that our inviolate senses give us, observations leads to deep GRASPING of things, THAT LIGHT inside.
That opening of EYES leads to grasping the whole world, where you HAVE to get the whole, and cannot rest till then, and that natural thinking in each of us, she not only released, but made it look so simple!! She truly made the TRUE IS THE WHOLE simple obvious and possible to be achieved by each of us.
5) Not only did she elevate this, she concretized this aspect, OH!! By 100s of pages in her action packed, bitter, beautiful novels where the HEROES HAVE TO triumph, even if they have to go against the whole world.
6) Courage? Yes, and more than that...a passionate dedication, exaltation of man's stature and power!! And yet, a down to earth philosophy, that ANYONE and everyone can/should and yes, would want to practice!! WHY EVER NOT?
7) Thus she opened the floodgates of the possibility, finally, of social activism, that celebrates happiness and integrity, honesty, and independence, productiveness, money, love, sex, pride....all of that simply rooted in our power of reason, in action, our obvious, now, commitment to rationality.
Thus, she celebrated man and his life, thus making living, not a drudgery, duty bound pain, but a freedom to feel NO fear/pain/ and especially no guilt..she made Man innocent, pure, chaste, and brought in the pure elements in religious/spiritual living to the fore, sacredness, worship pf Man, and self exaltation!!
9) She rooted finally all the above to a social philosophy that celebrated capitalism, outlining its incalculable energy, power released, and thus was a passionate advocate of Man's rights, and equally, by implication, exposed Socialism, to the core blind, power lusting evil it really is...
10) Thus she LIBERATED Man, and ultimately Men, and brought in a possibility of freedom, happiness, finally peace on earth, for man, of man, possible only BY man.
11) And thus she celebrated ARTS, all arts, opened up them all, giving profound ,meaning to each, its power to influence, give that METAPHYSICAL joy!! She showed ART as concretization of all of the above in graspable form, thus givng the highest pleasure, priceless to Man in his often constant struggle to bring his values to reality. Thuis she refuelled the fuel that is ART.
12) AND....she opened up ALL fields..you name it..Education, Science, Computers, Engineering,Medicine, Finance, Economics, whatever might be your field, her FUNDAMENTAL LENS takes you deep in it, and bring in innovation that are practically inexhaustible and begging, and any man can learn..and create..Thus she LEVELLED men, no more/less..each in his profound self respecting living, yet deep brotherhood, she gave a new, proper meaning to man as a social being..he is, is he not?
She ended all divisions, precisely because she brought man as the same entity....is that not brotherhood?
13) She has brought IN PRINCIPLE, benevolence, justice, clarity, happiness, unlimited discovery, innovation, to all!!
14) She brought in a Vision of Man and Life, finally, in a form, that is ideal and practical, both, as it ought to be, and could be....