Sightings, October 1998

IOS advisor Fred D. Miller Jr. is a professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University and executive director of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at the school. Now, according to the center's deputy director, Ellen Frankel Paul, Miller has been elected president of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, a position in which he will serve for two years. Says Paul, "This is an extraordinary honor, awarded only to philosophers and classicists who are recognized as major figures in their disciplines, [and it reflects] the transformative influence that Miller's work on Aristotle's political philosophy has had upon scholars."

The State University of New York Press has recently published Wandering Heart: The Work and Method of Hayashi Fumiko, by Susanna Fessler. An assistant professor of East Asian studies at SUNY Albany, Fessler is a longtime IOS member and has been an outstanding lecturer at several IOS summer seminars. Regarding her new book, Fessler writes: "Hayashi Fumiko (1903-1951) was one of the most popular Japanese writers of her day. She burst on the scene with her autobiographical Diary of a Vagabond, in which she described the straitened life of a young female writer in Tokyo. The honesty and candor of her writing quickly endeared her to a vast audience, and launched her on a prolific literary career.

"Although this is not an Objectivist work," Fessler adds, "there was much about Hayashi Fumiko's writing that appealed to me as an Objectivist, and I have tried to focus on that in the text. Fumiko's earlier works are upbeat and optimistic, which contrasted sharply with the heavy fatalism being produced by many of her contemporaries. I believe it was precisely this approach that appealed to her readership." Wandering Heart is currently available in both hardcover and paperback and may be ordered at 1-607-277-2211, or from Amazon.com, or from www.sunypress.edu. But, says Fessler, the print run was a small one, and future availability is uncertain.

On November 18, the firm of Butterfield and Butterfield will be auctioning off the Barbara Branden Ayn Rand Collection. The live auction will be held in Los Angeles, with closed-circuit hookups in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Included will be two hundred manuscripts, which contain 5,000 handwritten pages and comprise virtually all of Ayn Rand's output from 1962 to 1974. Among the manuscripts are heavily edited drafts of her articles, essays, reviews, newspaper columns, and public speeches, as well as a handful of Rand's never-published speeches and essays. Also for sale will be signed photographs, important letters and documents, rare film footage, audio tapes, and memorabilia. For details, call Gregory Shaw at 213-850-7500, ext. 286; or Vanessa Hardy at 415-861-7500, ext. 361.

Reason Papers #23, available in October, will contain a special forum, "Rand and Philosophy." The contributors are David Kelley, Fred D. Miller Jr., Jan Narveson, Douglas B. Rasmussen, John Hospers, Neera Badhwar, Douglas J. Den Uyl, and Lester H. Hunt. In the same number of Reason Papers, Larry Sechrest will be writing on "The Irrationality of the Extended Order: The Fatal Conceit of F.A. Hayek," which is based on a 1994 IOS Summer Seminar talk. Chris Sciabarra will be writing on recent Rand scholarship. Editor Tibor Machan notes that "fifteen dollars is the price of a copy of recent and current issues of Reason Papers. If you wish a copy, send me a check made out to 'Reason Papers' and write 'School of Business and Economics' or 'SBE' in the comment portion." The School of Business and Economics referred to is at Chapman University, Orange, California 92866. Call 1-714-997-6684 for further information.

The Institute for Humane Studies announces that it is accepting e-mail applications for the Hayek Fund for Scholars. This fund provides up to $1,000 for graduate students or untenured faculty who are engaged in professional activities, such as participation at professional conferences, research, field work, travel to or participation in career development programs, travel to job interviews, and so forth. Applications are accepted year-round. For further information, send e-mail to Damon Chetson at dchetson @gmu.edu or call (703) 934-6920.

IHS is also conducting its 1998 Felix Morley Journalism Competition. The competition, which seeks to identify "outstanding young writers who demonstrate an appreciation of a free society," asks entrants to "submit articles published in student newspapers or other publications between July 1, 1997, and December 1, 1998. For further information, call 703-934-6920 or write ihs@gmu.edu.

By now, it should be clear to everyone that the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels was nonsense, methodologically speaking. And the on-line "readers' poll" was scarcely better. Still, the juxtaposition of the two polls resulted in a New York Times news story that simply cannot be passed over in silence. In the official poll, the number one novel was James Joyce's Ulysses; in the on-line poll, the number one novel was Atlas Shrugged. The Times took note of this fact, in its July 30 edition, with a story headlined: "Forget Joyce; Bring On Ayn Rand." To Rand, who once wrote of the "Joyce-Kafka Amendment, which prohibits the sale and drinking of clean water, unless denatured by humor," it would have been a moment worth savoring. And she would have understood the profound significance of where the article appeared: not in the Arts section of the New York Times but in Circuits, the new section dedicated to the high-tech world of the Information Age.

The task of tracking references to Ayn Rand has apparently passed back to Jim Robbins, associate professor of international relations at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. His latest posting regards the number of times Ayn Rand's name is mentioned in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, or the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1996, Robbins reports, there were twenty-six such references; in 1997, there were thirty-seven; and in 1998, he estimates, there will be seventy-eight. If his estimate is right, Robbins notes, it will mean there was a 42 percent increase from 1996 to 1997, and a 110 percent increase from 1997 to 1998. Another way of looking at the matter is that in 1996 one could expect a reference to Rand in each of the papers every six weeks; now, one can expect a reference every other week.

Steven Greenhut, editorial page editor of the (Ohio) Lima News, wrote an interesting op-ed recently about the way in which Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life was reviewed by the conservative weekly Human Events. "[The review,] while admitting the movie was of good quality, gave it its worst acceptability rating, a minus 4. That rating is reserved for films that portray blasphemy, which the newspaper describes as 'language or actions which curse, revile, mock or blaspheme God or church.' This took me aback. . . . [T]here's absolutely no way a highbrow documentary of a serious author and her work . . . could possibly be depicted in a league with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Natural Born Killers, and other slasher flicks Hollywood markets to demented teenagers. . . . Regardless of your views of Rand, her philosophy isn't blasphemous or evil. But the degree to which her views of individualism and freedom are reviled by some conservatives reflects a divide that is growing deeper across the political right."

Routledge has just brought out a massive ten-volume encyclopedia of philosophy (a mere $2,500 at the special introductory price good through October 31). Writing in the New York Times Book Review (Sunday, July 5, 1998), George Steiner praised the work highly but went about the critic's task of picking nits. He lamented that several people were missing, such as Carlo Michelstaedter, now apparently influential among Italian existentialists, and then, having displayed his learning, Steiner remarked: "Not that these men would have wished to be in the company of Ayn Rand, whose vacuous vaporings harvest a full entry!" (Exclamation point in the original.) Congratulations to Routledge for having the wisdom and courage to include Rand in their encyclopedia, though doing so has opened them to the sneers of the world's Steiners.

Also, thanks to Routledge for informing IOS that the author of the Rand entry is Chandra Kukathas, an associate professor in the School of Politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia. Though not an Objectivist, Kukathas is a familiar figure in libertarian circles. In a note to IOS, Kukathas observed that "a bad error" had crept into his Rand entry in some way he could not explain: "The Virtue of Selfishness is cited as a novel." Also, its publication date is given as 1974 rather than 1964, which would make it the last of the four collections of essays published in Rand's lifetime rather than the first. Beyond such bibliographical quibbles, however, lies the fascinating fact that Kukathas gives prominence to the concept of "despair." Its application to many secondary figures in The Fountainhead is obvious, but is it true that Atlas Shrugged "charts the rise of those who begin in despair"? Would it not be more accurate to say the strikers begin with a refusal to despair of the world and join the strike only after they can refuse no longer? Whatever the answer, Kukathas's focus on this emotion in Rand's two great novels is sure to have Objectivists raising interesting questions about its place in the human landscape.

Skirmishes here and there. Bill McLaughlin of Ridgewood, New Jersey, had a letter to the editor published on July 1 in his area paper, Suburban News. Writing in favor of private "charter" schools, McLaughlin realized he needed to educate his neighbors in the fundamental facts of political rights. "Government exists to protect individual ('negative') rights, or rights against force and/or fraud. As a corollary, the legitimate functions of government are few: defending citizens against foreign invaders, defending citizens against criminals, and settling disputes among peaceful citizens. It follows that educating citizens, as an example of a special ('positive') right or entitlement, is not one of those legitimate functions. However, over time, most Americans have forgotten this and the related application that their responsibility is to educate their own children, and not those of the community."

Jon Buratti of Columbia, Maryland, undertook the thankless task of writing to Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (Democrat, Maryland) concerning the Microsoft antitrust case. Mikulski wrote back, noting that the Department of Justice "claims that Microsoft unlawfully requires computer manufacturers to install its software, Internet Explorer, as a condition of licensing its operating system 'Windows 95.'" She went on to say: "As a pro-consumer Senator, I support a level playing field and fair competition in the marketplace. Knowing of your concerns will be helpful to me as I monitor the Microsoft case." Mikulski neglected to explain what "a level playing field and fair competition" might mean to "a pro-consumer Senator," nor did her "monitoring" of the case prompt her to note that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had shot down the essence of the DOJ's argument just two days before she wrote to Buratti.

At the salons. Ever since Navigator printed an interview with Marsha Enright, titled "How to Run an Objectivist Salon," new discussion groups have been appearing all over the country. Local Clubs

From Florida comes this note: "Space Coast Objectivism Promoters and Explorers (SCOPE) is a new local group forming to allow folks interested in Objectivism to meet face-to-face for discussion and friendship. Geographical area is primarily the Florida Space Coast, which includes Brevard County along the east coast of central Florida. The Web site for this association can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1957." For more information send e-mail to wide-scope@geocities.com; regular mail to Luther R. Setzer (activities coordinator), 2819 Dunhill Drive, Cocoa, Florida 32926-5871; or call 407-639-9062.

Matt Zwolinski announces: "There's a new Objectivist club forming at the University of Arizona. Anyone interested in more information can drop me an e-mail: mattz@u.arizona.edu."

Martin L. Cowen III (mlcowen @mindspring.com) has sent in reports on the Georgia Objectivists' recent get-togethers. The July meeting, it seems, was a big hit, as member Tom Welch presented a game show based on Objectivism and served as the show's host. The game involved answering questions of varying difficulty drawn from Rand's Philosophy: Who Needs It. In light of the game's success, Welch agreed to take the game to the Georgia Tech Objectivist Club. At the August meeting, Cowen gave a presentation of his recently completed first-draft manuscript, "Fellowship of Reason: A Moral Community for the Twenty-first Century."

The August meeting of the Gateway Objectivists, in St. Louis, Missouri, was devoted to Susan McCloskey's two-part lecture—"Odysseus, Jesus, and Dagny"—given at the just-completed IOS summer seminar. Frank Bryan presented the highlights of McCloskey's first lecture, and the group then listened to a tape of the second lecture.

Erratum

Owing to an editing error, two short references in Peter Reidy's "The Ideal Made Real" did not have a prior complete reference. The quotations from Ayn Rand on pages 9 and 10, which are cited as "J, pp. 149-52" and "J, p. 147," refer to Journals of Ayn Rand, edited by David Harriman (New York: Dutton, 1997). The editor regrets the error.