...would like to examine Immanuel Kant and Ayn Rand’s moral systems for my essay. At first glance, you could say that these two thinkers seem diametrically opposed, but they actually share some similar views. I’ll start by reviewing some of the details of Immanuel Kant’s moral system. You could say that Kant’s views on morality are just an extreme form of altruism. Kant believed in duty ethics, or the act of judging the morality of an action within the context of a system of laws. He believed that humans alone possessed goodwill, a word which he defined as, “the ability to act in accordance with moral laws regardless of interests or consequences”. (Camoin) Kant credits human emotions with the power to know the greater metaphysical world by indiscernible means that he termed “pure reason.” Pure reason exists in the inexplicable human instinct for duty. Duty is an uncompromising obligation that one “just knows.” Kant held that an action is moral only if a person performs it out of a special sense of duty (MacKinnon 45). Morality is therefore derived through feelings from that metaphysical dimension of reality. That being said, these duties fall within Kant’s two moral codes: The first being that they must be logically consistent, not self-contradictory and that any truths must be universal. On the other hand, we have Ayn Rand, whose philosophies I consider to be an expression of extreme egoism. According to Ayn Rand, society should do away with altruism altogether...
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...When I received a copy of James S. Valliant’s book, The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics: The Case Against the Brandens, I was a little apprehensive about reviewing it. It seems that every time a discussion commences about the “juicy” bits of Ayn Rand’s sexual and romantic entanglements, it takes on a life of its own, and the discussion never seems to end. Cyber-forums can’t even mention this book without provoking hundreds of rancorous posts among people who are still personally involved in the developments surrounding the break between Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden. It’s as if the War of ‘68 is still raging. I was fortunate when I came to the study of Ayn Rand. I was eight years old when Rand and the Brandens went their separate ways. I knew none of the principals involved, and didn’t actually discover Rand’s work until nearly ten years later—when I was a senior in high school in 1977. And even after I’d discovered her work, I'd read everything she wrote without the assistance of going to live lectures or attending group meetings of people sitting around a vinyl turntable or an audio-tape player, listening to recordings of said lectures. I eventually listened to the vast bulk of those lectures as background for the preparation of my book, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical, but even that research was pursued independently. My work was not the product of any assistance from any Objectivist institute or organization. Around 1992, however, as I was researching my...
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...The novel Anthem written by Ayn Rand in 1938 represents a totalitarianism government reflecting Rands past in Russia. Allows no citizen to know anything or have total total control over everyone. Equality 7-2521, the main character, fights for his own individual rights in the collectivist society he lives. The first sentence in the book says “It is a sin to write this.”, towards the end of the book Equality has different views on his action (Rand, 17). His second moral assessment of his “sin” is correct because humans should not have to hide their feelings and thoughts. A sin in Anthem can be as simple as having a friend or wanting something more. Equality evolves throughout the book. In the beginning of the book he believes writing...
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...For example, Eliezer Wiesel’s Night and Ayn Rand’s Anthem are different genres. However, the similarities and differences between these author’s works are definite and deserve analysis. Such similarities include how the societies handle the executions of criminals. In Anthem, Equality has to stand “...in the great square with all the children and all the men of the city, sent to behold the burning” (Rand, 38). During Elie’s experience in the Holocaust, he and everyone else in his camp has to walk “...past the hanged boy and stared at his extinguished eyes, the tongue gaping from his mouth. The Kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face” (Wiesel, 63). Also, both Elie and Equality receive messages from watching a public execution. When the pipel is hanged, Elie thinks that God is no longer with the Jews and takes it to...
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...brainwashed society that Equality spent his life in, headed down hill, in one simple action, with a strong result of an outcome. Equality had been taught to ask no questions about anything that took place and everything happened for a reason. They feared their brothers would not feel the same way and automatically became dissatisfactory. No one person could talk to their brothers on how they were currently feeling about the present conversation, because it categorize as something out of the ordinary. The novella, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, discussed all of those issues and more. All of the people get specifically told they think the exact same way because they equally symbolize the same person. To brainwash someone completely, you eliminate all conversations between people. You tell them repeatedly the scholars know every wonder of the world. But most importantly you have to take control of their mind, the correct way, with all of the exact on techniques. In order to control a man, you have to brainwash them through methods of manipulation. In the blank minded humans of the society presented in this novella, a casual conversation, never took place. The incorrect thing to do was tell someone how you felt. According to the rules, everyone felt the same. So Equality never told anyone how he felt about a situation. In his writing, he wrote, “it is a sin to think words no others think and put them down upon a paper no others were to see.” (Rand, 17) is what society lived by and...
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...In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, you meet a character named “Equality 7-2521” and throughout the story the author does not use pronouns for the character, instead she uses the word “we” whenever Equality wants to say “I”. It shows individualism, which the it’s a sin and makes the reader think of how people can attribute to the society and take orders without knowing the reason why. It shows problems that Equality is facing because he is a man with thoughts towards others, dividing them out from the rest of society. Ayn Rand wrote this amazing novel because she wants to spread a voice and make a change, even in the war era. Equality has faced problems internally and externally, for the Rand to convey her message. In the novel Equality’s...
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...Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy Volume 3, Number 1 (Winter 2003), pp. 1‐26 Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics Stephen R. C. Hicks Introduction: business and the free society Advocates of the free society think of business as an integral part of the dynamic, progressive society they advocate. In the West, the rise of a culture hospitable to business has unleashed incalculable productive energies. Business professionals have taken the products of science and revolutionized the fields of agriculture, transportation, and medicine. Business professionals have taken the products of art and dramatically increased our access to them. We have more food, we are more mobile, we have more health care, we have more access to works of fiction, theater, and music than anyone could reasonably have predicted a few centuries ago. The result of business in the West, and more recently in parts of the East, has been an enormous rise in the standard of human living. We have gone, in the space of a few centuries, from a time in which perhaps 10% of the population lived comfortably while 90% lived near subsistence to a time in which 90% live better than comfortably and 10% live near subsistence. And we haven’t given up on the remaining 10%. Intellectuals who study the free society have, in the fields of economics and politics, a good understanding of what makes this possible: individualism. In economics there exists a well worked out understanding of ...
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...with Ray Bradbury and Ayn Rand, agrees that not all things can bring true happiness to life. Similarly to Benzadi’s idea, the novels Fahrenheit 451 and the novella Anthem, by authors Bradbury and Rand, display that to reach a high level of satisfaction, one must have a desire for knowledge, freedom to express individuality, and a desire to belong. Once these are accomplished, true happiness can be achieved. The hunger for the unknown of knowledge often creates satisfaction through. For example, in...
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...alternative and offers an entirely different view of the world. Equality 7-2521 lives in a society where he has to follow rules and everyone has to be the same person. In the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, it shows that Equality’s views have changed when he leaves that society. In the old society he had to use “we” to refer to himself. He can never be recognized as an individual. Equality had to respect everyone and stay where he was put. If he was not a scholar then he could not learn. He is sent to be a street sweeper so that is what he had to be. Ayn Rand’s philosophy ties into Equalitiy’s life because he is in a society and it is all he has ever known for a way of life but then he goes out of that society into...
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...swear by in order to make it into the exclusive John Galt highly intellectual society. John Galt is a character in the book “Atlas Shrugged” who is the creator and inventor and is a symbol to the power and glory of the human mind. The people who become a part of his society believe that taking care of oneself is more important than being humanitarians and providing support to those who need it. In Galt’s society there are no issues with money. There are no worries about the government taking and spending our hard earned money on war, illegal immigrants, and welfare. If only real life were this simple. However, this is a state of living that is simply not feasible. This never has happened or never will happen in my lifetime. To begin refuting this view of Any Rand, I think it is necessary to analyze the core value that is overwhelmingly displayed in Rand: Selfishness. Rand makes no secret of her selfishness. She thinks the world would be a better place if everyone was selfish. However, she also thinks that any infrastructural and economic progress shouldn’t come out of our taxes, but instead we should rely on the wealthy to make donations in the name of selflessness. That seems very contradictory to what she preaches, as well as very unlikely. Rand supports greed. The greedy won’t have any incentive to make charitable donations to help the world and therefore negate any possible way for a society to experience growth. Now just as any other living creature on the planet...
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...twist and turn what true freedom is. In anthem we see that there society has close to no freedom and is one of an oppressing world. In the book we see that only after equality leaves the city does he obtain real freedom. In the book anthem Ayn Rand uses a future from which their is no freedom, near to no happiness and not a good feeling of people getting along. In the time period that takes place thousands of years in the future the world has hit a reset where their main source of light comes from candles and torches. Equality will be the only one to get out and ever obtain what the rest of them don't have. In chapter 8 when equality laughs when he remembers he is the “the darned” (I do not wish to swear even when I write), but we end up to seeing that he is free is bound by no man to be told what to do. Equality knows truly of happiness and truth because of what his society did to him and showed him....
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...As once said by John F. Kennedy, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Anthem by Ayn Rand is a dystopian fiction novel in a future setting where mankind is expected to follow a set of rules as a whole society. Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright and screenwriter. In her novel, Anthem, It shows a way of putting a society as a whole to function the same and think the same way where no one can be independent. One of the main characters was Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. Equality 7-2521 is described with the pronoun “they” as in not being his own person, as well as the other characters who are also described with the pronoun “they.” He’s strong, independent, and intelligent who ends up falling in love with liberty 5-3000, who he describes as “the golden one.” Even though Equality knows it is a sin to think the way he does, he does it anyway because of his “cursed wish to know.” Equality slowly becomes more independent as he’s falling in love with Liberty 5-3000. Throughout the story, we see Equality’s path to self-discovery and his journey throughout moving away...
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...The Reasons Lead the Opposition in this Society In this novel, Anthem, by Ayn Rand, the author decided a society of a Utopia, People in this society live with one idea which is “ we are one in all and all in one. there are no men, but only the great WE, one, indivisible forever.” (Rand 19), that is, the words cut in the marble of the portals of the Palace of the World Council, the Government of this world. In general, people in this society do not think there is an difference between he or she and everyone else, they do not do things alone, they do not stay alone, they do not even think individually, they feel shame because of they have the difference on their likeness.This is a ridiculous and mad society and, because of the law,no one noticed that. People habitually and blindly follow the rules made by the autocracy government and do not have any doubt. The strong lack of thinking individually among the people lead the situation that no one really has the idea of opposition. There is no “I” in this society. In the beginning of this novel, most readers are confused...
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...A free market economy is an economy where most means of production are privatized and guided and where income is distributed largely through the operation of the market. To many people, it is seen as ultimate freedom and true economic liberty. Others, however, think that it is corrupt. Ayn Rand, the author of the novella Anthem, strongly believed that in order to have a progressive and stable economy, a country must have a free market. This belief is supported by the history of many post-communist countries. The Russian federation is one of the most well known post-communist countries. This is because once a free market was introduced, the countries scientists and scholars had a chance to develop innovations and advance society. With the freedoms...
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...its control over the population and liberate people’s minds to speak and think freely. Written by Ayn Rand, the story focuses on a man by the name of Equality 7-2521. He was blessed with a higher intelligence than that of his brothers in the community. With his higher intelligence he understood the motives of the Council and was not content them control everyone else. In an effort to discover new things he breaks several laws to see what the Council will do in response. The Council was not aware of these activities and they were not going to let him try to do anything against them. To try to prevent anything detrimental from happening, they assigned him the job as a...
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