Rand In The Groves

[James Farmelant]

Scott McLemee's article on Ayn Rand includes a discussion
of Chris Sciabarra's book on Rand, *Ayn Rand: The Russian
Radical*.    Some members of this list may remember when
Sciabarra was a moderator of the Marxism-Thaxis List
a couple of years ago.  Sciabarra is a most interesting person,
an avowed libertarian who did his doctorate under the
Marxist, Bertell Ollman.  And influenced by Ollman's studies
of Marxist thought, Sciabarra has made the case that
Rand was a dialectical thinker too (Sciabarra has also
made a similar case in regards to F.A. Hayek in his
book *Marx, Hayek, and Utopia*).  Whereas, Rand claimed
that the chief intellectual influences on her work
were Aristotle and the free market economists, Sciabarra
emphasizes the genesis of her thought within the
context of Russia Silver Age, in which Nietzsche
loomed large along with neo-Hegelianism and in which
saw the rise of symbolism and futurism in the arts.
Sciabarra also puts some emphasis on the influence of
Rand's philosophy professor, N.O. Lossky who was one
of the leading Russian philosophers prior to the Bolshevik
Revolution.

Sciabarra has a web site at (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sciabarra)
for those who are interested.

			Jim Farmelant
On Tue, 17 Aug 1999 09:38:14 -0400 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
writes:
>[bounced for mysterious reasons]
>
>From: G*rd*n <gcf at panix.com>
>Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 08:14:40 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Those of you who don't read alt.postmodern or
>alt.society.anarchy (all?) may not have seen this.
>The idea of an academia where Ayn Rand is at last
>taken seriously is indeed, well, postmodern.
>Post-something, anyway.  Camille leads the charge!
>(For a little while, anyway.)
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Speaking of decadence and pseudo-this-and-that, I
>thought this article was interesting.  It appeared in
>alt.society.anarchy, posted by jaulisi at mail.idt.net and
>titled "The Heirs of Ayn Rand." (Message-ID:
><jaulisi-1608992040140001 at ppp-5.ts-1-bay.nyc.idt.net>)
>Possibly it's a copy of a copy....
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>HAS OBJECTIVISM GONE SUBJECTIVE?
>
>DON'T MISS THE ESSAY, "The Heirs of Ayn Rand," in the September issue 
>of
>Lingua Franca Magazine[.]
>
>When Ayn Rand died in 1982, she left devotees squabbling for control 
>of her
>intellectual empire.  Today the Objectivist movement is threatened not 
>just
>by its internal schisms but also by its surprising new popularity in 
>the
>academy.  Can the Objectivists save their guru from the Professors 
>they
>despise?
>
>Read this article on-line at 
>http://www.linguafranca.com/9907/rand.html
>
>For more information, feel free to email knowlton at linguafranca.com
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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