“Give me Thomas Aquinas…Don’t Give me Ayn Rand”

Catholic World Report ^ | 4/26/12 | Catherine Harmon

[marshmallow]

Paul Ryan disavows Rand’s “atheist philosophy”; cites Pope Benedict

In an interview with National Review Online’s Robert Costa, Rep. Paul Ryan denies that he is, as Paul Krugman claimed in the New York Times, “an Ayn Rand devotee,” calling such descriptions of his political philosophy “an urban legend”:

“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them,” Ryan says. “They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman,” a subject he eventually studied as an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio. “But it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.”

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.

Ryan also mentions Pope Benedict XVI’s statements on global economics in defending his proposed budget:

Ryan cites "Light of the World", a book-length interview of Pope Benedict XVI, as an example of how the Catholic Church takes the global debt problem seriously. “We are living at the expense of future generations,” the pope says. “In this respect, it is plain that we are living in untruth.” Ryan takes those words seriously. “The pope was really clear,” he says.

Today Ryan delivered a high-profile lecture at Georgetown University—after being criticized by more than 90 members of the university’s faculty for his “continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more..........

[Salvation]

“Give me Thomas Aquinas…Don’t Give me Ayn Rand”
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[Salvation]

I agree with you on "Don't give me Mitt Romney."

But why would you ever want Ron Paul? I would never vote for him either.

Ron Paul is dangerous.

Ron Paul, Soros and Defense

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4q1vYx1V3g&feature=related

Before everyone gets their panties in a wad. Obama is already starting to make the moves to destroy our military.
Ron Paul will just drive the knife into their backs.
I thought it was clever how the Obama military haters are going to cut Benefits for veterans and wounded soldiers.
Wonder how far enlistment will drop on that one.

 

One of Ron Pauls best friends is George Soros..

http://www.orangepower.com/threads/george-soros-evil.95549/

[tomkat]

Completely agree re Rand's heavy-handedness, hence my 2x4 reference.
At that point in my youthful ignorance/arrogance, anything more subtle probably wouldn't have gotten through.
So in that respect AS was a success.

Though convinced there's Something Out There in charge of this whole mess, I'll readily admit to not being much of a religious guy.
And it's been literally decades since college philosophy, assuming that any of it actually sunk in past exam retention depth to begin with ;-)
Hence, several of the terms/phrases you listed are either new to me or have been lost from memory in the mists of advancing years.

Thanks for bringing them up .. will do some non-FR research out of curiosity.
It'll be a welcome break after reading the circular firing squad that the latest FReepathon thread has become.

[RobbyS]

Mortimer Adler, the educator and philosopher, was enthralled by St. Thomas, and because of him became a Thomist, and toward the end of his life, a Catholic. No clearer writer and teacher than Adler. I once got by mistake a film on Epicetus presented by Adler. For the heck of it I showed it to my calculus class in place of the film I had intended to show. They were enthralled! He was a master at making the complex seem simple. Even Bertrand Russell, the atheist philosopher, said that Thomas was a master logician: Accept his premises and one could not avoid his conclusions.