Who is John Galt?

Question

if you know the answer you know the philosophy -one to which I adhered for many many years. I no longer do however, since the rug can be pulled out from under you at any time in life. You might not be in the position to fix things with help and a lot of support.

Answer 1

The concept of selfishness maybe a little shaky, but the idea of being the best you can because it's your life still rings true.

Answer 2

Indeed. She seems to fail to account for either the massive power of altruism on one hand or the massive power of cheating on the other hand.

If reason is the cornerstone of objectivism, it also can become a breaking point of it:

Is it reasonable to work hard and develop good things when you can just steal good things from others instead? Obviously nobody wants to live in a society where everyone steals from everyone else (Kant spent a lot of time talking about that), but just as obviously, there are people who possess such immense skill at stealing that they can not only get what they want but make the originator look like the theif instead of themselves. Her philosophy provides no way at all to deal with such people (not that it's an easy problem) and as long as they exist her utopia cannot.

Likewise, it is completely unreasonable to withhold a gift from someone else who can benefit society with that gift but never pay you back. And if they never repay, it goes against self-interest, so objectivism would declare that to be an inappropriate act, even if it's a reasonable one. Laissez-faire capitalism has no room for charity, which is too bad because there ARE good charities out there.

Still, it's a very interesting set of ideas. Everyone would be richer, I think, for absorbing them, thinking about them, and perhaps customizing their own rules a bit therefrom. I think She would expect no more, and no less.

Answer 3

He is from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.