ONLINE REVIEWS
MARCO DEN OUDEN, THE SAVVY STREET (19 FEBRUARY 2023)
Marco den Ouden writes:
In a brilliant piece of philosophical
detective work, Chris Matthew Sciabarra examines her Russian background and
Russian education and discerns distinct influences of both on her methodology.
Early in this review I quoted Sciabarra to the effect that during his
research he “rediscovered elements in Objectivism that challenged my entire
understanding of that philosophy and its place in intellectual history.”
Sciabarra’s book did the same for me.
I had hitherto taken a
disaggregated view of Rand’s work. The problem with such an unintegrated view is
that it lets you take isolated elements of her work out of context. This is the
error of many of her followers who focus on her politics to the exclusion of the
other elements of her philosophy. This was the source of her disdain for
libertarians. If you consider her philosophy as an integrated whole,
libertarians focused on one narrow element, her politics, and even there, they
focused very narrowly on one maxim, the so-called non-aggression principle. They
saw only a solitary tree but missed the grand forest that was her work.
Sciabarra’s book gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the
holistic nature of Rand’s work, for her ability to parse and dissect disparate
elements of current events and to integrate them by their essences. To see
connections that others miss.
See full review
here.
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