It is no surprise to me that I only gave one star to yet another Ayn Rand book. The mystery is why I keep subjecting myself to inferior literature and ideas. I am happy to report that I am done trying to make sense of the author's nonsensical world. But I am even happier that after reading this book, I now realize what is so off-putting about her writings. She thinks she can base her philosophy of objectivism in the object of rationality. However, humans are not rational animals. They can strive...

still reading this - kind of painful

Three stars because I cannot agree with much of what Rand argues. But also three stars because, as Leonard Peikoff explains in the epilogue, Ayn Rand worked hard to be understood, down to the root. I have to say, reading more Ayn Rand has helped me in conversation with capitalism apologists. When you understand the necessary conclusions of capitalism, you then realize that many people in the United States who claim it as their political philosophy, do not actually believe it very thoroughly. Whi...

I wanted to get a better sense of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, which i did but a number of essays were disconnected to modern era and didn’t seem as relevant. Her take on the Libertarian movement of the 1960s/1970s was quite interesting.

Everyone and his dog has read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. The themes in her fiction works are well developed (particularly in Atlas Shrugged) and by the time you lay these tomes down you will have a reasonable understanding of Objectivism; that is there is an objective reality and therefore the epistemology of our knowledge and philosophy should derive from that reality. Through such a thought process one can derive certain conclusions. The Voice of Reason elaborates on this process, ap...

The highlight of this collection is Leonard Peikoff's touching eulogy for Ayn Rand.

Read this long time ago. I remember enjoying it, although I don't remember too much. Unlike her shorter philosophy books such as the Virtue of Selfishness, this book has many references on a general overview of the Objectivist philosophy. I would have gotten more out of this book if I've read Atlas Shrugged and couple of her other well-known books beforehand.Still a good book. I also liked couple of Peikoff's essays and lecture.

Interesting presentation of ideas in the potential of man. Scary where this could lead us though…

It's a bit dated. She has some ideas that are still good, but some of the essays are difficult to handle 55 years after the initial publication.

Rand is as always clear cut and completely rational

61-81 if totally open forum is intellectual, feelings as hope and fears vs reason, statist is destroying as collective good, science and ethics give choices and actions, statists ant hill and eugenics and Sanger, right or wrong who decides, what is really ethics, worst crimes by children of well-to-do, fear of objective assessment and responsibility, do not choose to think to go along with thought of prof appeasers erosion of values and cynicism, hatred for reason is hatred for reason which subv...

This book is a collection of essay pertaining to Rand’s philosophy, her viewpoints of culture as her philosophy pertains to it and politics as they are objective or not. The book also contains a few essays from her cohort/admirer Leonard Peikoff as well as one by Peter Schwartz. It is Rand’s essays that stand out.First, Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism is applied in numerous situations that Rand was experiencing or reading about. With her usual up-front audacity, she makes her arguments as to why

I absolutely loved this book. In terms of studying Ayn Rand's philosophy, it is second to none. I still love her Virtue of Selfishness book, but this book goes deeper on a lot of different subjects. As I read this book, I found myself struck with a deep admiration for her prolific abilities to think and to write. Profound concepts came to her with apparent ease. She was able to summarize complex ideas into simple, easy to read and understand, words. This book includes an introductory essay about...

Ayn Rand points out one method that Aristotle's enemies have used to invalidate him: the straw man. That is, Aristotle's enemies have misrepresented his ideas, have found flaws in their misrepresentation, and then blamed Aristotle for the errors that they themselves have introduced. Ayn Rand has a good understanding of this kind of attack, having been subjected to it so much herself! Ayn Rand criticizes altruism. Her critics have said that she was attacking a straw man, a masochistic extreme of

This collection of essays by Ayn Rand, (author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead”) focuses much more on the application of her philosophy of Objectivism to American culture and politics, rather than the identification of the branches of Objectivism. As such, there are many lessons to be learned from seeing Rand apply the philosophy to concrete, particular instances of American culture that nearly everyone can remember and relate to, regardless of age.Of particular interest are: her discu...

I think it's like a Cliff's Notes to Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. The playbook for objectivism in three parts Philosophy, Culture, and Politics. The Politics part was the most relevant for me as it doubled up as an economics of Objectivism lesson. The Philosophy part seemed more like a college professor lending his opinions to the class. I felt as if I would fail if I voiced disagreement. Culture was interesting; the best part for me on the complacency of the American public school syste...

lots of great essays here on all sorts of topics. great filling in the gaps for the ayn rand worldview. aside from an excellent and in depth critique of the medical profesion not much that isnt repeated elsewhere but its her voice, her philosophy, HER. for a fan it is therefore essential.have to take off half a star for the hysterical essay by peter Schwartz. far too jumbled to even be called a floating abstraction, it is a hodgepodge of outright hostility, straw men, utilitarian reasoning, pani...

This was a very good collection of essays by Ayn Rand, with a few thrown in from Leonard Peikoff, and one by Peter Schwartz. I'm not positive, as I haven't checked, but I believe that a few of the writings compiled in this book are also in some of Rand's other non-fiction, e.g. "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal", "The Virtue of Selfishness", and "Philosophy: Who Needs It". But even though this is the case, the rest of the previously unknown, un-compiled essays are well worth the price of this book....

Excellent work, except when she approaches Christianity. She chooses the weakest strawman concretization of it that she could find, Papal Roman Catholicism, which embodies the very essence of the "second-hander" that every ounce of her literary effort is calculated to battle. This is the weak spot in her "closed system".It is an example of the contradiction inherent to any mixed economy.Other than when she is emoting against the God Who upholds her by the Word of His power, she does some superb

I love Ayn Rand and I thoroughly enjoyed the perspectives in this book (whether or not I happened to agree with them) but it can be a pretty exhausting read. For anyone who has read Rand's fiction, the book is helpful if you've ever gone, "So I wonder what she thought about (insert topic here)."However,for those who enjoy Rand's fiction and are satisfied with the themes presented there, this book won't do much for you.

If you like "pure" capitalism then you'll like Ayn Rand. This book is essentially a description of Rand's capitalistic philosophy and moral framework over a collection of essays and is worth the read even if you don't agree with her views. This book is a little repetitious which leads me to believe that if you've read Rand's other non-fiction then this is probably more of the same.

Ayn Rand's best twenty-six pieces form of collection speeches, and articles. There are some short comments for her readers in the Los Angles Times, as well as her own magazines and some lectures to various audiences. These articles spans from 1961 to 1981, and also included some of her essays written after Ayn Rand's death in 1982.

As much as her big novels introduced objectivism, I expect essays such as these were the reason the philosophy continued to get support. In this collection, she applies her theories to the events of the 1960's. Much of it was convincing to me, even if I don't wholeheartedly agree with all of her premises. Many of her observations at that time are similarly relevant to events today.

I can't agree with everything Ayn Rand wrote but I do agree with most of her views on objectivism, with her views about education, her dislike of cultural relativism, and her views on individual rights (though not about her views on altruism). Ayn Rand argued for the need to be objective in all situations and I can't argue against that.

I love a lot of Ayn's philosophy, but reading this kind of made me wonder how much of a paragon of human achievement the guy that wrote this thought she was. Her comments on why a woman shouldn't be president were particularly amusing. *cough* Hilary sucks! *cough*

This was my first exposure to Rand, and I found it to be a very accessible school of thought. I'm interested in exploring other books by Rand, mainly Atlas Shrugged, to better understand her Objectivist philosophy.

Very good compilations of Ayn Rand's thought on multiple topics, quite redundant as I've already several of her non-fiction books. Some essay was much shorter and less well-developed than expected. Some carries personal fallacy of logic, making it less persuasive.

Not my favorite Rand work. Some of the essays were very interesting, but a few were frankly excruciating to read through. The second to last essay presents an interesting and fairly cogent attack on libertarianism.

A great collection of articles tackling subjects including politics, education, environmentalism, socialism, collectivism, and others, all from the Objectivist perspective.

Nice collection of essays from a brilliant thinker/writer.