Posted by Steven Philpot on October 09, 1998 at 00:35:43:
In Reply to: Ayn Rand posted by Carlos on September 29, 1998 at 12:44:19:
Were Dr Peck to examine the environment in which dagny had grown up ( the pretension of social traditions she endured) it would seem that rugged individualism did not sit easily in this fictive childhood. Dr Peck should note the freedom and happiness of two children in 'Galt's Gulch' and their upbringing and ask himself again, are children really so irrelevant in Ayn Rand's system? Dr Peck certainly hasn't debunked it. Further, Rand's philosophy applies not to an 'ethics of the rare exception' but through force of her finite time on earth, attempted to present in her philosophy broad terms, as man qua man. This is hardly a flaw. In fact, it's a great good for it makes Rand's philosophy all the more coherent.