December 4, 2017

This is the first part of a joint webinar series between Students for Liberty (SFL) and the Atlas Society, titled "Truth and Toleration" and "An Introduction to Objectivism." The guest is David Kelley, who received his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University and later taught philosophy at Vassar College and Brandeis University. In 1990 he founded the Atlas Society, a leading institute for research and education on the philosophy of Ayn Rand. He is the author of many books and articles on philosophy and politics, including The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in the Objectivist Movement, the subject of the discussion.

Ayn Rand's Background

Rand was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a Jewish family. Her father owned a modest pharmacy. She was 12 when the Bolsheviks took power in 1917. They expropriated the family business, and the family's living conditions became considerably harsher.

Kelley said Rand recognized even as a young teenager that communism was wrong not only politically and economically but morally, because it required the sacrifice of the individual. She concluded that the system was evil, not merely flawed.

Rand completed her education and then fled to the United States. She first went to Hollywood. She had been drawn to American films, especially the silent films of the period, while still in Russia. She worked in the film industry before turning to fiction. She became a best-selling novelist. Her two best-known works are The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957).

Kelley began reading her work in high school. By the time he entered college, he had read everything she had published to that point. He said he was struck by her moral perspective, her portrayal of rational individualism, the quality of her writing, and the force of her logic. He also said critics who call her a clumsy writer typically go on to misrepresent her position.

Kelley studied philosophy in college. He found that Objectivist philosophy held up as he learned about other schools of thought and took part in debates. Upon earning his degree, he came to know members of Rand's inner circle in New York City, where he was living at the time.

Founding the Atlas Society

In the late 1980s, Kelley left his academic teaching position and worked as a freelance writer. His output included a logic textbook, which remains in print, and magazine articles. He also gave many talks and wrote for Objectivist publications and addressed Objectivist groups.

During this period, tensions and conflicts emerged among the movement's intellectual leaders. Kelley said he observed a rigidity and an exclusionary attitude that he considered too common. He concluded that the movement needed a new direction. Together with a small number of colleagues who shared his view, he founded the Atlas Society in 1990.

Kelley also wrote a book explaining his position on these issues, Truth and Toleration. A later edition, published under the title The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand, followed.

Libertarianism and the Objectivist Movement

Kelley said the final break with some colleagues followed his decision to speak to a libertarian group. He had been denounced for doing so.

He noted that the question of why Objectivists would object to speaking with libertarians is reasonable. Rand strongly supported liberty, capitalism, and limited government, which are core libertarian positions. Kelley identified two reasons for the objections.

First, a philosophical foundation. Rand's ideas inspired many people to become interested in libertarianism in the 1960s and 1970s, and they remain an important gateway to the movement. However, Rand presented a complete philosophical system that includes ethics, a theory of human nature, and a view of reality. Many libertarians accepted her political conclusions without accepting the rest of the system. Rand and many Objectivists held that the defense of liberty requires a solid moral basis. Without one, they argued, the cause would be discredited.

Second, the cultural context. When libertarianism began organizing as a political movement in the 1960s and 1970s, it included a strong strain of subjectivism. Some advocates held that individuals must not violate others' rights but that anything concerning one's own life was permissible. Kelley described this as the aftermath of the counterculture of the 1960s.

Kelley cited Ed Crane, co-founder of the Cato Institute and a longtime leader in the movement. Crane recalled that at an early Libertarian Party conference, he encountered large numbers of libertarians for the first time and found a range of alternative lifestyles far beyond what he had expected. Objectivists rejected the relativism that this attitude reflected, because Rand held that morality is objective.

Kelley added a third difference. One wing of libertarianism was anarchist. Objectivists rejected anarchism. Kelley said Objectivists do not oppose government as such. They hold that government has a specific, limited role and that it is necessary.

By the late 1980s, Kelley said, the libertarian movement had matured. The Cato Institute was flourishing, other institutions were forming, and serious intellectual work, including work on philosophy and values, was underway. He said some former colleagues remained attached to the earlier outlook for a considerable time.

Kelley stated that the libertarian question turned out to be a secondary issue. Almost everyone in the Objectivist movement, regardless of orientation, engages with libertarian groups and organizations, including SFL.

Toleration as the Central Conflict

Kelley identified toleration as the underlying issue. It arose directly from his experience speaking to a libertarian group. He said he went there to argue that Objectivist ideas provide a solid defense of liberty. He was then accused of sanctioning evil, because the group was libertarian and not Objectivist.

Kelley said he knew many libertarians personally and rejected this judgment. He argued that toleration is the correct practice for a philosophy that advocates rationality and independence. In his view, one engages with people without condemning them until there is good reason to do so, even when one disagrees with them.

Open and Closed Objectivism

Kelley said the dispute over toleration is connected to a broader disagreement about whether Objectivism is an open or a closed system.

He offered an analogy. Atlas Shrugged is a copyrighted work of art. Rewriting its dialogue and publishing the revision would be wrong and, in fact, illegal. The novel is Rand's creation, and every word is hers. Objectivism, by contrast, is a body of knowledge about the world, which he described as a discovery. Kelley compared it to Darwin's theory of evolution, Einstein's theory of relativity, and Milton Friedman's monetary theory. He argued that knowledge grows through expansion, refinement, and correction where necessary.

In his view, a closed system would include only what Rand said or approved while she was alive. He said this approach is too restrictive. It means that no new Objectivist work could be legitimate, in the same way that no new work of Latin literature can be produced.

Kelley said the more orthodox members of the movement hold this position out of deep respect for Rand, which he shares. He described her as a brilliant philosopher. He quoted Isaac Newton's remark that if he had seen further, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Kelley also said Rand did not address certain issues. One is benevolence, meaning how individuals extend themselves to others. He argued that Objectivist ethics provides a strong basis for benevolence and that Rand's novels contain examples of it. He developed this argument in a second short book, Unrugged Individualism, published in 1996.

Reaction to The Contested Legacy

Kelley reported two responses to Truth and Toleration. Some former colleagues regarded him as an apostate. He said they used nearly religious language and attitudes, including shunning him and refusing to speak with him. He said this reaction persisted for a long time and is diminishing somewhat.

The second response was positive. People who had been inspired by Rand's works, often in the 1960s, when the movement was more active, responded favorably. Some had taken courses or become involved in the movement and then grown alienated from the attitudes of certain leading Objectivists. When Kelley founded the Atlas Society, individuals who had been inactive for 10 to 15 years joined its conferences and activities. Kelley described this as the first test of whether the alternative organization was viable.

Kelley said the basic philosophical disagreement that remains is the open-versus-closed question. He also identified stylistic differences. He said Atlas Society conferences feature material from leading experts and are conducted in a spirit of tolerance and benevolence. Participants are not criticized for asking unsophisticated or challenging questions. Kelley said that people who attend other conferences have told him those events feel less open to discussion. He characterized these differences as a matter of style rather than doctrine. He also acknowledged a personal conflict with some former colleagues, with whom he had once worked closely.

Key Ideas: Individual Value and Autonomy

Asked for one takeaway for students, Kelley said that anyone who wants to defend a free society effectively must understand why they hold their beliefs. He said students may not share Objectivist views on religion, atheism, or specific ethical questions. However, he argued, they must recognize the unique and irreplaceable value of each person to himself or herself. Individuals are ends in themselves. Kelley identified this as the basic reason for holding these views.

He said that living by this principle requires using one's rational faculties, which requires freedom. A person who is blocked from acting on his or her judgment, as long as no one's rights are violated, is still constrained. If government regulation or taxation takes resources to support others whom the person would not have chosen to support, that person becomes subject to coercion. He or she is used as a means to the ends of others. Kelley said Rand's work is valuable because it establishes this moral point.

Kelley cited Rand's characters as examples of autonomy. He pointed to Dagny Taggart, the heroine of Atlas Shrugged. Dagny is vice president of operations at a railroad, working with her brother, who runs the company but spends his time with political associates and engages in crony capitalism. Dagny explains matters to him patiently and sometimes becomes angry. When she leaves his office, she does not carry his influence with her. Kelley said this illustrates the depth of the autonomy Rand's characters possess.

Recommended Reading

When asked which Rand novel a new reader should start with, Kelley said he does not have a fixed answer. He said he tends to prefer whichever book he read most recently, because he finds something new in each. He described Atlas Shrugged as the richer literary work, more philosophical, and more explicit in its philosophy. He noted that it can be demanding reading.

He also recommended Anthem, a novelette Rand wrote in the 1930s. It is a dystopian story about a collectivist future. Unlike the dystopias of George Orwell (1984) and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), Rand's society is primitive rather than technologically advanced. Its leaders suppressed individual thought to the point that technology could no longer be maintained. The technology collapsed and was forgotten, and society reverted to candles and farming. The story follows one man's escape from this society and his discovery of the world beyond it. Kelley said the book runs about 100 pages.

Atlas Society Projects

Kelley outlined three current initiatives:

• Graphic novel of Anthem. The Atlas Society is producing a graphic adaptation, scheduled for publication in 2018.
• No Banned Books. This student program seeks to recruit students who want Rand's works included in their college curricula. Participants gather signatures and petition professors in relevant fields to include Rand in their courses. The program works with Turning Point USA and with SFL, which has a large volunteer network on campuses. The program began in September 2017. As of the interview, at least 10 professors had agreed to include Rand's work. Kelley said this number is small but significant, because Rand is rarely taught in colleges, and that hundreds of students were working on the program.
• Short videos on envy. The Atlas Society planned to release two short videos, titled Socially Transmitted Diseases, that examine envy: what it is, why it arises, and why it is harmful.