jbgotmar

160
More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957
emotionalist would be a rationalist, whose emotions would always be
explicable and on the surface. Rand began defi ning various members
of the Collective by their psychology, and she scribbled an excited note
to Nathan after a series of musings on emotionalists, rationalists, subbasement,
and superstructure: “My stomach (and brain) is screaming
that this is the right track. . . . I am sure that the role of psychology is to
discover, identify, and then be able to cure all the essential ‘epistemological’
errors possible to a human consciousness.” 59 Psychology offered
Rand yet another way to apply Objectivist principles to daily life.
Her changing language also indicated the growing authority she
accorded Leonard Peikoff as his studies in philosophy continued. Rand’s
vocabulary now included technical terms such as “epistemology” and
“metaphysical,” to which she often appended her own prefi xes, creating
neologisms like “psycho-epistemology.” It was a sharp departure from
her previous interests. In place of writers like Paterson, Lane, and Mises,
who worked within an established intellectual tradition and drew on a
rich social context, Rand’s ideas now came from young men who cited
her as their primary inspiration. She was no longer working with terms
or concepts that were accessible to outsiders, but instead lived in an
Objectivist echo chamber. She read little beyond a daily newspaper, preferring
conversation with her associates. She had turned a corner into
her own private intellectual world.
Rand was now unreachable by anyone but the Collective. At Nathan’s
urging she had stepped out of the conservative movement at its most
critical hour. In these years came the founding of National Review, the
rejuvenation of The Freeman, the rise and fall of Senator McCarthy. Rand
was disconnected from all these events. Occasionally she saw one of her
friends from earlier years, but the Brandens and their circle occupied
the bulk of her free time. Whereas The Fountainhead and Rand’s fi rst
ideas for Atlas Shrugged had been shaped by Rand’s immersion in the
libertarian world of the 1940s, Objectivism was shaped by the concerns
and interests of the Collective. They were with her to celebrate when she
wrote the last pages of Galt’s speech in the fall of 1956, and were the only
ones who understood its signifi cance to her.
With Galt’s speech fi nally fi nished, Rand could relax at last, and so
could her three closest friends. The rest of the writing fl owed. Barbara’s
anxiety abated, her panic attacks fading as fast as they had come on.
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com