Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Businessmen Need Philosophy but Don't Know It Review: Business people find themselves under continual assault from government regulations, threats of lawsuits and under-appreciation of their positive role. The media, activists, politicians and even many religious officials cling to the cliché of business people as greedy, selfish or operating at the expense of others. The positive virtues of business people-self-sufficiency, responsibility and investment in the future--often are ignored by those who see business people as exploiters, cash cows for the government, or guinea pigs for government social policies. Those suffering under the weight of such attacks will find encouragement and articulate arguments on their behalf in Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, a book-collection of essays that champions the free market and individual rights. Published by the Ayn Rand Institute, a free market and individualism advocacy group, the book lays a solid foundation of reasoned argument of how business people in a free economy exemplify the positive principles on which this country was founded. "Some critics point to the homeless and blame their poverty on greedy private businessmen who exploit the public. Others, such as [economist] John Kenneth Galbraith, say that American are too affluent and too materialistic, and blame greedy private businessmen...," says philosopher and commentator Leonard Peikoff, who forcefully argues against this negative attitude. "Who are the most denounced and vilified men in the country? You are-you, the businessmen." The book is an exuberant, enthusiastic reaffirmation of the business person as providing the moral and economic foundation to the country. It provides a spirited defense of small and large business, argues the necessity of a foundation of honesty and fair dealing as growing from a free market economy and states the philosophical basis of why no one has a right to take the earnings of another. The book argues against the welfare state that relies on the false premise that the desire for another's property creates a right to take it. "The (American) system guarantees you the chance to work for what you want-not to be given it without effort by somebody else," Peikoff says. "We are seeing a total abandonment by the intellectuals and the politicians of the moral principles on which the U.S. was founded. The rule now is for politicians to ignore and violate men's actual rights, while arguing about a whole list of rights never dreamed of in this country's founding documents-rights...." For those weary of overflowing government regulations and laws dictating their professional lives and businesses, and for those working people who need reaffirmation of their vital role in society, this book serves them well.
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Why businessmen need religion Review: Despite some helpful guidance as regards 'why businessmen need philosophy', this volume of 'Objectivist' propaganda reverses the proper order of things. In Jewish thought (and I mean Jewish *religious* thought, not the secularist/antireligious musings of people who regard their Jewish birth as a mere historical 'accident'), prosperity *follows from* the pursuit of justice. It is a consequence, not a cause. One's *primary* purpose in business activity is to be honest, just, and upright in one's dealings with one's fellow bearers of the Divine image. In 'Objectivist' thought, this is reversed; personal success becomes one's purpose, and justice merely a means necessary to its achievement. And I say 'necessary' advisedly: no 'Objectivist' has ever given a remotely plausible reason why a businessman should not cut corners even when there is little risk of getting caught. Whatever the contributors to this volume may say to the contrary, the preservation of one's 'integrity' is not such a reason: if one follows a strict policy of cheating only when it is to one's advantage, there should be no reason for a true 'egoist' to feel guilty. If 'egoists' feel guilty anyway, it is because they already know full well there are other moral reasons not to cheat. Those moral reasons stem from one's obligation to one's Creator to treat one's fellows in a just fashion, according to the Law revealed at Sinai (the relevant portions of which were applied to all of mankind in the Noahide covenant). But of course Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff, and the other 'Objectivists' who have contributed to this volume are quite unable to provide any basis for such an obligation - which is why their poor analyses begin instead, and quite wrongly, with 'rights'. What this volume really shows, then, is why businessmen need religion.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: REACH FOR THE CROWN OF THE VIRTUE$ Review: Isn't it interesting that traditional ethicists, such as reviewer Mordecai ben-Ami below, assume that immorality (such as cheating) epitomizes self-benefiting action? So does every crook. God save us from the godly. (To be fair, that assumption is often caused less by personal meanness than by devout belief in altruism's equation of self and evil. As Ayn Rand explained, the corollary of selfish = evil is evil = selfish. Both sides of that equation are of course false, and its source is religion - which is one reason why _no one_ needs religion.) As to the statement "no 'Objectivist' has ever given a remotely plausible reason why a businessman should not cut corners even when there is little risk of getting caught," this is just ignorance. For example, see _Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand_ by Dr. Leonard Peikoff, pp. 270-274 and _passim_. If you think that the statement "man's life on earth has scientific requirements extending to his chosen behavior" is not remotely plausible (and that the supernatural is plausible), then avoid _Why Businessmen Need Philosophy_; you would consider your time better spent agitating for the display of the Ten Commandments in schools. If, however, you are a common-sensical and rational person operating in the real world of business, you will find in _Why Businessmen Need Philosophy_ a solid defense of independent thinking and personal wealth-creation as highly moral. You will see that the noblest and most selfishly profitable activities in the short- and long-term are those guided and informed by the moral virtues defined in this book: independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, and _pride_ (or earned self-esteem). Pride is the crown of the virtues, as Aristotle said. But this is something that the miserable "self = evil" people will never find plausible.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: One cannot succeed in practice without a good theory. Review: Or: The moral is the pracitical. An excellent collection of essays including two glorious diamonds by Ayn Rand (that have been in limited print/availability). Thanks to ARI for making these essays available, and Rand's other unpublished works available--as she wished. This is an excellent book to use to introduce your business friends to the importance of philosophy--and why businessmen need it. It is the second book you should give them--right after Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. As Atlas Shrugged was ridiculed and misrepresented, so is this book to be despised and smeared by all the lice out there--all the more reason to buy several copies of it!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A blow to Ayn Rand's enemies Review: Some who claim to represent Objectivism simply don't know, or care to know, what the philosophy really means. This book will tell them - if they bother to read it and perform the volitional act of focusing their minds. It is because there are so many with *unfocused* minds that the philosophy of Objectivism has been watered down and compromised by those who have chosen to follow certain leaders who were expelled from the movement. Some of them think it just isn't *nice* to point out that when non-Objectivists travel the path to death, they are getting just exactly what they deserve. This book has the power to set them straight. Peikoff and several other *true* followers of Rand make the connections between the choice to live and the morality proper to Man (honesty, productivity, self-esteem, etc.). None of these virtues have any meaning apart from the volitional choice to live; if anyone chooses to operate on a premise of death, then as Rand said, "Nature will take its course." The "nice" pseudo-Objectivists may not like it, but Rand wrote a lot about the deaths of second-handers, parasites and other subhuman lice. But she showed the way for such lice to become fully *human* - in her novels, in her nonfiction, and in the two essays reprinted here. Yes, Objectivists may and will enjoy the collapse of second-hander civilization and the deaths of its proponents. Now that Rand has written, they no longer have any excuse - if they ever had one before. I suggest that everyone who wants to understand *real* Objectivism buy this book and read it carefully. And beware the "crafty smears" of people who *call* themselves Objectivists - but are afraid to stand by its principles.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Excellent book that deserves reading Review: The article titled 'Why Businessmen Should Be Honest' is one of the best summations of Objectivism that I have read. In a simple and complete way this article traces from the fundamental alternative of life or death, all the way to honesty. This one article makes the whole book worthwhile. Third, the articles by Ayn Rand and Leonard Piekoff are short and sweet. Buy this book
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Excellent Review: The content of "Why Businessmen Need Philosophy" is profoundly true and urgently needed by our culture. The content shows why human life and values depend on capitalism and on world, human reason, productiveness, and pride. The essays are frankly excellent
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Its not by Ayn Rand! Review: The front cover says "by Ayn Rand" but look at inside -- most of the essays are not by her. I think she called this secondhandedness.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: The cover says "by Ayn Rand" but very little is by her. Review: There are 2 essays by Rand, and 14 by other writers. Someone needs to review her concept of secondhandedness.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: An deep examination of objectivist philosophy Review: This book contains a number of well and passionately argued articles on the philosophy of objectivism, as formulated by Ayn Rand, with particular reference to the world of business. Even though one may not agree with the philosophy itself, this book is clearly written and deserves to be treated as a serious piece of philosophical exploration of the theory of objectivism. Unfortunately, despite its lucidity, it fails to answer critics who have argued that the theory of objectivism has not been objectively justified (see Nozick's article in "Socratic Puzzles"). Neverthless, even as a subjective piece of work, it contains much to commend itself and provides further learned material both philosophical and practical in nature.
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