The speech resolves the philosophical mystery of the plot: Why are the most productive people leaving their work and disappearing from society? As such, it provides a comprehensive introduction to Ayn Rand 's philosophy, though one that is tailored to the events and characters of the novel. In later works, Rand presented specific elements of her philosophy in nonfiction terms. Ayn Rand regarded Galt's speech as the shortest summary of her philosophy, which she called Objectivism . I thought, with a feeling of dread, that it would take at least three months. Well, it took two years. In a novel, she could not present her ideas in the form of a dry, systematic treatise; she had to state them dramatically, in the form of a revolutionary leader's manifesto and challenge to a corrupt society.
After writing quite a few pages, I had to stop because I knew it was absolutely wrong. That is the logical order in non- fiction, but you can't do it in fiction. The speech had to start by presenting the morality, which is the real theme of the book, and where Galt would have to begin his explanation to the world.
So I had to rewrite the whole thing. In the first, Galt presents the moral code of reason and individualism (The Morality of Life) that the producers embrace. In the second, he explains and attacks the opposite moral code of mysticism, sacrifice, and collectivism (The Morality of Death), showing how it has always been used to exploit the producers.
In the third section, he explains the strategy of the strike - - the withdrawal of . This section also presents the political ideals that follow from the moral code of rational individualism. I have prepared this Outline as an aid to those who wish to understand the speech, whether as a statement of Rand's philosophical ideas or as a literary element in her novel. The Outline breaks the three sections into subsections where each main point that Galt makes is stated in essential terms and in such a way as to indicate the logical flow of his speech.
Reading this Outline is no substitute for reading the speech itself, but it will help you keep the full context in mind as you study each element. Galt's speech can be found in part III, chapter VII of Atlas Shrugged (. It was also reproduced in Ayn Rand 's For the New Intellectual. To connect this Outline with the text of the speech, I have begun each subsection of the Outline with the opening words, in italics, of the first paragraph it relates to in the text. The Morality of Life The moral crisis (. For man, this means living by the exercise of his mind.
Man's life - - the life of man qua rational being - - is the proper standard of value. Your own life - - and happiness as its emotional concomitant - - is the purpose of morality. You can choose not to live, you can choose not to think, but you cannot avoid the consequences of such choices - - except by trying to make others pay for your default. The nature of reason (.
A is A. Reason is the faculty that integrates the material provided by man's senses, in accordance with logic. The individual must initiate and direct his own capacity for reason and act on the basis of his own rational judgment.
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A rational process is thus a moral process. Our free will consists in the choice to think or not to think. Thinking is the basic moral virtue; evasion is the basic vice. The content of a rational moral code (. But virtue is not its own reward.
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Life is the reward of virtue, and happiness is the goal and the reward of life. Pleasure and pain, joy and suffering, are the emotional forms in which we experience values.
But emotions are governed by what we choose to value. True happiness is a state of non- contradictory joy, and is thus possible only to those who pursue rational values. There are no conflicts of interest among rational men. The proper means of interaction with others is trade.
The initiation of physical force is evil; force and mind are opposites. Force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who start its use.
Atlas Shrugged is set in a. In the world of Atlas Shrugged, society stagnates when independent. Title: Atlas shrugged pdf, Author: Get Books Online, Name: atlas. Atlas Shrugged is not an easy read.
Their exploiters are motivated by negatives - - death, misery, destruction. Opposed to the Morality of Life is the Morality of Death, which demands that man atone for the guilt of being human by sacrificing his mind, values, and happiness. The Doctrine of Original Sin (. In holding that man is innately evil, the Doctrine of Original Sin negates morality, nature, justice, and reason. The doctrine says that man is evil because he possesses reason, knowledge, morality, productiveness, creativity, the capacity for sexual pleasure, and the capacity for joy - - all the cardinal values of his existence. The mind/body dichotomy (.
Both varieties of mystics preach the same moral doctrine: self- sacrifice. The Doctrine of Sacrifice (. The self is the mind, and the most selfish act is the exercise of one's independent judgment. In attacking selfishness, the Doctrine of Sacrifice seeks to make you surrender your mind. The Doctrine of Sacrifice commands that you act for the good of others but provides no standard of the good.
And it requires only that you intend to benefit others, not that you succeed. The Doctrine of Sacrifice makes you the servant and others your masters - -and adds insult to injury by saying you should find happiness through sacrifice. Sacrifice and the unearned (?
Because they did not earn them. At its core, the Doctrine of Sacrifice is a doctrine that seeks the unearned. Lack of value gives one a claim upon those who possess value. The doctrine elevates failure, weakness, need, incompetence, suffering, vice, and irrationality and regards them as moral claims on success, strength, wealth, ability, joy, virtue, and rationality. On this inversion of values, one sacrifices morality and self- esteem, and becomes both victim and parasite, with no standard of how much sacrifice is enough. In the spiritual realm, the Doctrine of the Unearned commands unconditional love, love based on need rather than value, love for those who do not deserve it - - because they do not deserve it.
Mysticism as the basis for the unearned (. There is no honest revolt against reason. The motive is always to indulge one's emotions, and the effect is always to subvert one's ability to grasp reality. The mystics seek to evade the law of causality - - which is the law of identity applied to action - - in order to gain values without effort and justify their demand for unearned love, admiration, wealth. Since there is no actual escape from identity and causality, from the need to think and produce in order to create values, the producers are expected to pay for the default of the irrational.
The modern mystics of muscle (. These bases include or imply that things exist and are what they are, that they act according to their natures, that facts are absolute, that sense- perception is valid. In denying these truths, the mystics of muscle would reduce man's consciousness to the level of a baby or a primitive tribe.
While the mystics of spirit claim that faith is superior to reason, the mystics of muscle claim that reason is merely faith, and substitute collective opinion for objective knowledge. They even deny the existence of the mind.
Their motive is to reverse cause and effect, to demand goods without producing them, to control the producers and to redistribute their wealth. The psychology of the mystics (. Having surrendered their own judgment to avoid clashes with others, they regard the judgments of others as a power superior to reason, believing that others have a mysterious link with reality.
To control reality, they must therefore control others, seeking obedience at all costs. Their goal is to control the consciousness of others as a means of getting control over reality.
Death is the only state that satisfies the mystics' desire for exemption from identity and causality. Poverty, suffering, destruction, and death are the consequences of their moral code - - and the real motive of the code. Mystics have defaulted on the responsibility to think, act, and produce; they feel envious hatred toward, and wish to destroy, those who have not defaulted. The Morality of Death is perpetuated by the sanction of its victims - - the men of reason and ability.
The strike is the withdrawal of that sanction. The Morality of Death counts on the producers to think and produce, while denying them the honor they deserve or the freedom they require. Its strategy is to induce moral guilt in the men of reason and ability.
The strikers refuse to accept guilt for their ability. Galt is doing by conscious design what men of ability had done throughout the ages: withdrawing their talents from the world. He is teaching the producers their own value. Without the victims whom Galt has withdrawn, the Morality of Death and those who embrace it will collapse of their own irrationality. Take an inventory of your mind (. It thus deprives you of practical guidance, moral certainty, and the capacity for happiness, dignity, and self- esteem.
There are moral absolutes, and moral judgment is a necessity. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.
When men reduce their virtues to the approximate, then evil acquires the force of an absolute. It is absurd to believe, as political conservatives do, that collectivism is based on reason and science while freedom, production, and trade must be accepted on faith.
This absurdity is a rationalization to avoid questioning the moral code of self- sacrifice. People refuse to question that code because their self- esteem is tied to it. As a being with free will, man, by nature, needs self- esteem and moral self- approval; but men have tied their self- esteem to a morality that undercuts it. Their fear and guilt spring from the awareness of having willfully abandoned reason and having refused to think for themselves. The myths of paradise reflect the spirit of childhood: the joyous, fearless, independence of a rational consciousness facing an open universe.