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Volume 10, No. 2 - Spring 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Symposium on Friedrich
Nietzsche and Ayn Rand
Preface: Our Tenth Anniversary Year Concludes - Chris Matthew Sciabarra, p. 247
Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand, pp. 249-91
Stephen R. C. Hicks
Philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand are often identified as strong critics of altruism and arch advocates of egoism. In this essay, Stephen Hicks argues that Nietzsche and Rand have much in common in their critiques of altruism but almost nothing in common in their views on egoism.
Egoism in Nietzsche and
A Somewhat Different Approach, pp. 293-312
If we examine Randâ€™s relation to Nietzsche in terms of the number of issues on which the late Rand agreed with him, the connection between them looks extremely weak. On the other hand, if we look at the relation in terms of Randâ€™s philosophical development, the connection is much more profound. Nietzsche is where Rand began as a thinker, and though she traveled far from this source, her thinking always bore important traces of her beginnings.
Ronald E. Merrill and the Discovery of Ayn Randâ€™s Nietzschean Period, pp. 313-28
In scientific and technological journals, it is customary to include in the first special issue on a mature invention or discovery a traditionally informal, first-person memoir of how the invention or discovery came about. Because Ronald E. Merrill died of myeloma in 1998, Reed has written an inevitably second-hand account of his discovery of Nietzscheâ€™s influence on the young Ayn Rand, and of the subsequent intellectual history of this discovery.
Nietzsche, Rand, and the Ethics of the Great Task, pp. 329-42
This essay traces a trajectory of ethical thought from Epicurus through Friedrich Nietzsche to Ayn Rand. Nietzsche originally celebrated Epicureanism as a form of refined heroism but subsequently repudiated Epicurus for being overly concerned with mere happiness. Out of Nietzscheâ€™s turn away from Epicurus came a focus on the nobility of creative work, which provided a springboard for Randâ€™s ethics of productivity and achievement.
Will the Real Apollo
Please Stand Up?
Rand, Nietzsche, and the Reason-Emotion Dichotomy, pp. 343-69
Roger E. Bissell
The author probes the "Tower of Babel" effect surrounding Western civilizationâ€™s long-standing fascination with the Greek god Apollo. He clarifies the reason-emotion dichotomy and shows the Classical-Romantic opposition of Apollo and Dionysus, as adopted by Ayn Rand and (supposedly) Friedrich Nietzsche, to be an inaccurate way to characterize either Apollo (god of reason) or Dionysus (god of emotion). Temperament theorist David Keirseyâ€™s linkage of Apollo with emotion is found similarly wanting, and an argument based on insights of personality type theorist Janet Germane is offered that Apollo instead is most fundamentally the god of intuition.
Embracing Power Roles
Rand's Nietzschean Heroes and Villains, pp. 371-98
Because of Ayn Randâ€™s problematic moral labels on her characters, Gail Wynand, not Howard Roark, should be her true Nietzschean hero. Wynand meets the criteria of both the Nietzschean Superman and Randâ€™s Objectivism. Roarkâ€™s false integrity taints his greatness and improperly vulgarizes him as a Nietzschean Superman. Rand problematically wants her heroes to accept the greatness of the Ãœbermensch, but reject his natural existence and will to power. Dominique Francon should be her true Nietzschean villain, because, unlike Ellsworth Toohey, she enjoys the painful destruction of herself and others.
VOL. 10, NO. 2: CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
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