On Ayn Rand’s Attacks on Past Philosophers

You can learn a lot about a philosopher’s agenda by looking at the philosophers that he or she attacks. A philosopher who lusts for glory will attack the most popular and powerful philosophers with the hope that by vanquishing the reigning emperors of the world of philosophy, he will prove his own mettle as a philosophical warrior and make himself relevant in the eyes of his contemporaries and posterity. Ayn Rand was lusting for glory when, in the 1960s, she aimed her bazooka at Plato, David Hume, and most importantly Immanuel Kant. Her plan backfired because her attacks were ignorantly and sloppily orchestrated—instead of vanquishing the philosophers of the past, she shot herself in the foot and caused irreparable harm to her own reputation.