Rand In The Groves

James Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Tue Aug 17 07:58:17 PDT 1999


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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