User:RL0919/Sources say Ayn Rand was a philosopher

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This user essay documents the extensive sources that refer to Ayn Rand as a "philosopher", because the use of this term to refer to Rand is challenged with some frequency. Note that in some cases the same source appears more than once because it uses a different term somewhere in the text. The listed sources are mostly books from academic presses or journal articles, although a few are books from commercial presses. There are no popular magazine or news articles listed.

Common appellations[edit]

philosopher (unmodified)[edit]

  1. "... this book is devoted to an assessment of Ayn Rand the philosopher. All the contributors to this volume agree that she is a philosopher and not a mere popularizer. Moreover, all agree that many of her insights on philosophy and her own philosophic ideas deserve critical attention by professional philosophers, whatever the final merit of those inquiries and theories. It is appropriate, therefore, that all our contributors are themselves professional philosophers." -- Den Uyl, Douglas; Rasmussen, Douglas, eds. (1984). The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. x. ISBN 0-252-01033-7. OCLC 9392804. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  2. "Ayn Rand is one of the most widely read philosophers of the twentieth century." -- Sciabarra, Chris Matthew (1995). Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-271-01440-7. OCLC 31133644.
  3. Chandran Kukathas, "Rand, Ayn (1905–82)" in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1998), p. 55: "Ayn Rand was a Russian-born US novelist and philosopher who exerted considerable influence in the conservative and libertarian intellectual movements in the post-war USA."
  4. Jennifer Burns, Goddess of the Market (2009), p. 192: "Slowly public perception of Rand began to shift, establishing her as a philosopher, not just a novelist."
  5. Neera K. Badhwar & Roderick Long, "Ayn Rand" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010): "Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a philosopher and a novelist who outlined a comprehensive philosophy, including an epistemology and a theory of art, in her novels and essays."
  6. "[Atlas Shrugged] was her last novel, her last work of fiction; for by 1958 she had become a philosopher." -- Baker, James T. (1987). Ayn Rand. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. p. 17. ISBN 0-8057-7497-1. OCLC 14933003.
  7. Tibor R. Machan, Ayn Rand (2000), p. 4
  8. Mimi Reisel Gladstein, The New Ayn Rand Companion (1999), p. 25: "Although Ayn Rand became known as a philosopher whose ideas influenced people as diverse as politicians and tennis superstars, she was initially a writer of fiction."
  9. Judith A. Boss, Ethics for Life: An Interdisciplinary and Multicultural Introduction, p.245: "Ayn Rand (1905-82), Russian-born American novelist, screenwriter, and philosopher."
  10. Gary Hayden, You Kant Make It Up!: Strange Ideas from History's Great Philosophers, p. 25: "... the Russian-American novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-82) saw things differently. She claimed that selfishness is a virtue and altruism an 'evil'."
  11. John Blundell, Ladies for Liberty, p. 161. Headlines the chapter on Rand, "Writer and Philosopher".
  12. Evans, Conservative Radicalism: A Sociology of Conservative Party Youth Structures and Libertarianism, 1970-1992, p. 55
  13. Farber and Bailey, The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s, p. 148. "Philosopher Ayn Rand, for example, ..." (passage goes on to discuss her view of 1960s counterculture)
  14. "Before her death in 1982 Rand was one of the most widely read philosophers and novelists of the twentieth century." -- Bishop, Lloyd (2001). In Defense of Altruism: Inadequacies of Ayn Rand's Ethics and Psychological Egoism. New Orleans: University Press of the South. p. iii. ISBN 1-889431-79-6.
  15. "The Russian-born novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand ..." -- Doherty, Brian (2007). Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 1-58648-350-1. OCLC 76141517.

novelist-philosopher[edit]

  1. "...novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-82) defended and celebrated self-interest and capitalism in a deeper philosophic way." -- Bradley Jr., Robert L. (2009). Capitalism at Work: Business, Government, and Energy. Salem, Massachusetts: M&M Scrivener Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-9764041-7-0. OCLC 225872471.
  2. Machan, Classical Individualism: The Supreme Importance of Each Human Being, p. xi
  3. Machan, Ayn Rand, p. 9
  4. Taylor, Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Rediscovered, p. 23
  5. Interview with James V. McConnell (1961) in Podritske, Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed, p. 187
  6. Sterba, "Social Justice" in Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy, edited by Charles K. Wilber, p. 189
  7. Sterba, From Rationality to Equality, p. 94
  8. Mayhew, "Preface" in Essays on Ayn Rand's We the Living, edited by Robert Mayhew, p. x
  9. Shermer, The Believing Brain: From Spiritual Faiths to Political Convictions, p. 31
  10. Palmer, "The Literature of Liberty" in The Libertarian Reader, edited by David Boaz, p. 418
  11. Seddon, Ayn Rand, Objectivists, and the History of Philosophy, p. 80
  12. Greiner and Kinni, Ayn Rand and Business, p. 73
  13. Britting, Ayn Rand, p. 107

philosopher-novelist[edit]

  1. "...the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982) ... proposed a uniquely objective esthetic theory ..." -- Torres, Louis; Kamhi, Michelle Marder (2000). What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand. Chicago: Open Court Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 0-8126-9372-8. OCLC 43787446. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  2. "This book was first conceived as a brief article defending altruism against the vitriolic attacks of philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand." -- Bishop, Lloyd (2001). In Defense of Altruism: Inadequacies of Ayn Rand's Ethics and Psychological Egoism. New Orleans: University Press of the South. p. iii. ISBN 1-889431-79-6.
  3. "A more recent view, as voiced by philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand, is ..." -- Barry, Vincent E. (1978). Personal and Social Ethics: Moral Problems with Integrated Theory. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing. p. 126. ISBN 0-534-00533-0. OCLC 3088667.

popular philosopher[edit]

  1. Gladstein, Atlas Shrugged: Manifesto of the Mind (2000), p. 28 - says that novel "ended her career as a novelist and launched Rand as a popular philosopher".
  2. Younkins, Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion (2007), p. 1
  3. Sheehy 2004, pp. 230–231 - "The Challenge of Objectivist Ethics", in the International Journal of Applied Philosophy; Sheehy proclaims that "Rand’s influence as a novelist and popular philosopher can hardly be overstated. She is without doubt, America’s most popular, popular philosopher."
  4. The Encyclopedia of Ethics (published by Taylor & Francis and edited by Lawrence C. Becker) calls her a "novelist and philosopher" in the first sentence of its entry for her, then later says "many intellectuals continued to dismiss her as a reactionary popular philosopher".
  5. The entry for her in the long-running American Writers reference series says, "No longer merely a best-selling novelist, Rand quickly became a popular philosopher."
  6. Above the Bottom Line: An Introduction to Business Ethics (written by Robert C. Solomon and Clancy Martin, published by Wadsworth Publishing Company) refers to her as "The popular philosopher of 'the virtue of selfishness'".
  7. Solomon again: Entertaining ideas: Popular Philosophical Essays, 1970-1990 calls her "popular philosopher of selfishness" on p. 157.
  8. The 2008 article "Just Deserts: Ayn Rand and the Christian Right" (written by Cynthia Burack and published in Journal of Religion and Popular Culture), says "Rand is renowned as a best-selling author, a popular philosopher, and a guru who created her own system of thought and her own cult of personality."
  9. Another from Burack (co-authored): an introduction to a special issue of New Political Science which calls her "novelist and popular philosopher". Online and ungated here.

non-academic philosopher[edit]

  1. Mack, Eric (2011). "Libertarianism". In Klosko, George (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 673–687. ISBN 978-0-19-923880-4., page 682
  2. Merrill, John C. (2009). "Ayn Rand: Rational Self-Interest". In Christians, Clifford G.; Merrill, John C. (eds.). Ethical Communication: Moral Stances in Human Dialogue. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. pp. 86–92. ISBN 978-0-8262-7184-6.; page 86: "Arguably the modern thinker who best represents the egoistic stance in ethics has been the popular writer Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Russian immigrant turned novelist and nonacademic philosopher."
  3. Sciabarra, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical (1995), p. 10: "Like most of Russia's great literary figures, she was an artist, social critic, and nonacademic philosopher who constructed a broad synthesis in her battle against the traditional antinomies in Western thought ..."

public philosopher[edit]

  1. James Baker, Ayn Rand (1987), p. 65
  2. Anne Heller, Ayn Rand and the World She Made (2009), p. 291. Titles a chapter "The Public Philosopher".
  3. Mimi Reisel Gladstein, Ayn Rand (Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series) (2009), p. 97. Referring to the Nathaniel Branden Lectures, she says, "This was the launching of Ayn Rand as a public philosopher; it was the catalyst for a movement."
  4. Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical (1995) pp. 97, 112. "Rand slowly moved from best-selling novelist to public philosopher." (p. 97) "'The Only Path to Tomorrow' provides a first peek at Rand as a public philosopher." (p. 112)
  5. Mimi Reisel Gladstein, Atlas Shrugged: Manifesto of the Mind (2000), pp. 86, 114. "[For the New Intellectual] marked her introduction as a public philosopher." (p. 86) "It was the beginning of her time as the leader of an intellectual movement and as a public philosopher." (p. 114)
  6. Younkins, Philosophers of Capitalism: Menger, Mises, Rand, and Beyond, p. 189. "Rand was very much a public philosopher, appearing before large crowds at [various colleges listed]."
  7. Jackson, Chicago Conservatism: Ideas on the Path to Power, p. 87
  8. Draper, World Literature Criticism (1500 to the Present) Volume 5: (Pope-Stevenson), p. 2876

libertarian philosopher[edit]

  1. Boldeman, The Cult of the Market: Economic Fundamentalism and Its Discontents, p. 19
  2. Carrier, The Making of the Slave Class, p. 227
  3. Murphey, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World" (review) in The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies, Winter 2010

Other phrasings[edit]

Various others that I ran across while searching:

  • "neglected philosopher" - McGrath, A Scientific Theology: Theory, p. 241
  • "capitalist philosopher" - Bradley, Capitalism at Work, p. 59
  • "self-styled philosopher" - The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English, edited by Jenny Stringer, p. 559
  • "trained philosopher" - Teichman and Evans, Philosophy: A Beginners Guide, p. 261
  • "woman philosopher" - Graham, Eight Theories of Ethics, p. 21
  • "worst philosopher in the history of Western Civilization" - quoted in Smith, Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies
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