Ayn Rand Books

[The Magic Hoof]

I don't know of a better place to post this so sorry if it's the wrong section.

I don't own any books by Ayn Rand so I'm getting some soon. I know that she's written both fiction and non-fiction, but I'd rather start with a book that's non-fiction so I can get an idea of what her views are. What's a good book to start with?

[Kludge]

The Ayn Rand Lexicon, of course. It's available free online, too. http://aynrandlexicon.com/

(http://aynrandlexicon.com/)As it happens, though. Rand's views are most clear in Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, both of which are fiction. They're extremely long and (over-)loaded with dialogue which pretty clearly lay out her ideas. My personal favorites are Anthem and We The Living, but they do not pound her ideas into your head as her later works.

I found her non-fiction (though I only read three) to be fairly specific and more difficult to understand her overall ideas. An exception to that being "The Virtue of Selfishness."

[Dreamofunity]

Man's Rights (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=arc_ayn_rand_man_rights) and The Nature of Government (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=arc_ayn_rand_the_nature_of_gov ernment) are pretty good places to start for an introduction into her political philosophy.

I'm like you, I'd much rather prefer non-fiction to a 1000+ page novel, and I think you can get her overall premise and ideas with those two articles.

[emazur]

Try: Philosophy - Who Needs It
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Needs-Rand-Library-Vol/dp/0451138937

[Xenophage]

It really depends on what area of philosophy you're interested in. "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" will start you out in basic logic, the definition of reality, how do we know what is real or not, etc. If you are interested in Objectivism and wish to comprehend it clearly, I highly recommend you start with that book, but unless you're really fascinated by philosophy and "thinking about thinking" it might be a bit boring.

The most important things to take away from the book are:
1 - Rand believes in an objective reality that exists independently of your thoughts, feelings or perceptions.
2 - She advocates logic as the only means by which one can know what is true and untrue. There are no contradictions.
3 - Human beings are capable of knowing reality.

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Objectivist_Epistemology

If you're interested more in politics, read "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal." That book lays forth Objectivist political theory.

If you're interested in ethics, read "The Virtue of Selfishness." If you're interested in art, read "The Romantic Manifesto."

I recommend going in order: Epistemology first, then ethics, then politics, then art. Each of those fields builds on the conclusions of the previous one. If you really want to understand politics (any politics!) then you need to understand ethics first.

[sevin]

Read "For the New Intellectual." It contains all the famous speeches from characters in her novels but reads like a nonfiction book.

[thehungarian]

I find her non-fiction books to be incredibly boring and trite. In my opinion, don't waste your time with her Objectivist Epistemology books and the like.

Read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and you will have zero doubt as to what she believes. Both are terrific books as well.

[osan]

I don't know of a better place to post this so sorry if it's the wrong section.

I don't own any books by Ayn Rand so I'm getting some soon. I know that she's written both fiction and non-fiction, but I'd rather start with a book that's non-fiction so I can get an idea of what her views are. What's a good book to start with?

The Virtue Of Selfishness. A series of essays, not all by Rand, but well representative of her points of view.

You should be aware that the fundamental notions set forth by Rand are eminently sound, but her reasoning is quite weak in places. For example, the presupposition that people are mainly rational in their approaches to their decision making, which is glaringly false. You have to take her conclusions and find soundly reasoned arguments to support them. They are out there. :)

[Xenophage]

The Virtue Of Selfishness. A series of essays, not all by Rand, but well representative of her points of view.

You should be aware that the fundamental notions set forth by Rand are eminently sound, but her reasoning is quite weak in places. For example, the presupposition that people are mainly rational in their approaches to their decision making, which is glaringly false. You have to take her conclusions and find soundly reasoned arguments to support them. They are out there. :)

Sorry, Rand never made any such presupposition. If anything, she presupposed the opposite. She did think that people *ought* to be rational, and she wrote of the ethical consequences of rationality, and of irrationality.

Rand is weak on some things, but I don't think you've identified them. Her weakest arguments generally centered around aesthetics and sex.

[Xenophage]

I find her non-fiction books to be incredibly boring and trite. In my opinion, don't waste your time with her Objectivist Epistemology books and the like.

Read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and you will have zero doubt as to what she believes. Both are terrific books as well.

I agree with the second part of what you said, and her non-fiction is usually pretty boring! I wouldn't call it trite. But, the OP did ask for non-fiction...

[low preference guy]

Start with the fictional stuff

[matt0611]

I've heard good things about "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" but I've never read it.

[Sola_Fide]

http://withchrist.org/images/withoutaprayer.jpg
Without a Prayer: Ayn Rand and the Close of Her System




"John Robbins is as stalwart a defender of a free society as I have known. His love of freedom--religious, political, and economic--motivated him to write Without a Prayer, a brilliantly insightful analysis of Ayn Rand's influential philosophy. Without a Prayer deserves to be read by everyone who loves freedom--everyone who wants to advocate freedom with arguments that cannot be refuted. Robbins furnishes the indispensable ideas--the intellectual ammunition required to defend freedom successfully."

Ron Paul (R-TX)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.

[libertybrewcity]

My favorite was Atlas Shrugged, but We the Living was an excellent book as well. I would read them both again.

[The Magic Hoof]

Actually... While the political stuff is something I'll look into for sure, I'm thinking I might go with something that's more about psychology. Is the book Introduction To Objectivism... the book I should get then? I'm guessing this is a book that explains her take on people's delusion and so on, so more of the psychology stuff. If that's the case, then I think that will definitely be the one I get first.

Don't worry, Atlas Shrugged and others are on my to-buy list, I just want to tackle more of the 'people' type stuff first - stuff about logic and so on.

[Rael]

I like the Ayn Rand comic book:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N8M9N7%2BqL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

[No Free Beer]

Atlas Shrugged will sum it all up for you the best

[osan]

Sorry, Rand never made any such presupposition. If anything, she presupposed the opposite. She did think that people *ought* to be rational, and she wrote of the ethical consequences of rationality, and of irrationality.

Rand is weak on some things, but I don't think you've identified them. Her weakest arguments generally centered around aesthetics and sex.

Actually that message does come through, albeit inconsistently and through implication. It is, nevertheless, reasonable to draw such an inference from some of her writings. Whether this was a matter of an inconsistent position on the point or of her writing style I cannot say - though I am fully willing to accept the latter.

[Xenophage]

Actually that message does come through, albeit inconsistently and through implication. It is, nevertheless, reasonable to draw such an inference from some of her writings. Whether this was a matter of an inconsistent position on the point or of her writing style I cannot say - though I am fully willing to accept the latter.

The heroes in her novels were always rational, although most of them demonstrated some philosophical error that by the story's end they had to overcome (Gail Wynand seeking power over people, for instance, or Hank Rearden's futile attempt to live by other people's standards). Her primary protagonists, John Galt and Howard Roark, were 'perfect' archetypes - not meant to portray any real human being, but an attempt to demonstrate the principles of her philosophy by showing what an 'ideal' Objectivist might be like (perfectly rational and moral at all times). Remember that Ayn Rand called herself a Romantic Realist, which meant that in matters of art she liked to portray things not as they are, but as they could be and ought to be, according to her values.

Whether or not you agree with Ayn Rand on anything, I think that in order to appreciate or understand her fiction you need to understand her artistic style, and why she chose it. She chose it as a style that could communicate her philosophic ideas, and still be entertaining. The characters are often times one dimensional because they tend to be representative of a specific philosophic principle, and their characters are designed to showcase that particular idea clearly. It's appropriate to think of them as comic book characters, but I don't mean that in a sense that demeans her work (obviously, her novels and characterizations are huge levels of artistic merit and philosophic depth beyond any comic book I've ever read).

I honestly believe that's where a lot of people don't understand her fiction. They don't realize that Howard Roark and Elsworth Toohey are supposed to be archetypes, in complete opposition to each other (hero and villain). The style of her writing is really quite reminiscent of Victor Hugo.

[yoshimaroka]

Read "For the New Intellectual." It contains all the famous speeches from characters in her novels but reads like a nonfiction book.

Yep