Ayn Rand

The Russian Radical

Chris Matthew Sciabarra

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780271061214
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Philosophy

Author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (1905–1982) is one of the most widely read philosophers of the twentieth century. Yet, despite the sale of over thirty million copies of her works, there have been few serious scholarly examinations of her thought. Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical provides a comprehensive analysis of the intellectual roots and philosophy of this controversial thinker.

It has been nearly twenty years since the original publication of Chris Sciabarra's Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. Those years have witnessed an explosive increase in Rand sightings across the social landscape: in books on philosophy, politics, and culture; in film and literature; and in contemporary American politics, from the rise of the Tea Party to recent presidential campaigns. During this time Sciabarra continued to work toward the reclamation of the dialectical method in the service of a radical libertarian politics, culminating in his book Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism (Penn State, 2000).

In this new edition of Ayn Rand, Chris Sciabarra adds two chapters that present in-depth analysis of the most complete transcripts to date documenting Rand's education at Petrograd State University. A new preface places the book in the context of Sciabarra's own research and the recent expansion of interest in Rand's philosophy. Finally, this edition includes a postscript that answers a recent critic of Sciabarra's historical work on Rand. Shoshana Milgram, Rand's biographer, has tried to cast doubt on Rand's own recollections of having studied with the famous Russian philosopher N. O. Lossky. Sciabarra shows that Milgram's analysis fails to cast doubt on Rand's recollections—or on Sciabarra's historical thesis.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Notes to Preface to the Second Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Notes to Introduction
• Part One: The Process of Becoming
• Chapter 1: Synthesis in Russian Culture
• Notes to Chapter 1
• Chapter 2: Lossky, the Teacher
• Notes to Chapter 2
• Chapter 3: Educating Alissa
• Notes to Chapter 3
• Chapter 4: The Maturation of Ayn Rand
• Notes to Chapter 4
• Part Two: The Revolt Against Dualism
• Chapter 5: Being
• Notes to Chapter 5
• Chapter 6: Knowing
• Notes to Chapter 6
• Chapter 7: Reason and Emotion
• Notes to Chapter 7
• Chapter 8: Art, Philosophy, and Efficacy
• Notes to Chapter 8
• Chapter 9: Ethics and Human Survival
• Notes to Chapter 9
• Chapter 10: A Libertarian Politics
• Notes to Chapter 10
• Part Three: The Radical Rand
• Chapter 11: Relations of Power
• Notes to Chapter 11
• Chapter 12: The Predatory State
• Notes to Chapter 12
• Chapter 13: History and Resolution
• Notes to Chapter 13
• Epilogue
• Notes to Epilogue
• Appendix I: The Rand Transcript (1999)
• Notes to Appendix I
• Appendix II: The Rand Transcript, Revisited (2005)
• Notes to Appendix II
• Appendix III: A Challenge to Russian Radical—and Ayn Rand (2013)
• Notes to Appendix III
• Notes
• References
• Index
• COVER Back