AudibleSuperfan's video: Ayn Rand on Causality vs Duty and Kantian Philosophy from Philosophy: Who Needs It

Take advantage of audible.com's special offer and start listening to Ayn Rand on your iPod or Smartphone today. Just click on the link below for a special offer. http://www.qksrv.net/click-4370178-10273919?url=http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B002V8L3X2&qid=1297880585&sr=1-1&source_code=COMA0213WS031709 Get your first 3 months at Audible.com 50% off. Just $7.49 a month. Philosophy: Who Needs It is a posthumous collection of essays by Ayn Rand, published in 1982, that deal with the subject of philosophy in general. Rand had begun work on the collection prior to her death, with final editing by Leonard Peikoff. Therefore, it could be considered her last work. Most of the essays originally appeared in The Ayn Rand Letter. This book is volume one of the "Ayn Rand Library" series edited by Leonard Peikoff. In the title essay, she argues that philosophy plays a central role in all human activities. That every action, every thought, has at its root certain assumptions and that we need to examine those assumptions to live a full, meaningful life. Ayn Rand (1905 -- March 6, 1982), was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, Rand migrated to the United States in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway in 1935--1936. She first achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. Over a decade later, she published her magnum opus, the philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged, in 1957. Rand's political views, reflected in both her fiction and her theoretical work, emphasize individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and promoted ethical egoism while rejecting the ethic of altruism. She considered reason to be the only means of acquiring knowledge and its advocacy the most important aspect of her philosophy, stating, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."