Philosophy: Who Needs It
~ Ayn Rand, American Fiction Writer
"If philosophy can be that evil, why should one study it? Particularly, why should one study the philosophical theories which are blatantly false, make no sense, and bear no relation to real life?"
"My answer is: In self-protection -
and in defense of truth, justice, freedom,
and any value you ever held or may ever hold."
"The battle of philosophers is a battle for man's mind. If you do not understand their theories, you are vulnerable to the worst among them.
Nothing is given to man automatically, neither knowledge, nor self-confidence, nor inner serenity, nor the right way to use his mind. Every value he needs or wants has to be discovered, learned and acquired - even the proper posture of his body. In this context, I want to say that I have always admired the posture of West Point graduates, a posture that projects man in proud, disciplined control of his body. Well, philosophical training gives man the proper intellectual posture - a proud, disciplined control of his mind.
In your own profession, in military science, you know the importance of keeping track of the enemy's weapons, strategy and tactics - and of being prepared to counter them. The same is true in philosophy: you have to understand the enemy's ideas and be prepared to refute them, you have to know his basic arguments and be able to blast them.
It is urgently important for you to understand the nature of the enemy. You are attacked, not for any errors or flaws, but for your virtues. You are denounced, not for any weaknesses, but for your strength and your competence. You are penalized for being protectors of the United States."
"Those who seek to destroy this country,
seek to disarm it -
intellectually and physically.
The motive of the destroyers is
not love for communism,
but hatred for America."
"Today's mawkish concern with and compassion for the feeble, the flawed, the suffering, the guilty, is a cover for the profoundly Kantian hatred of the innocent, the strong, the able, the successful, the virtuous, the confident, the happy. A philosophy out to destroy man's mind is necessarily a philosophy of hatred for a man, for man's life, and for every human value. Hatred of the good for being the good, is the hallmark of the twentieth century. This is the enemy you are facing.
A battle of this kind requires special weapons. It has to be fought with a full understanding of your cause, a full confidence in yourself, and the fullest certainty of the moral rightness of both. Only philosophy can provide you with these weapons."
"In my morality, the defense of one's country
means that a man is personally unwilling
to live as the conquered slave of any enemy,
foreign or domestic.
This is an enormous virtue.
Some of you may not be consciously aware of it.
I want to help you realize it."
"The army of a free country has a great responsibility: the right to use force, but not as an instrument of compulsion and brute conquest - as the armies of other countries have done in their histories - only as an instrument of a free nation's self defense, which means, the defense of a man's individual rights. The principle of using force only in retaliation against those who initiate its use, is the principle of subordinating might to right. The highest integrity and sense of honor are required for such a task. No other army in the world has achieved it. You have.
Since I came from a country guilty of the worst tyranny on earth, I am particularly able to appreciate the meaning, the greatness and the supreme value of that which you are defending. So, in my own name and in the name of the many people who think as I do, I want to say, to all the men of West Point, past, present and future: Thank you."
~ Ayn Rand's full address to The West Point Academy 3/6/1974
