| 2005 Summer Seminar |
—Lester Hunt, Ph.D.
Course Description:
(Advanced Seminar session, advance registration required. See the Advanced Seminar application form.)
Immediately before the publication of The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand removed an epigram by Friedrich Nietzsche because of her deep differences with his philosophy. Yet this quotation suggests that there might be an interesting philosophical—not merely literary or emotional—connection between The Fountainhead and Nietzsche's ideas. Lester Hunt, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will argue that this connection merits a much closer look than it has ever been given heretofore. Not only is the presence of Nietzschean themes in Rand's novel deep and pervasive, but the book actually contains a very interesting and powerful internal critique of one of Nietzsche's most characteristic ideas, a criticism based in large part on values and assumptions that Nietzsche and Rand share. Lester Hunt is the author of Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue, among other works.
Schedule: Tuesday, 2:15-3:30 PM
Track: Advanced Seminar