1. John N Veronica To the point of whether or not Rand's thought
is wholly incompatible with our unitive Christian norms or
might be cherry-picked and prudentially applied?
If the late Cardinal Bernardin will pardon this particular
(mis)application of his metaphor, Rand's approach to reality
is a seamless interpretive garment by her own account and she,
herself, had little use for those (libertarians and
religionists) who'd rend this philosophical tunic rather than
casting their lot for her entire ideological vesture.
Normally, in appropriately nonfoundational approaches, one
COULD be selective and choose those autonomous methods that
worked, but Ayn Rand erroneously and somewhat
idiosyncratically (few academic philosophers take her
seriously) approached science, sociology, economics, politics,
culture and religion as if they were all methodologically-
conflated (as do many religious and Enlightenment-
fundamentalists). Rand's integral philosophy thus
algorithmically spewed out answers to questions regarding all
human values from, what were to her, self-evident, a priori
axioms (hence, in reality, a very naive realism and seriously
flawed foundationalism). Her objectivism entailed a
metaphysic, an epistemology, an ethics, a socioeconomic
political approach and a religion (faithless), all
inextricably intertwined.
Ergo, religiously speaking, for the Christian, it has to be a
total non-starter.
16 minutes ago · Like
John N Veronica Politically speaking, Ayn Rand's approach need
not be dismissed on religious grounds. Christian or otherwise,
the primary reason her thought should not influence our
political strategies is because her anthropology is
academically bankrupt and should not be taken seriously when
formulating either moral and practical norms or political
strategies.
I am not saying that capitalism (suitably regulated) is a non-
starter, but its non-coercive norms can be much more
reasonably argued from enlightened (juris)prudential reasoning
without making religious appeals (to the Bible) or ideological
appeals (to Ayn Rand's objectivism). Even then, such norms
provide only default strategic biases and not absolute moral
values, the general precepts of which have already been
codified and about which a pluralistic society has already
reached some consensus (without which folks are merely
posturing or grandstanding and not effectively governing,
anyway).
14 minutes ago · Like
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