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Title: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand
Subtitle: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism
Author: David Kelley
Narrator: Scott R. Smith
Format: Unabridged
Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-25-17
Publisher: The Atlas Society
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes
Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy
Publisher's Summary:
Ayn Rand's philosophical novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged made her the most controversial author of her age. Her works have drawn millions of fans and continue to sell at a breathtaking pace. Their impact on American culture runs from libertarian politics to the self-esteem movement in psychology to the rugged individualism of Silicon Valley and the Internet. Rand also launched a movement of intellectuals committed to her philosophy of Objectivism. While it has grown dramatically since Rand's death in 1982, however, the Objectivist movement has also fractured into rival camps whose differences over doctrine and strategy are compounded by competition for leadership and bitter accusations of heresy.
In Truth and Toleration, philosopher David Kelley analyzes the conflicts that led him to break ranks with orthodox Objectivists and create an independent branch of the movement. Originally published in 1990 as a manifesto, this work has been revised as an analysis of the principles of intellectual collaboration - the terms on which intellectuals and activists can work together in a common cause. Going beyond the immediate issues, Kelley discusses the nature of individual responsibility for the spread of ideas and for their historical consequences. He offers a new argument for toleration based on a non-relativistic theory of truth. He describes the nature of tribalism among intellectuals, showing how the troubled legacy of Ayn Rand has followed a pattern similar to the not-so-civil wars among followers of other original and charismatic thinkers such as Marx and Freud. In a postscript for the second edition, Kelley reviews the growth in Objectivist scholarship and the influence of Rand's ideas over the past decade.
Truth and Toleration is an engaging introduction to the Objectivist movement, its core ideas, and its central fissures.
Members Reviews:
Of biases and truth
I very much enjoyed reading this well-crafted, well-written, book of 128 pages
including index and notes. It is very understandable and the prose is excellent.
For me it was a high watermark on how civilized people
should respond to hostile, abusive, verbal and written attacks. To me it's not
only important that people learn how to agree, but that they also learn how
to disagree - AND remain civilized human beings. The author comes across
as being both intellectually, as well as, emotionally mature.
This is a book without rancour. It is a book in which someone can ruthlessly
assault Dr. Kelley's character and then call his followers, "snarling wimps,"
and the author does not return with a like volley of malevolence. Instead, he
searches for underlying principles and truth.
One would think that such vicious attacks would come from the enemies of
Objectivism, not from its guardians and supporters!
Renewed my excitement for Objectivism.
... I actually found _The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism_ far from dull. Why? Because it instilled in me a sense of excitement and appreciation for well-reasoned arguments that I had not experienced since I first started reading Rand's works in the early 1980's. Back then, the more I read, the more my excitement waned.
