Atlas Shrugged

Good lord! people still read her stuff in the states? I'm amazing why she was taken seriously to start with (she had little or no impact in europe).Did she ever overcome the modified prisoner's Dilemma?Let me ask you a question and see how far we get:You are driving a car and decide to commit suicide, a young girl leaps out in front of you. What do you do?This message has been edited by Charles Knight, 14 February 2005 18:03 AM

http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif

well yes - however none of the other comments are incorrect in their assessment; her views go slightly further than those shown in Altas Shrugged.They seem both fair and accurate - her system is entirely about self-interest, that's why I asked the question about running the girl over in your car while trying to commit suicide. To change direction would mean that you are not acting in "proper" self-interest, therefore you should run her down.

Percy I'm too lazy to explain all of this and will just assume that your knowledge of objectivism and the key players is pretty good.The crux of the question is "do I have a moral obligation at all to avoid running this little girl?".Because I am dead set on suicide and wish to get it over and down with, then in this siutation I am confronted with a source of obligation besides my own choice (axiomatic or otherwise) to live one, indeed, it is one that is altogether independent of my choice, and one that sets limits within which my suicide can be carried out.Since Rand denies that I have any such obligation, she must also deny that the well-being of persons other than myself directly imposes any sort of moral constraint on my behavior.Quoting Scot Ryan's book on the subject - David Kelley has noticed the difficulty here. As regards rights, he acknowledges that even if I understand that your freedom is good for you in exactly the same way that my freedom is good for me, I don’t yet have a reason for regarding your freedom as good for me. But this is precisely the point that must be established if we are going to validate rights on the basis of ethical egoism [How Principles Work, in Liberty, November 1992, pp. 63-76; quoted in Jeff Walker, The Ayn Rand Cult, pp, 235-236]

Percy - I did start to produce a reply for you, but I then found that I actually have to do some further research or re-examine the source material to produce a coherent argument.I find that I just can't work up the motivation to do so, I remember doing this one to death about two years ago and just can't be bothered again. Maybe Dan wants to tackle it?(didn't want to leave you hanging for a reply).This message has been edited by Charles Knight, 15 February 2005 12:51 AM