Thoughts triggered by the philosophy of Ayn Rand and Wittgenstein
Ayn Rand’s ideas are highly controversial, and even whether she can be considered a philosopher is also a highly controversial subject. The author does not hold particularly strong views on the matter. However, even if the arguments of her critics are valid, I believe that Rand’s ideas are still worthy of careful reflection.
Author: GUDORDI | 2024-06-15
Some said that philosophy can be studied, others that it can only be lived.
── Tim Moore
In my article “Has Capitalism Replaced Plunder and Violence with Production and Trade?”, the author has discussed the nature of capitalism and mentioned that Ayn Rand proposed a perspective that differs significantly from mainstream views. This perspective, regarded by some as a school of philosophy, is known as Objectivism.
Is Ayn Rand a Philosopher? Wittgenstein Was an Outsider Too!
controversial. Rand consistently described herself as a philosopher, yet many academics have viewed her primarily as a novelist. Her ideas have also been criticized as overly radical, excessively focused on individual rights, and insufficiently attentive to the importance of collective interests.
The author does not hold particularly strong views on Rand’s philosophy. However, even if her critics are correct, I believe her ideas are still worthy of careful reflection for four main reasons.
First, there is no absolute standard for defining who qualifies as a philosopher. The quotation from Tim Moore cited at the beginning of this article reflects the openness that should characterize the world of philosophy. The Latin word philosophia literally means “love of wisdom.” It does not imply that philosophy must be acquired through formal academic study, nor does it prescribe any particular method of learning. Likewise, it does not suggest that only those from prestigious universities or formal academic backgrounds are entitled to be called philosophers.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, a son of the Austrian steel magnate, is widely recognized as one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, and by some accounts, one of the most influential philosophers in history. Strictly speaking, however, Wittgenstein did not possess a formal academic qualification in philosophy. His engagement with philosophy arose purely from personal interest, and he paid little attention to the historical development of Western philosophy. Like a brilliant comet, he passed through a philosophical tradition that had been evolving for more than two thousand years.
He was uninterested in many traditional philosophical questions and often regarded them as unimportant. Yet few would deny that, by piecing together the writings he left behind and reflecting on the way he lived his life, later generations have discovered profoundly insightful ways of thinking on many important subject matters of philosophy. Wittgenstein challenged many established assumptions of Western philosophy, enabling us to view things from entirely new perspectives and, in a sense, opening up a new intellectual landscape.
How Can One Become a Philosopher Without First Becoming a Human Being?
For many philosophers, philosophy is an interest, a talent, a passion, or a gift. For Wittgenstein, however, philosophy was something akin to life itself. To ask him to stop engaging in philosophical inquiry would have been like asking him to stop breathing.
Wittgenstein also had a highly unusual conception of what it meant to be a philosopher. He once said that a philosopher must be like a person walking a tightrope stretched over a vast abyss—completely focused, wholly undistracted, and free from any concern other than the pursuit of truth, with a devotion approaching religious faith. Given such demanding standards, it is hardly surprising that, in his view, very few people in history really deserved the name of “philosopher.” Indeed, many renowned philosophical masters failed to meet his criteria.
Yet despite this, he did not encourage his students to become philosophers. He advised one of his most valued students to “find a respectable job,” and remarked that “unless you cannot live without being a philosopher, there is no point in becoming one.”
Another thought-provoking remark Wittgenstein made was to his mentor and friend Bertrand Russell: “If I cannot first become a human being, how can I become a philosopher?” He also once commented on a student, saying, “If he does not understand philosophy, how can he understand poetry?”
Clearly, for Wittgenstein, philosophy, literature, and human life were connected in a subtle and profound way.
The Unity of Literature and Philosophy: A Russian Tradition
Wittgenstein greatly admired Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov. He believed that people like the priest depicted in the novel might truly exist—individuals who, after hearing the confessions of countless people and observing innumerable lives, possess an extraordinary insight into human nature and the affairs of the world.
This point is important because Rand often noted that there is a long tradition of expressing philosophical ideas through literature. She cited figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as examples. Rand further emphasized that the blending of literature and philosophy is a distinctive tradition within Russian thought, exemplified by writers such as Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy.
This is the second reason why the author believes Rand’s ideas are worthy of careful consideration.
The third reason is that Rand’s ideas appear to have had a significant influence on Alan Greenspan and may provide an important key to understanding this remarkable figure, whose impact on the global monetary and financial system has been profound.
The fourth reason is that Ayn Rand can be viewed as one branch of the broader intellectual and artistic tradition through which Russian thinkers and artists have reflected on the development of human society over the past two centuries. The author will return to this subject in the future article.