Re:Andreessen Horowitz to give half their earnings to charity
by javert on Thursday April 26, 2012 @12:50PM
(#3894809)
her unacknowledged Nietzschean influence is quite strong
Can you point to one actual claim made by AR that is in common with Nietzche? I seriously doubt there is one.
Going away from actual claims to mere generalities, yes, AR and Nietzche were both "individualists" in a sense - but in a totally different one. Nietzche in a predatory way, AR in a "mutual trade for mutual benefit" way.
she does not deduce principles from reality, but from metaphysical first principles
She doesn't decduce, she induces, and she does not do it from metaphysical first principles at all. Her core metaphysics is axiomatic, but the rest of her philosophy is inducted from reality. Most of her philosophical essays are just summaries of the results of this process. There is no work that "competely induces" Objectivism. There are a couple of works by Leonard Peikoff that talk about the Objective process of doing this. Until recently, they were only recorded lectures, but "Understanding Objectivism" was just released as a book.
That there is really no nuance or context in her novels
A lot of people don't "get" the novels. Just a few days ago an Objectivist was telling me how mind-blowing Atlas Shrugged is, because there are about "12 layers" (quoting him) of meaning in any given chapter. You would be surprised. It does not appear to be this way on the surface.
Can you point to one actual claim made by AR that is in common with Nietzche? I seriously doubt there is one.
Going away from actual claims to mere generalities, yes, AR and Nietzche were both "individualists" in a sense - but in a totally different one. Nietzche in a predatory way, AR in a "mutual trade for mutual benefit" way.
she does not deduce principles from reality, but from metaphysical first principles
She doesn't decduce, she induces, and she does not do it from metaphysical first principles at all. Her core metaphysics is axiomatic, but the rest of her philosophy is inducted from reality. Most of her philosophical essays are just summaries of the results of this process. There is no work that "competely induces" Objectivism. There are a couple of works by Leonard Peikoff that talk about the Objective process of doing this. Until recently, they were only recorded lectures, but "Understanding Objectivism" was just released as a book.
That there is really no nuance or context in her novels
A lot of people don't "get" the novels. Just a few days ago an Objectivist was telling me how mind-blowing Atlas Shrugged is, because there are about "12 layers" (quoting him) of meaning in any given chapter. You would be surprised. It does not appear to be this way on the surface.