It was interesting to see how current still are Rand's concerns. The book also opened the door of other authors who she critique. Important to understand the roots of the opposite views.

Since the book is a collection of essays it is easy to read and reflect one at a time.

In the end the battle for freedom is an intellectual battle. Lots has been said about other sciences yet the enemies of freedom get stronger under the shade of indifference and ignorance. "Philosophy Who needs it" is an invitation to be active learner and defender of freedom.

I understood some parts of this book, had to re-read a lot of other parts and some things just went over the head.

Concepts like irreducible primaries or anti-conceptual mentality were pretty unique and had fun thinking about them, but all in all, this is a read that definitely needs multiple sessions and re-reads.

A critique of popular philosophies.

“This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: rational, conscious, and therefore practical; or contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal. Written with all the clarity and eloquence that have placed Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy in the mainstream of American thought, these essays range over such basic issues as education, morality, censorship, and inflation to prove that philosophy is the fundamental force in all our lives.”

The bottom line is, we all live by a philosophy- whether or not we're aware of it. This book shows you why it's so important to know what kind of philosophy you're living and making choices by, and makes one aware of how their pattern of coming to conclusions affects everything about their being. A must read for anyone interested in understanding their inner workings better.

I was Curious about Ayn Rand's philosophy, so I checked out this book. Having finished it, Rand seems to me a mix of Nietzsche and Rush Limbaugh.

Every chapter she rants against altruism i.e the Christian ethic, thinking its the root of all evil, stunting civilization and the brain. She passionately hates Immanuel Kant. like a hyper-Charismatic who thinks there is a demon behind every bush, so she see Kant behind every bush, practically every chapter she can't help but make another stab at hi. Little did I know before this book, Kant is the villain who managed to deceive the world with his blasphemous (against reason) teaching of duty and altruism and now were all going to hell (the wastelands of irrationalism)Because Kant is so vague, he managed to slip his anti-reason poison in all our minds without us knowing it!! Even right now, you who are reading this are under the sway of Kant!!!! shutter and repent and turn to almighty reason (well, her version of reason that is)

Interesting that one of the main conservative philosophers is a militant atheist and is pro-choice. She thinks pride is a virtue, and so does nothing to hide her ego and arrogance, making her writings rather untasteful to me. She is not the kind of person you would want to have a conversation with! Rush Limbaugh at least says he is only right 98.8% of the time, Ayn Rand would not even humble herself with that 1.2% of error, she could make it on the short list of stuck up, full of themselves people.

But with all that aside, I loved what she shared on politics, she indeed was a genius, there is no doubt about that

It's actually pays to read Atlas Shrugged (1957) and to lesser extend Capitalism: the unknown ideal (1966) before reading this book because Ayn Rand made a lot of reference from these books to make her point across. It's hard to follow if you're not familiar with her other works.
You won't believe that the compilation of articles in this book was written in the early 70s in which Ayn's succinctly peeling off layer by layer the moral, cultural, societal, intellectual decays of her time in the US and to some extend the western world; because what we see today in the US and to some extend the western world, not much has changed, perhaps for the worse. For example, the establishment that she described then had evolved into a "swamp".
I'm curious what Ayn would make of Donald Trump and his efforts to drain the swamp.
Ayn Rand was a brilliant thinker like no other, from reading this book I came to admire how good she was at articulating her ideas e.g. objectivism and rationality, and how she argues to refute nonsense ideas
If any disagreement that I have with her would be on her stand on abortion as women's right; I'm for the right of the unborn.
Now, I feel compelled to read Atlas Shrugged.

Entertaining and popularly accessable. The Missing Link is brilliant and can be read on its own. The Metaphysical vs. The Manmade hubristically blunders through a straw man mischaracterization of Kant's Metaphysics of Morals based on a reductionist take of his theory rooted in what appears to be her reading of only the Intro to the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, and not the actual Metaphysics of Morals itself.

Kurduğu obejektivist felsefeyle katı bireyci anlayışın savunucusu olan rand'dan aile,dostluk,romantik ilişkiler ekseninde bireyin etrafını saran toplumsal çetelere karşı bizi uyariyor. Ancak tabi bireyin yuceltilmesinin de kararinda olması gerekir ki bireye değer katalım derken toplumdisi bir canavar yaratmayalim.

لم اوفي اين راند حقها في مراجعة روايتها اطلس متململا لما تبثه
الرواية في النفس من صراع او بسبب الملل الذي شعرته اثناء قراءة الرواية
لكن هنا اكتب اني اخيرا وجت ضالتي التي فقدت
اين راند تقول الكثير ولا تقول غير ان العقل هو الطريق للعيش اين راند تتكلم عن العقل وليس كما صور لنا ان هناك صراع بين العقل والقلب
الصراع ليس داخلك الصراع في الخارج بين متصوفين الروح
والجسد متسولي العيش علي نفقة تضحيتك بجسدك او تضحيتك بعقلك.


اقتباس من الكتاب
"‎وانطلاقا من الفكرة الساخرة من يهتم بالعدالة؟ ينزل الإنسان إلى: «من يهتم بالحقيقة؟» ثمّ ينحدر إلى التعميم: «من يهتم؟» وهكذا يستسلم معظم البشر لفساد غير ملموس ويبيعون أرواحهم وفق برنامج بيع بالتقسيط من خلال تقديم تنازلات صغيرة، عن طريق إنجاز التسويات في الزوايا الصغيرة المظلمة - حتى لا يبقى شيء من عقولهم سوى الخوف".

I know it's common to hate Rand. But my review has nothing to do with my personal feelings towards her. personally, I found this text to be largely the misinterpretations of philosophers, and uninteresting.

A collection of essays introducing the reader to the philosophy of Ayn Rand and her sharp analytical mind in matters of daily interest like rulings by the Supreme Court or many more. I enjoyed the format enabling the reader to read one essay at a time and then reflect about what was just read. Due to the format there was no need to immerse oneself for hours into the book, though even on a few pages there was enough food for thought to think about wat one just read: for hours. I liked the thought that everyone has a philosophy but the difference of the reflecting versus the non-reflecting person is, that for the former that philosophy is consciously created, while for the latter it is a collection of subconsciously absorbed impressions resulting in a chaotic irrational behavior. So much more in this little book and worth reading for yourself.