Tom Lehman
JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> Yes, actually there are a few real philosophers who take Rand seriously, I was exaggerating: in addition to Hospers, there is Eric Mack, Douglas Den Uyl (sp?), and the Bowling Green libetertians; Nozick wrote a piece on Rand as a philosopher. Moreover my friend Chris Sciabbara, a libertarian student of Betell Ollman, is a actually a Rand scholar, and Chris is very smart. I still think Rand is a crackpot. I guess if what you say about Hospers is true, I mean about Tonga, he was a practical crackpot as well. He was a fine philosopher, though. --jks
>
> In a message dated Tue, 9 May 2000 12:37:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Sam Pawlett <rsp at uniserve.com> writes:
>
> <<
>
> JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> >
> Real philosophers (I used to be one, that is whatI did for a
> > living before I was a lawyer) mainly do not take her work seriously. Her
> > following is a scary cult. And Greenspan is part of it.
> >
> Except for John Hospers, a very good philosopher. I'm told that he and
> Rand were good friends and she got a lot of ideas from him. In his
> serious work though, you would be surprised to find that he is a
> political crackpot. Apart from his tome *Libertarianism* he drops few
> hints that he is in with Rand. He had a plan with Us real estate
> developer Michael Oliver (who wanted to create the ultimate offshore
> financial operation) to set up a libertarian paradise in one of the
> Tonga islands. The local people showed up with spears and weapons and
> turned them away violently.
>
> If you want to know what Greenspan thinks check out his essays in the
> Rand edited collection *Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal* (yes that's
> right, capitalism is a moral ideal and we haven't had the real thing yet
> but we're gonna get it and the Randians don't care how many people die.)
> One of G's papers is a defence of the gold standard. The kind of ranting
> you'd find in the Liberty Lobby's Spotlight or something.
>
> Sam Pawlett
> >>