Spring 2000 Cyberseminar in Objectivist Studies
Nietzsche and Objectivism

Unit Two: February 21 - March 19

A Note from Chris Sciabarra
On Ayn Rand's College Transcript

To: TOC Cyberseminar <cybersem@objectivistcenter.org>

Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 8:22 AM

Subject: Cyberseminar: Rand's college transcript

[From: Chris Matthew Sciabarra]

This may be a bit premature, but I know we will be discussing points of
intersection between Rand and Nietzsche later in the course. Some of those
points of intersection are historical, in that Rand seems to have been
exposed to some views of Nietzsche distinctive to Silver Age Russia. It
seems clear, to me at least, that Rand's rejection of Nietzsche's Dionysian
side may have a lot to do with how Nietzsche was rendered by the Russian
Symbolists (in fact, Aleksandr Blok, a key Russian Symbolist poet, was
characterized by Rand as her "favorite" poet). And it is also very
possible that Rand was among the last students to be formally taught about
Nietzsche in at least one of her courses at the university.

Nietzsche -- and instruction on Nietzsche in Rand's coursework -- is
mentioned briefly in my article, "The Rand Transcript," which first
appeared in vol. 1, no. 1 of THE JOURNAL OF AYN RAND STUDIES. (Speaking of
which... I certainly extend this invitation to all of my colleagues here to
consider submitting any essays of interest to Rand studies to our double
blind review process for possible publication in JARS.) I have now
published the Rand transcript on-line -- by "popular" demand -- as one means
of bringing this very important archival document to a wider audience.
Participants here might be interested in browsing the article, especially in
conjunction with our later discussions.

It can be found at:

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sciabarra/essays/randt2.htm

Cheers,
Chris
=====================================
Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Visiting Scholar
NYU Department of Politics
715 Broadway
New York, New York 10003-6806
Dialectics and Liberty Website:
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sciabarra
=====================================


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Spring 2000 Cyberseminar in Objectivist Studies
cybersem@objectivistcenter.org

All Cyberseminar posts are working papers with copyright
reserved to the author. They may not be published or adapted
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