John Crane:

> I like [Ayn Rand's] philosophy and generally agree
> with it, but she's leaving some vital elements out
> of the mix, or perhaps I am missing something.

Well, I would guess you probably have not read too
much of her works just yet. :) One of her more
well known non-fiction works is "The Virtue of
Selfishness" which actually is a good book to read
if one can get past the title.

The following quote is from www.aynrand.org. I remember
reading it in one of her works, but don't recollect
which one at the moment:

"My philosohpy, in essence, is the concept
of man as a heroic being, with his own
happiness as the moral purpose of his life,
with productive achievement as his noblest
activity, and reason as his only absolute."
- Ayn Rand

She wrote several novels. Two of them (The Fountainhead
and Atlas Shrugged) sell large numbers of copies every
year and have done so for well over a quarter of a century
although almost completely unadvertised - selling
mostly I would guess by "word of mouth."). Mainstream
critics and philosophers have pretty much unanimously
ridiculed her and her works. However as novels they
are very, very good if you like large "romantic"
novels in the style of Victor Hugo (one of her heroes).
It also helps to be young, rational, and not much
into any religious sort of views. :)

She wrote a small novelette called "Anthem" which
I especially recommend. It is a very short read
and quite inspiring in several respects.

You also have to understand that she was a rabid
atheist and would consider our views and opinions as
the most ludicrous mysticism imaginable. :) She
had absolutely no patience with, or acceptance of
any religious or non-rational views whatsoever
and considered people who held them as suffering
from self-induced mental illness.

In retrospect, and having had the opportunity to
study her views, and then to discover other views,
including those of J.J. Dewey, I see her role
in history (and it is a very significant role in
the "battle of ideas" in my opinion) was to
teach attitudes that would allow many to make the
first step in removing the mark of the beast from
their forehead.

For many it is necessary to reject all authority,
and especially the authority of worldy and
beastly authorities, before they can find the only
one justifiable authority. While Ayn Rand's
work doesn't help much with the last point, it
has been very instrumentable (in my opinion)
in helping many people learn to question beastly
authorities - an important first step.

The resemblance of some of Ayn Rand's philosophy
to that of J.J. Dewey's is primarily in some basic
points of metaphysics, and in reality those points
are really points made by Aristotle, and which
she elaborated on. Other than that they bear
little resemblance. :)

best regards,

lk
www.theNewAgeSite.com