by Ayn Rand ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 1965
This is a collection of 19 short essays which have appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter. 15 of the essays are by Ayn Rand, 4 by Nathaniel Brandon and they are devoted to explaining the "Objectivist" attitude towards such subjects as the nature of man, self-sacrifice, racism, mental health, the role of government, socialism and other questions of an ethical nature. According to Ayn Rand, the "Objectivist Ethics" "holds man's life as the standard of value and his own life as the ethical purpose of every individual man." It is thus advocates what she calls "rational selfishness" and opposes hedonist or altruist doctrines which maintain, she says, "that the happiness of one man necessitates the injury of another." In applying the hierarchical standards of "Objectivism" to politics and economics she eventually insists upon a laissez faire type of economy as being "the only system that can uphold individual rights." She would have the very financing of government (which she admits is a certain necessity) itself on a "voluntary" basis. Her theories lead her to incorporate a number of slogans embraced by the right-wing, such as, "without property rights no other rights are possible" and this no doubt endears her to conservatives. But she gives them the back of her hand too, particularly for their racist tendencies. Her style is a decidedly peremptory one anyway but perhaps this is the only stance she can take in view of the intractability of her material.
Pub Date: Nov. 29, 1965
ISBN: 0451163931
Page Count: 138
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1965
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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