Globalization

Globalization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Night view of Shanghai, China
The construction of continental hotels is a major consequence of globalization process in affiliation with tourism and travel industry, Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish, IranGlobalization (globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.

This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces.[1] Globalization is often used to refer to economic globalization, that is, integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.[2]

The United Nations ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour...although considerable barriers remain to the flow of labour...Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but its spread slowed during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inwardlooking policies pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries...The pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century..."[3]

Tom G. Palmer of the Cato Institute defines globalization as "the diminution or elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result."[4]

Thomas L. Friedman "examines the impact of the 'flattening' of the globe", and argues that globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces have changed the world permanently, for both better and worse. He also argues that the pace of globalization is quickening and will continue to have a growing impact on business organization and practice.[5]

Noam Chomsky argues that the word globalization is also used, in a doctrinal sense, to describe the neoliberal form of economic globalization.[6]

Herman E. Daly argues that sometimes the terms internationalization and globalization are used interchangeably but there is a slight formal difference. The term "internationalization" refers to the importance of international trade, relations, treaties etc. International means between or among nations.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Modern globalization
3 Measuring globalization
4 Effects of globalization
5 Pro-globalization (globalism)
6 Anti-globalization
6.1 International Social Forums
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
10.1 Multimedia



[edit] History
The term "globalization" has been used by economists since the 1980s although it was used in social sciences in the 1960s; however, its concepts did not become popular until the latter half of the 1980s and 1990s. The earliest written theoretical concepts of globalization were penned by an American entrepreneur-turned-minister Charles Taze Russell who coined the term 'corporate giants' in 1897.[7]

Globalization is viewed as a centuries long process, tracking the expansion of human population and the growth of civilization, that has accelerated dramatically in the past 50 years. Early forms of globalization existed during the Roman Empire, the Parthian empire, and the Han Dynasty, when the Silk Road started in China, reached the boundaries of the Parthian empire, and continued onwards towards Rome.

The Islamic Golden Age is also an example, when Muslim traders and explorers established an early global economy across the Old World resulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology; and later during the Mongol Empire, when there was greater integration along the Silk Road. Globalization in a wider context began shortly before the turn of the 16th century, with two Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula - the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Castile.

Portugal's global explorations in the 16th century, especially, linked continents, economies and cultures to a massive extent. Portugal's exploration and trade with most of the coast of Africa, Eastern South America, and Southern and Eastern Asia, was the first major trade based form of globalization. A wave of global trade, colonization, and enculturation reached all corners of the world.

Global integration continued through the expansion of European trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Portuguese and Spanish Empires colonized the Americas, followed eventually by France and England. Globalization has had a tremendous impact on cultures, particularly indigenous cultures, around the world. In the 15th century, Portugal's Company of Guinea was one of the first chartered commercial companies established by Europeans in other continent during the Age of Discovery, whose task was to deal with the spices and to fix the prices of the goods.

In the 17th century, globalization became a business phenomenon when the British East India Company (founded in 1600), which is often described as the first multinational corporation, was established, as well as the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602) and the Portuguese East India Company (founded in 1628). Because of the high risks involved with international trade, the British East India Company became the first company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership of companies through the issuance of shares of stock: an important driver for globalization.

Globalization was achieved by the British Empire (the largest empire in history) due to its sheer size and power. British ideals and culture were imposed on other nations during this period.

The 19th century is sometimes called "The First Era of Globalization." It was a period characterized by rapid growth in international trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and, later, the United States.

It was in this period that areas of sub-saharan Africa and the Island Pacific were incorporated into the world system. The "First Era of Globalization" began to break down at the beginning of the 20th century with the first World War. Said John Maynard Keynes[8],

“ The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914. ”

The "First Era of Globalization" later collapsed during the gold standard crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.


[edit] Modern globalization
Globalization, since World War II, is largely the result of planning by politicians to breakdown borders hampering trade to increase prosperity and interdependence thereby decreasing the chance of future war. Their work led to the Bretton Woods conference, an agreement by the world's leading politicians to lay down the framework for international commerce and finance, and the founding of several international institutions intended to oversee the processes of globalization.

These institutions include the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund. Globalization has been facilitated by advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on free trade.

Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - GATT. Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included:

Promotion of free trade:
Reduction or elimination of tariffs; creation of free trade zones with small or no tariffs
Reduced transportation costs, especially resulting from development of containerization for ocean shipping.
Reduction or elimination of capital controls
Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses
Creation of subsidies for global corporations
Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with more restrictions.
Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China would be recognized in the United States)
Cultural globalization, driven by communication technology and the worldwide marketing of Western cultural industries, was understood at first as a process of homogenization, as the global domination of American culture at the expense of traditional diversity. However, a contrasting trend soon became evident in the emergence of movements protesting against globalization and giving new momentum to the defense of local uniqueness, individuality, and identity, but largely without success. [9]

The Uruguay Round (1986 to 1994)[10] led to a treaty to create the WTO to mediate trade disputes and set up a uniform platform of trading. Other bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade.

Global conflicts, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States of America, is interrelated with globalization because it was primary source of the "war on terror", which had started the steady increase of the prices of oil and gas, due to the fact that most OPEC member countries were in the Arabian Peninsula.[11]

World exports rose from 8.5% of gross world product in 1970 to 16.1% of gross world product in 2001. [6]


[edit] Measuring globalization

Globalization has had an impact on different cultures around the world.
Japanese McDonald's fast food as an evidence of international integration.Looking specifically at economic globalization, demonstrates that it can be measured in different ways. These center around the four main economic flows that characterize globalization:

Goods and services, e.g. exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population
Labor/people, e.g. net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population
Capital, e.g. inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population
Technology, e.g. international research & development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband)
As globalization is not only an economic phenomenon, a multivariate approach to measuring globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank KOF. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data is available on a yearly basis for 122 countries, as detailed in Dreher, Gaston and Martens (2008).[12] According to the index, the world's most globalized country is Belgium, followed by Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Haiti, Myanmar the Central African Republic and Burundi.[13]

A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy Magazine jointly publish another Globalization Index. According to the 2006 index, Singapore, Ireland, Switzerland, the U.S., the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark are the most globalized, while Indonesia, India and Iran are the least globalized among countries listed.


[edit] Effects of globalization
Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as:

Industrial - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies. Particularly movement of material and goods between and within national boundaries.
Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for borrowers. As these worldwide structures grew more quickly than any transnational regulatory regime, the instability of the global financial infrastructure dramatically increased, as evidenced by the financial crises of late 2008.
Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital. The interconnectedness of these markets, however meant that an economic collapse in any one given country could not be contained.
Political - some use "globalization" to mean the creation of a world government, or cartels of governments (e.g. WTO, World Bank, and IMF) which regulate the relationships among governments and guarantees the rights arising from social and economic globalization. [14] Politically, the United States has enjoyed a position of power among the world powers; in part because of its strong and wealthy economy. With the influence of globalization and with the help of The United States’ own economy, the People's Republic of China has experienced some tremendous growth within the past decade. If China continues to grow at the rate projected by the trends, then it is very likely that in the next twenty years, there will be a major reallocation of power among the world leaders. China will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the United States for the position of leading world power. [15].
Informational - increase in information flows between geographically remote locations. Arguably this is a technological change with the advent of fibre optic communications, satellites, and increased availability of telephone and Internet.
Language - the most popular language is English[16].
About 75% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English.
Approximately 60% of the world's radio programs are in English.
About 90% of all Internet traffic uses English.
Competition - Survival in the new global business market calls for improved productivity and increased competition. Due to the market becoming worldwide, companies in various industries have to upgrade their products and use technology skillfully in order to face increased competition.[17]
Ecological - the advent of global environmental challenges that might be solved with international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Since many factories are built in developing countries with less environmental regulation, globalism and free trade may increase pollution. On the other hand, economic development historically required a "dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that developing countries should not, via regulation, be prohibited from increasing their standard of living.
Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture". Some bemoan the resulting consumerism and loss of languages. Also see Transformation of culture.
Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies). Some consider such "imported" culture a danger, since it may supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation. Others consider multiculturalism to promote peace and understanding between peoples.
Greater international travel and tourism
Greater immigration, including illegal immigration
Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture).
Worldwide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace. Accessible to those who have Internet or Television, leaving out a substantial segment of the Earth's population.
Worldwide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Incorporation of multinational corporations in to new media. As the sponsors of the All-Blacks rugby team, Adidas had created a parallel website with a downloadable interactive rugby game for its fans to play and compete. [18]
Social - development of the system of non-governmental organisations as main agents of global public policy, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts.[19]
Technical
Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater transborder data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones
Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g. copyright laws, patents and world trade agreements.
Legal/Ethical
The creation of the international criminal court and international justice movements.
Crime importation and raising awareness of global crime-fighting efforts and cooperation.
Whilst it is all too easy to look at the positive aspects of Globalization and the great benefits that are apparent everywhere, there are also several negative occurrences that can only be the result of or major motivating factors that inspire some corporations to globalize.

Globalization – the growing integration of economies and societies around the world – has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in international economics over the past few years. Rapid growth and poverty reduction in China, India, and other countries that were poor 20 years ago, has been a positive aspect of globalization. But globalization has also generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality and environmental degradation [20]

Business

Collapse of commodities market was the outcome of poor economic policies of 1980, which ultimately resulted in debt crisis, as LDCs had tried to expand commodity production and economic growth and had borrowed large sums of money. Banks then insisted on readjustment of interest rates on new and existing loans and LDCs agreed. At that moment, globalization compelled them to decline commodity prices. Commodities were the main source of income for LDCs, so it became more and more difficult for them to reduce or pay their debts, which ultimately caused unemployment in many commodity sectors.

In order to repay their debts, LDC tried to adopt IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) to obtain funds from IMF. The strategy behind SAP program was to export more than import and produce hard cash to pay for the imports and direct the surplus towards debts. Although SAP was imposed for the betterment of economic condition of LDCs, but it did not work as it was planned. SAP created de-industrialization in LDCs and compelled them to again rely on export of their commodities. Selling of public assets to foreign investors also created unemployment.

Globalization has had extensive impact on the world of business. In a business environment marked by globalization, the world seems to shrink, and other businesses halfway around the world can exert as great an impact on a business as one right down the street. Internet access and e-commerce have brought small-scale coops in Third World nations into the same arena as thriving businesses in the industrialized world, and visions of low-income workers handweaving rugs on primitive looms that compete with rug dealers in major cities are not totally far-fetched.

Globalization has affected workforce demographics, as well. Today's workforces are characterized by greater diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnic and racial background, and a variety of other demographic factors. In fact, management of diversity has become one of the primary issues of 21st-century business.

Trends such as outsourcing and offshoring are a direct offshoot of globalization and have created a work environment in which cultural diversity can be problematic. A U.S. company where punctuality is important and meetings always start on time faces adjustments if it opens an office in South America or France, where being 10 to 15 minutes late to a meeting is considered acceptable: being on time is called 'British Time'[21]

Sweatshops

It can be said that globalization is the door that opens up an otherwise resource poor country to the international market. Where a country or nation has little material or physical product harvested or mined from its own soil, an opportunity is seen by large corporations to take advantage of the “export poverty” of such a nation. Where the majority of the earliest occurrences of economic globalization are recorded as being the expansion of businesses and corporate growth, in many poorer nations globalization is actually the result of the foreign businesses investing in the country to take advantage of the lower wage rate: even though investing, by increasing the Capital Stock of the country, increases their wage rate.

One example used by anti-globalization protestors is the use of “Sweatshops” by manufacturers. According to Global Exchange these “Sweat Shops” are widely used by sports shoe manufacturers and mentions one company in particular – Nike.[22] There are factories set up in the poor countries where employees agree to work for low wages. Then if labour laws alter in those countries and stricter rules govern the manufacturing process the factories are closed down and relocated to other nations with more liberal economic policies.[citation needed]

There are several agencies that have been set up worldwide specifically designed to focus on anti-sweatshop campaigns and education of such. “The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act” is a legislation passed by the National Labor Committee in the USA.[citation needed] The legislation now suggests that companies are legally obligated to respect human and worker rights by prohibiting the import, sale, or export of sweatshop goods .[citation needed]There are very strict standards set out by the International Labor Organization and any violations shall be banned from the US market.[citation needed]

Specifically, these core standards include no child labor, no forced labor, freedom of association, right to organize and bargain collectively, as well as the right to decent working conditions. [23]

Tiziana Terranova has stated that globalization has brought a culture of "free labour". In a digital sense, it is where the individuals (contributing capital) exploits and eventually "exhausts the means through which labour can sustain itself". For example, in the area of digital media (animations, hosting chat rooms, designing games), where it is often less glamourous than it may sound. In the gaming industry, a Chinese Gold Market has been established. [24]

Culture

One powerful source has blown down cultural boundaries around the entire world. What is this influential tool? It is the Internet and its endless margin of discovery. With the Internet people can easily access someone half way across the world. They could converse with someone living a completely different lifestyle yet still have something in common, the Internet. If language is a barrier then a website like Flickr, a photo sharing site, lets people from Singapore and Germany alike communicate without words. The Internet in essence makes the world a smaller place. Someone in America can be eating Japanese noodles for lunch while someone in Sydney Australia is eating classic Italian meatballs. One classic culture aspect is food. India is known for their curry and exotic spices. Paris is known for its smelly cheeses. America is known for its burgers and fries. McDonalds was once an American favorite with its cheery mascot, Ronald, red and yellow theme, and greasy fast food. Now it is a global enterprise with 31,000 locations worldwide with locations in Kuwait, Egypt, and Malta. This restaurant is just one example of food going big on the global scale. Meditation has been a sacred practice for centuries in Indian culture. It calms the body and helps one connect to their inner being while shying away from their conditioned self. Before globalization Americans did not meditate or crunch their bodies into knots on a yoga mat. After globalization this is a common practice, it is even considered a chic way to keep your body in shape. Some people are even traveling to India to get the full experience themselves. Another common practice brought about by globalization would be Chinese symbol tattoos. These specific tattoos are a huge hit with today’s younger generation and are quickly becoming the norm. With the melding of cultures using another countries language in ones body art is now considered normal. Culture is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these activities significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold, and activities they practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and made it into something different. As Erla Zwingle, from the National Geographic article titled “Globalization” states, “When cultures receive outside influences, they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start to transform them.” [25]


[edit] Pro-globalization (globalism)

Globalization advocates such as Jeffrey Sachs point to the above average drop in poverty rates in countries, such as China, where globalization has taken a strong foothold, compared to areas less affected by globalization, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty rates have remained stagnant.[26]Supporters of free trade claim that it increases economic prosperity as well as opportunity, especially among developing nations, enhances civil liberties and leads to a more efficient allocation of resources. Economic theories of comparative advantage suggest that free trade leads to a more efficient allocation of resources, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. In general, this leads to lower prices, more employment, higher output and a higher standard of living for those in developing countries.[26][27]

One of the ironies of the recent success of India and China is the fear that... success in these two countries comes at the expense of the United States. These fears are fundamentally wrong and, even worse, dangerous. They are wrong because the world is not a zero-sum struggle... but rather is a positive-sum opportunity in which improving technologies and skills can raise living standards around the world.

—Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty, 2005
Proponents of laissez-faire capitalism, and some Libertarians, say that higher degrees of political and economic freedom in the form of democracy and capitalism in the developed world are ends in themselves and also produce higher levels of material wealth. They see globalization as the beneficial spread of liberty and capitalism. [26]

Supporters of democratic globalization are sometimes called pro-globalists. They believe that the first phase of globalization, which was market-oriented, should be followed by a phase of building global political institutions representing the will of world citizens. The difference from other globalists is that they do not define in advance any ideology to orient this will, but would leave it to the free choice of those citizens via a democratic process[citation needed].

Some, such as former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, O.C., simply view globalization as inevitable and advocate creating institutions such as a directly-elected United Nations Parliamentary Assembly to exercise oversight over unelected international bodies.

Supporters of globalization argue that the anti-globalization movement uses anecdotal evidence[citation needed] to support their protectionist view, whereas worldwide statistics strongly support globalization:

From 1981 to 2001, according to World Bank figures, the number of people living on $1 a day or less declined from 1.5 billion to 1.1 billion in absolute terms. At the same time, the world population increased, so in percentage terms the number of such people in developing nations declined from 40% to 20% of the population.[28] with the greatest improvements occurring in economies rapidly reducing barriers to trade and investment; yet, some critics argue that more detailed variables measuring poverty should be studied instead [29].
The percentage of people living on less than $2 a day has decreased greatly in areas affected by globalization, whereas poverty rates in other areas have remained largely stagnant. In East-Asia, including China, the percentage has decreased by 50.1% compared to a 2.2% increase in Sub-Saharan Africa.[27]
Area Demographic 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 Percentage Change 1981-2002
East Asia and Pacific Less than $1 a day 57.7% 38.9% 28.0% 29.6% 24.9% 16.6% 15.7% 11.1% -80.76%
Less than $2 a day 84.8% 76.6% 67.7% 69.9% 64.8% 53.3% 50.3% 40.7% -52.00%
Latin America Less than $1 a day 9.7% 11.8% 10.9% 11.3% 11.3% 10.7% 10.5% 8.9% -8.25%
Less than $2 a day 29.6% 30.4% 27.8% 28.4% 29.5% 24.1% 25.1% 23.4% -29.94%
Sub-Saharan Africa Less than $1 a day 41.6% 46.3% 46.8% 44.6% 44.0% 45.6% 45.7% 44.0% +5.77%
Less than $2 a day 73.3% 76.1% 76.1% 75.0% 74.6% 75.1% 76.1% 74.9% +2.18%

'SOURCE: World Bank, Poverty Estimates, 2002[27]

Income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing.[30] Due to definitional issues and data availability, there is disagreement with regards to the pace of the decline in extreme poverty. As noted below, there are others disputing this. The economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin in a 2007 analysis argues that this is incorrect, income inequality for the world as a whole has diminished. [7]. Regardless of who is right about the past trend in income inequality, it has been argued that improving absolute poverty is more important than relative inequality. [8]
Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since World War II and is starting to close the gap between itself and the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, the least developed region, life expectancy increased from 30 years before World War II to about a peak of about 50 years before the AIDS pandemic and other diseases started to force it down to the current level of 47 years. Infant mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.[31]
Democracy has increased dramatically from there being almost no nations with universal suffrage in 1900 to 62.5% of all nations having it in 2000.[32]
Feminism has made advances in areas such as Bangladesh through providing women with jobs and economic safety.[26]
The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s.[33]
Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000.[34]
The percentage of children in the labor force has fallen from 24% in 1960 to 10% in 2000.[35]
There are increasing trends in the use of electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as a growing proportion of the population with access to clean water.[36]
The book The Improving State of the World also finds evidence for that these, and other, measures of human well-being has improved and that globalization is part of the explanation. It also responds to arguments that environmental impact will limit the progress.
Although critics of globalization complain of Westernization, a 2005 UNESCO report[37] showed that cultural exchange is becoming mutual. In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's and the European Union's shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia's cultural exports grew to surpass North America.


[edit] Anti-globalization
Main article: Anti-globalization
Anti-globalization is a term used to describe the political stance of people and groups who oppose the neoliberal version of globalization.

"Anti-globalization" may also involve the process or actions taken by a state in order to demonstrate its sovereignty and practice democratic decision-making. Anti-globalization may occur in order to maintain barriers to the international transfer of people, goods and beliefs, particularly free market degregulation, encouraged by organizations such as the IMF or the WTO. Moreover, as Naomi Klein argues in her book No Logo anti-globalism can denote either a single social movement or an umbrella term that encompasses a number of separate social movements [38] such as Nationalists and socialists. In either case, participants stand in opposition to the unregulated political power of large, multi-national corporations, as the corporations exercise power through leveraging trade agreements which in some instances damage the democratic rights of citizens[citation needed], the environment particularly air quality index and rain forests[citation needed], as well as national government's sovereignty to determine labor rights,[citation needed] including the right to form a union, and health and safety legislation, or laws as they may otherwise infringe on cultural practices and traditions of developing countries.[citation needed]

Some people who are labeled "anti-globalist" or "sceptics" (Hirst and Thompson)[39]consider the term to be too vague and inaccurate [40][41]. Podobnik states that "the vast majority of groups that participate in these protests draw on international networks of support, and they generally call for forms of globalization that enhance democratic representation, human rights, and egalitarianism."

Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton write[42]:

“ The anti-globalization movement developed in opposition to the perceived negative aspects of globalization. The term 'anti-globalization' is in many ways a misnomer, since the group represents a wide range of interests and issues and many of the people involved in the anti-globalization movement do support closer ties between the various peoples and cultures of the world through, for example, aid, assistance for refugees, and global environmental issues. ”

Some members aligned with this viewpoint prefer instead to describe themselves as the Global Justice Movement, the Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement, the Movement of Movements (a popular term in Italy), the "Alter-globalization" movement (popular in France), the "Counter-Globalization" movement, and a number of other terms.

Critiques of the current wave of economic globalization typically look at both the damage to the planet, in terms of the perceived unsustainable harm done to the biosphere, as well as the perceived human costs, such as poverty, inequality, miscegenation, injustice and the erosion of traditional culture which, the critics contend, all occur as a result of the economic transformations related to globalization. They challenge directly the metrics, such as GDP, used to measure progress promulgated by institutions such as the World Bank, and look to other measures, such as the Happy Planet Index,[43] created by the New Economics Foundation[44]. They point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequences--social disintegration, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment, the spread of new diseases, increasing poverty and alienation"[45] which they claim are the unintended but very real consequences of globalization.

The terms globalization and anti-globalization are used in various ways. Noam Chomsky believes that[46][47]

“ The term "globalization" has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to a specific form of international economic integration, one based on investor rights, with the interests of people incidental. That is why the business press, in its more honest moments, refers to the "free trade agreements" as "free investment agreements" (Wall St. Journal). Accordingly, advocates of other forms of globalization are described as "anti-globalization"; and some, unfortunately, even accept this term, though it is a term of propaganda that should be dismissed with ridicule. No sane person is opposed to globalization, that is, international integration. Surely not the left and the workers movements, which were founded on the principle of international solidarity - that is, globalization in a form that attends to the rights of people, not private power systems. ”
“ "The dominant propaganda systems have appropriated the term "globalization" to refer to the specific version of international economic integration that they favor, which privileges the rights of investors and lenders, those of people being incidental. In accord with this usage, those who favor a different form of international integration, which privileges the rights of human beings, become "anti-globalist." This is simply vulgar propaganda, like the term "anti-Soviet" used by the most disgusting commissars to refer to dissidents. It is not only vulgar, but idiotic. Take the World Social Forum, called "anti-globalization" in the propaganda system -- which happens to include the media, the educated classes, etc., with rare exceptions. The WSF is a paradigm example of globalization. It is a gathering of huge numbers of people from all over the world, from just about every corner of life one can think of, apart from the extremely narrow highly privileged elites who meet at the competing World Economic Forum, and are called "pro-globalization" by the propaganda system. An observer watching this farce from Mars would collapse in hysterical laughter at the antics of the educated classes." ”

Critics argue that:

Poorer countries are sometimes at disadvantage: While it is true that globalization encourages free trade among countries, there are also negative consequences because some countries try to save their national markets. The main export of poorer countries is usually agricultural goods. Larger countries often subsidise their farmers (like the EU Common Agricultural Policy, which lowers the market price for the poor farmer's crops compared to what it would be under free trade.[48]
Exploitation of foreign impoverished workers: The deterioration of protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labor. Due to the lack of protections, companies from powerful industrialized nations are able to offer workers enough salary to entice them to endure extremely long hours and unsafe working conditions, though economists question if consenting workers in a competitive employers' market can be decried as "exploitated". The abundance of cheap labor is giving the countries in power incentive not to rectify the inequality between nations. If these nations developed into industrialized nations, the army of cheap labor would slowly disappear alongside development. It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in many poorer countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and possible even his/her family if their previous jobs were unavailable.[49]
The shift to outsourcing: The low cost of offshore workers have enticed corporations to move production to foreign countries. The laid off unskilled workers are forced into the service sector where wages and benefits are low, but turnover is high .[citation needed] This has contributed to the widening economic gap between skilled and unskilled workers. The loss of these jobs has also contributed greatly to the slow decline of the middle class[citation needed] which is a major factor in the increasing economic inequality in the United States .[citation needed] Families that were once part of the middle class are forced into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to another country. This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a stepping stone. [50]
Weak labor unions: The surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever growing number of companies in transition has caused a weakening of labor unions in the United States. Unions lose their effectiveness when their membership begins to decline. As a result unions hold less power over corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for lower wages, and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore. [48]
In December 2007, World Bank economist Branko Milanovic has called much previous empirical research on global poverty and inequality into question because, according to him, improved estimates of purchasing power parity indicate that developing countries are worse off than previously believed. Milanovic remarks that "literally hundreds of scholarly papers on convergence or divergence of countries’ incomes have been published in the last decade based on what we know now were faulty numbers." With the new data, possibly economists will revise calculations, and he also believed that there are considerable implications estimates of global inequality and poverty levels. Global inequality was estimated at around 65 Gini points, whereas the new numbers indicate global inequality to be at 70 on the Gini scale. [51] It is unsurprising that the level of international inequality is so high, as larger sample spaces almost always give a higher level of inequality.

The critics of globalization typically emphasize that globalization is a process that is mediated according to corporate interests, and typically raise the possibility of alternative global institutions and policies, which they believe address the moral claims of poor and working classes throughout the globe, as well as environmental concerns in a more equitable way.[52]

The movement is very broad[citation needed], including church groups, national liberation factions, peasant unionists, intellectuals, artists, protectionists, anarchists, those in support of relocalization and others. Some are reformist, (arguing for a more moderate form of capitalism) while others are more revolutionary (arguing for what they believe is a more humane system than capitalism) and others are reactionary, believing globalization destroys national industry and jobs.

One of the key points made by critics of recent economic globalization is that income inequality, both between and within nations, is increasing as a result of these processes. One article from 2001 found that significantly, in 7 out of 8 metrics, income inequality has increased in the twenty years ending 2001. Also, "incomes in the lower deciles of world income distribution have probably fallen absolutely since the 1980s". Furthermore, the World Bank's figures on absolute poverty were challenged. The article was skeptical of the World Bank's claim that the number of people living on less than $1 a day has held steady at 1.2 billion from 1987 to 1998, because of biased methodology.[53]

A chart that gave the inequality a very visible and comprehensible form, the so-called 'champagne glass' effect,[54] was contained in the 1992 United Nations Development Program Report, which showed the distribution of global income to be very uneven, with the richest 20% of the world's population controlling 82.7% of the world's income.[55]

+ Distribution of world GDP, 1989
Quintile of Population Income
Richest 20% 82.7%
Second 20% 11.7%
Third 20% 2.3%
Fourth 20% 1.4%
Poorest 20% 1.2%

Source: United Nations Development Program. 1992 Human Development Report[56]

Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade benefits those with more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the poor.[57]

Americanization related to a period of high political American clout and of significant growth of America's shops, markets and object being brought into other countries. So globalization, a much more diversified phenomenon, relates to a multilateral political world and to the increase of objects, markets and so on into each others countries.

Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as the promotion of corporatist interests.[58] They also claim that the increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities shapes the political policy of countries.[59] [60]


[edit] International Social Forums
See main articles: European Social Forum, the Asian Social Forum,(Africa Social Forum), World Social Forum (WSF).

The first WSF in 2001 was an initiative of the administration of Porto Alegre in Brazil. The slogan of the World Social Forum was "Another World Is Possible". It was here that the WSF's Charter of Principles was adopted to provide a framework for the forums.

The WSF became a periodic meeting: in 2002 and 2003 it was held again in Porto Alegre and became a rallying point for worldwide protest against the American invasion of Iraq. In 2004 it was moved to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay, in India), to make it more accessible to the populations of Asia and Africa. This last appointment saw the participation of 75,000 delegates.

In the meantime, regional forums took place following the example of the WSF, adopting its Charter of Principles. The first European Social Forum (ESF) was held in November 2002 in Florence. The slogan was "Against the war, against racism and against neo-liberalism". It saw the participation of 60,000 delegates and ended with a huge demonstration against the war (1,000,000 people according to the organizers). The other two ESFs took place in Paris and London, in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Recently there has been some discussion behind the movement about the role of the social forums. Some see them as a "popular university", an occasion to make many people aware of the problems of globalization. Others would prefer that delegates concentrate their efforts on the coordination and organization of the movement and on the planning of new campaigns. However it has often been argued that in the dominated countries (most of the world) the WSF is little more than an 'NGO fair' driven by Northern NGOs and donors most of which are hostile to popular movements of the poor.[61]


[edit] See also
Postmodernism
preceded by Modernism
Post-anarchism
Posthumanism
Post-Marxism
Postmodernity
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern art
Postmodern Christianity
Postmodern dance
Postmodern feminism
Postmodern Fusion
Postmodern literature
Postmodern music
Postmodern picture book
Postmodern philosophy
Postmodern social construction of nature
Postmodern theater
Postmodernism in political science
Postmodernist anthropology
Postmodernist film
Postmodernist school
Post-structuralism
Neo-Traditionalism
v • d • e

Archaic globalization
Columbian Exchange
Cosmopolitan
Deglobalization
Development criticism
Free Trade
Global
Global citizens movement
Global justice
Global Policy Institute
Globality
Globalization and disease
Globalization and Health
Globalization Index
Globally Integrated Enterprise
Great Transition
New World Order
Offshoring
Outsourcing
The European Globalisation adjustment Fund
The Global Economy
Transnationality Index
World economy
World-systems theory
World Trade Organization

[edit] References
^ Sheila L. Croucher. Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World. Rowman & Littlefield. (2004). p.10
^ Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In Defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
^ Summary of the Annual Review of Developments in Globalization and Regional Integration in the Countries of the ESCWA Region by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
^ Globalization Is Grrrreat! by Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
^ Friedman,Thomas L. "The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention." Emergin: A Reader. Ed. Barclay Barrios. Boston: Bedford, St. Martins, 2008. 49
^ ZNet, Corporate Globalization, Korea and International Affairs, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Sun Woo Lee, Monthly JoongAng, 22 February 2006
^ The Battle of Armageddon, October, 1897 pages 365-370
^ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/tr_show01.html
^ Jurgen Osterhammel and Niels P.Petersson. Globalization: a short history. (2005) P.8
^ WTO.org,(2009)
^ Terry Flew. Twenty New Media Concepts. (2008) P.26
^ Axel Dreher, Noel Gaston, Pim Martens, Measuring Globalisation: Gauging Its Consequences, Springer, ISBN 978-0-387-74067-6.
^ KOF Index of Globalization
^ Stipo, Francesco. World Federalist Manifesto. Guide to Political Globalization, ISBN 978-0-9794679-2-9, http://www.worldfederalistmanifesto.com
^ Hurst E. Charles. Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and consequences, 6th ed. P.91
^ http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/53199
^ http://workinfonet.bc.ca/lmisi/Making/CHAPTER2/TANDG1.HTM
^ Scherer, J. (2007). "Globalization, promotional culture and the production/consumption of online games: Engaging Adidas's “Beat Rugby” campaign". New Media & Society 9: 475–496. [1]
^ Pawel Zaleski Global Non-governmental Administrative System: Geosociology of the Third Sector, [in:] Gawin, Dariusz & Glinski, Piotr [ed.]: "Civil Society in the Making", IFiS Publishers, Warszawa 2006
^ http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/index.html
^ The Economist, article on Venezuela
^ http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/faq.html
^ http://www.educatingforjustice.org/stopnikesweatshops.htm
^ Terry Flew. Ten Key Contemparary New Media Theorist.2008.P 78
^ simran
^ a b c d Sachs, Jeffrey (2005). The End of Poverty. New York, New York: The Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-045-9.
^ a b c "World Bank, Poverty Rates, 1981 - 2002" (PDF). http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/table2-7.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
^ "How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the Early 1980s?" by Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion. [2]
^ Michel Chossudovsky, "Global Falsehoods"
^ David Brooks, "Good News about Poverty"
^ Guy Pfefferman, "The Eight Losers of Globalization"
^ Freedom House
^ BAILEY, R.(2005).
^ BAILEY, R.(2005). The poor may not be getting richer but they are living longer.
^ Oxford Leadership Academy.
^ Charles Kenny, Why Are We Worried About Income? Nearly Everything that Matters is Converging, World Development, Volume 33, Issue 1, January 2005, Pages 1-19
^ 2005 UNESCO report
^ No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, Naomi Klein.
^ Hirst and Thompson "The Future of Globalisation" Published: Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 37, No. 3, 247-265 (2002)DOI: 10.1177/0010836702037003671 http://cac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/37/3/247
^ Morris, Douglas "Globalization and Media Democracy: The Case of Indymedia", Shaping the Network Society, MIT Press 2003. Courtesy link to(pre-publication version) [3]
^ [4] Podobnik, Bruce, Resistance to Globalization: Cycles and Evolutions in the Globalization Protest Movement, p. 2.
^ Stiglitz, Joseph & Charlton Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development. 2005 p. 54 n. 23
^ The Happy Planet Index
^ The New Economics Foundation
^ Capra, Fritjof (2002). The Hidden Connections. New York, New York: Random House. ISBN 0-385-49471-8.
^ Noam Chomsky Znet 07 May 2002 / The Croatian Feral Tribune 27 April 2002 [5]
^ Interview by Sniježana Matejčić, June 2005 en 2.htm
^ a b Hurst E. Charles. Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and consequences, 6th ed. P.41
^ Chossudovsky, Michel. The globalization of poverty and the new world order / by Michel Chossudovsky. Edition 2nd ed. Imprint Shanty Bay, Ont. : Global Outlook, c2003.
^ The Declining Middle Class: A Further Analysis, Journal article by Patrick J. Mcmahon, John H. Tschetter; Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 109, 1986
^ Developing Countries Worse Off Than Once Thought - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
^ Fórum Social Mundial
^ Wade, Robert Hunter. 'The Rising Inequality of World Income Distribution', Finance & Development, Vol 38, No 4 December 2001
^ Xabier Gorostiaga,"World has become a 'champagne glass' globalization will fill it fuller for a wealthy few' National Catholic Reporter, Jan 27, 1995 '
^ United Nations Development Program. 1992 Human Development Report, 1992 (New York, Oxford University Press)
^ "Human Development Report 1992". http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1992/en/. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
^ NAFTA at 10, Jeff Faux, Economic Policy Institute, D.C.
^ Lee, Laurence (17 May 2007). "WTO blamed for India grain suicides". Al Jazeera. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2ED53A8B-1058-49CF-B9FF-3D96639456D1.htm. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ Bakan, Joel (2004). The Corporation. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-4744-2.
^ Perkins, John (2004). Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. San Francisco, California: Berrett-Koehler. ISBN 1-57675-301-8.
^ Pambazuka News

[edit] Further reading
Barbara, Christopher (2008). International legal personality: Panacea or pandemonium? Theorizing about the individual and the state in the era of globalization. Saarbrücken: Verlag Dr. Müller. ISBN 3639115147. http://www.amazon.com/International-legal-personality-pandemonium-globalization/dp/3639115147/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230743211&sr=1-2.
von Braun, Joachim; Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla (2007). Globalization of Food and Agriculture and the Poor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195695281. http://www.ifpri.org/PUBS/otherpubs/globalpoor.asp.
Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2002), “World Language Policy in the Era of Globalization: Diversity and Intercommunication from the Perspective of 'Complexity'", Noves SL, Revista de Sociolingüística (Barcelona), http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/noves/hm02estiu/metodologia/a_bastardas1_9.htm.
Barzilai, Gad (2008). Beyond Relativism: Where is Political Power in Legal Pluralism. The Berkeley Electronic Press. pp. 395–416. http://www.bepress.com/til/default/vol9/iss2/art4/.
Haggblade, Steven; et al (2007). Transforming the Rural Nonfarm Economy: Opportunities and Threats in the Developing World. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 512. ISBN 978-0-8018-8663-8. http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/jhu/transformrural.asp.
Peter Berger, Four Faces of Global Culture (The National Interest, Fall 1997).
Friedman, Thomas L. (2005). The World Is Flat. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-29288-4.
Kitching, Gavin (2001). Seeking Social Justice through Globalization. Escaping a Nationalist Perspective. Penn State Press. ISBN 0271021624. http://www.gavinkitching.com/africa_3.htm.
Gernot Kohler and Emilio José Chaves (Editors) “Globalization: Critical Perspectives” Haupauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers (http://www.novapublishers.com/) ISBN 1-59033-346-2. With contributions by Samir Amin, Christopher Chase Dunn, Andre Gunder Frank, Immanuel Wallerstein
Mander, Jerry; Edward Goldsmith (1996). The case against the global economy : and for a turn toward the local. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 0-87156-865-9.
Murray, Warwick E. (2006). Geographies of Globalization. New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis. ISBN 0415317991.
Sen, Amartya (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019289330.
Sirkin, Harold L; James W. Hemerling and Arindam K. Bhattacharya (2008). Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. New York: Business Plus. pp. 292. ISBN 0446178292. http://www.bcg.com/globality.
Steger, Manfred (2003). Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280359-X.
Steger, Manfred B., “Globalism: the new market ideology” Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2002. ISBN 0742500721
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2002). Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-32439-7.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2006). Making Globalization Work. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-06122-1.
Tausch, Arno (2008), ‘Multicultural Europe: Effects of the Global Lisbon Process.’ Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers (for info: https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/).
Tausch, Arno (2009), “Titanic 2010? The European Union and its failed “Lisbon strategy”” Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers (for info: https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/).
Wolf, Martin (2004). Why Globalization Works. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300102529.

[edit] External links
The external links in this article may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines.
Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Globalization
Look up globalisation, globalization in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Globalization
2004 Development and Globalization. Facts and Figures
Latin Business Chronicle, Dec.10, 2008 Latin America More Globalized
Argentine Center of International Studies
Arno Tausch (2006), ‘From the “Washington” towards a “Vienna Consensus”? A quantitative analysis on globalization, development and global governance’. Paper, prepared for the discussion process leading up to the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit 2006, May 11, 2006 to May 12, 2006, Vienna, Austria. Centro Argentino de Estudios Internacionales, Buenos Aires
Arno Tausch (2007), ‘“Destructive Creation”? Some long-term Schumpeterian reflections on the Lisbon process’ Entelequia e-Books, University of Cadiz/Malaga (Spain), Munich Personal Repec Archive, Global Development Network, University of Sussex and University of Connecticut, Ideas/Repec
Effects of globalization on online freelancers
Embracing the Challenge of Free Trade: Competing and Prospering in a Global Economy a speech by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
Globalisation shakes the world BBC News
Globalization: Wonder Land or Waste Land by Murray Weidenbaum
Inequality Project from University of Texas
Institute for Research on World-Systems at UC Riverside
Resilience, Panarchy, and World-Systems Analysis from the Ecology and Society Journal
Rethinking Globalisation blog
OECD Globalization statistics
Globalization theories

[edit] Multimedia
CBC Archives CBC Television reports on the opening of Moscow McDonalds (1990) - sample of Western business expanding into former communist countries.
[show]v • d • eInternational trade

Definitions Balance of payments · Current account (Balance of trade) · Capital account · Foreign exchange reserves · Net Capital Outflow · Comparative advantage · Absolute advantage · Import substitution industrialization · International trade


Organizations and policies World Trade Organization · International Monetary Fund · World Bank Group · International Trade Centre · Trade bloc · Free trade zone · Trade barrier


Schools of thought Free trade · Balanced trade · Mercantilism · Protectionism


Related issues Globalization · Outsourcing · Trade justice · Fair trade


Customs unions CACM · CAN · CARICOM · CEMAC · EAC · EAEC · EU · GCC · Mercosur · SACU · WAEMU


[show]v • d • eSupranationalism and World government topics

Theory Supranationalism · Federalism · Confederation · Intergovernmentalism · Anti-nationalism · Globalization · Democratic mundialization · Pax · Cosmopolitanism · New World Order (conspiracy theory) · Supranational union

International bodies United Nations (UN) · Interpol · International Monetary Fund (IMF) · World Bank Group (WBG) · World Trade Organization (WTO) · Commonwealth of Nations

Regional bodies European Union (EU) · Latin Union · Council of Europe · Arab League · African Union (AU) · Union of South American Nations (USAN) · Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) · Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) · Association of Caribbean States (ACS) · Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) · Organization of American States (OAS) · South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) · Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) · NATO

International
parliaments United Nations General Assembly · European Parliament · Arab Parliament · Pan-African Parliament · Latin American Parliament · South American Parliament · Mercosur Parliament · Central American Parliament · Inter-Parliamentary Union

International courts International Criminal Court · International Court of Justice · International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia · International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda · African Court of Justice · Central American Court of Justice · Caribbean Court of Justice · Inter-American Court of Human Rights · European Court of Justice · European Court of Human Rights

Law and treaties International law (public · private · supranational) · United Nations Charter · Universal Declaration of Human Rights · Geneva Conventions · Rome Statute · Kyoto Protocol · European Union treaties · European Union law · Treaty of Chaguaramas

History Holy Roman Empire · League of Nations · Permanent Court of International Justice · Nuremberg Trials · Permanent Court of Arbitration

Proposals and
concepts World government · United Nations Parliamentary Assembly · United States of Africa · Central Asian Union · Pacific Union · North American Union · Federal Europe

Movements Federal Union · World Federalist Movement · Global citizens movement · World Union



This page was last modified on 26 February 2009, at 17:51. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers

Words, Words, Words...DGB Philosophy vs. Ayn Rand...and Milton Friedman...

It doesn't take much for philosophy to disintegrate into a 'soap opera' -- and a 'disaster' of words.

Ayn Rand said this, Ayn Rand said that. We are the 'true' educators of Ayn Rand Philosphy. Don't trust this 'faction' or that 'faction'. Trust only us.

How did Milt Friedman's philosophical ideas connect and/or disconnect with Ayn Rand's ideas? Did the two like each other and their respective ideas? Or not?

What caused the break-up in philosophical 'similarity of approach' between Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden? When I was writing my Honours Thesis in Psychology in 1979, they seemed to be on the 'same page together'. Much of the early part of my thesis was based on Branden's 'The Psychology of Self-Esteem' which in turn was very much influenced by the philosophy of Ayn Rand. What happened that they -- 'disconnected'?

Throw in Noam Chomsky's philosophical ideas -- quite the opposite of both Ayn Rand's and Milton Friedman's -- and the philosophical dialectic becomes even more complicated.

Words, words, words...and the ever elusive search for their 'meaning'...

Who said what? When? Where? Do we have that in writing? Do we have it in an interview?

Who's right? Who's wrong?

Where is that every elusive place of 'homeostatic-dialectic-democratic balance'?

Or is that even a goal that some -- or any -- of these philosophers are chasing?

Two of these philosophers -- Milton Friedman and Aynd Rand -- are pretty far right wing.

Chomsky is a known socialist -- although a good one, I believe -- a 'humanistic-socialist'. Similar to Erich Fromm in a lot of respects. Nice to see a man who lists both Adam Smith and Karl Marx amongst his philosophical influences. It seems obvious that Karl Marx has had the greater influence.

I can respect the work of both a 'good Capitalist' and a 'good Socialist'. I list Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Karl Marx, Erich Fromm, Noam Chomsky -- and whatever economic affiliate that Naomi Klein attaches herself to amongst the people I include in this category. Any yet none of them are beyond reproach. Not of them are infallible when it comes to logic, reason, and ethics...We are all too human, too human to try to believe that anyone of us has philosophically and/or politically and/or economically captured 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth' -- about anything.

Everyone is epistemologically and ethically fallible -- including Ayn Rand herself who almost talked and wrote like the 'reincarnation of Apollo' himself -- the God of Light and Reason and Truth.

With all due respect to Ayn Rand -- and I respect her ideas greatly -- I cannot but be amused by the irony I see in the fact that when Rand writes about 'reason' it is almost like she is writing about it with a Capital 'R' -- as in 'Reason'. She wrote about Reason like Plato wrote about 'The Forms' and like Hegel wrote about 'The Absolute' and like Kant wrote about 'The Noumenal World' -- like 'Reason' was some sort of 'Gift From God' and that we all just have to 'turn onto the right channel, the right frequency' -- 'The Frequency From God, The Frequency From Apollo' -- and we will all just magically 'know' what is 'good' vs. 'bad' reasoning.

Or maybe we just have to turn onto 'The Ayn Rand Frequency of Reason' and we will all just somehown magically know how to reason better -- and to live a better life.
A life of 'self-interest'. A life built around 'The Virtue of Selfishness'.

And this she calls 'ethics'. As if anyone would then need to study ethics to know what 'self-interest' and 'selfishness' is all about.

But then, maybe we all need to get a PHD in 'Ayn Rand Philosophy' -- or 'Objectivism' -- to know fully what Ayn Rand meant by 'rational self-interst' and/or 'the virtue of selfishness'.

I would hope that she would not equate it with what just happened on Wall Street last fall before Obama became President -- and that she would not equate it with all of these CEOs and corporate executives on Wall St. pleading for 'Washington Bailout Money' to compensate for their gross financial mistakes -- and greed -- and then turned around on Washington after they did indeed get their first package of bailout money -- and basically said, 'Thank you very much, as they took their golden parachute money and corporate bonuses, and retirement or severance packages -- and thumbed their noses at both the Washington politicians who gave them this money as well as, indirectly, the taxpayers on Main Street -- both those who lost their houses and those who didn't -- who I'm sure did not believe that their excruciatingly hard earned, and lost, tax money was going to be so abusively used, or misused, in this fashion.

I can't see Ayn Rand advocating this type of 'Capitalism' because Capitalism in this fashion -- which I call 'Narcissistic Capitalism' -- espouses the anti-thesis of everything that Ayn Rand I believe stood for in both 'The Fountainhead' and in 'Atlas Shruggged' -- specifically, the one word we might call 'integrity'.

So for Ayn Rand -- and her particular brand of philosophy, 'Objectivism' -- the challenge as I see it is to get 'Capitalism, Self-Interest, Selfishness -- and Integrity' all on the same page together, not an easy feat at all. Indeed, this is where I believe Ayn Rand's brand of Capitalistic Philososphy self-destructs under its own weight. Because inevitably, self-interest collapses into selfishness, which collapses into unbridled greed and narcissism. Which collapses into a world of 'Lord of The Flies' -- of distrust, paranoia, disrespect, and all the 'sophism' that each and every person can get away with. All spirit of 'co-operation' and 'working as a team' collapses under the philosophy that every worker has to 'check to see who's going into the manager's office next' and 'who's stabbing my back to get the proper management networking in place for the next promotion'...

One of the best ways of differentiating between 'Ethical Capitalism' and 'Narcissistic Capitalism' is by noting who works the hardest when the manager isn't around and who works the manager's office the hardest when the manager is around.'

As far as Milton Friedman, I don't think his brand of Capitalism even pretended to be as ethical as Ayn Rand's brand of Capitalism.

With Milton Friedman, it is to be assumed that all stockholders want the highest profits possible for the company they own. And it is the job of the corporate executives to 'deliver the goods'. Everything else is secondary as long as it is legal. A corporate executive has the choice of quitting if he or she doesn't like the particular 'brand of ethics' that is being passed down from the top. Otherwise, he or she does what he or she is told to do -- just like any good 'military man'. Authoritarianism rules. 'Shoot to kill.' Wipe out the people who are getting in the way of the maximum profits of the company. It's the American Way. Or at least the 'Milton Friedman' way. Pushed to the maximum by the applications of Bush and his Friedman brand of Republicans. Now Friedman would argue that America should never have invaded Iraq.

That is one thing we can agree on.

Philosophically, I am looking for a different brand of Capitalism -- different partly from both Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand although probably much closer to the aspired Capitalism of Ayn Rand with a more 'dialectic-democratic, humanistic-existential twist to it -- what I call, 'DGB Dialectic-Democratic, Humanistic-Existential Capitalism'.


Don't ask me what that is completely right now because I don't know.

It is just an abstract vision that needs to be worked out in more concrete detail. And I doubt if I can do it alone.

But incorporated into it will be my usual philosophical mentors: Hegel, Aristotle (the 'middle' path), Bacon, Locke, Adam Smith, Diderot, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Nietzsche, Abraham Lincoln, Eisenhower, Karl Marx, Erich Fromm, Ayn Rand, Foucault, Derrida, Chomsky...

I support 'individualism' -- but individualism in a social and political and economic context of 'Kantian ethics' of 'positive and negative reciprocity' -- 1. treating others like we would want to be treated ourselves; and 2. not treating others like we would not want to be treated ourselves.

That is enough for today.


-- dgb, Feb. 24th, 2009.

-- David Gordon Bain

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Chomsky" redirects here. For other persons of the same name, see Chomsky (surname).
Noam Chomsky Western Philosophy
20th / 21st-century philosophy

Full name Noam Chomsky
Birth 7 December 1928 (1928-12-07) (age 80)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
School/tradition Linguistics, Analytic
Main interests Linguistics · Psychology
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of mind
Politics · Ethics
Notable ideas Generative grammar, universal grammar, transformational grammar, government and binding, X-bar theory, Chomsky hierarchy, context-free grammar, principles and parameters, the minimalist program, language acquisition device, poverty of the stimulus, Chomsky Normal Form, propaganda model[1]
Influenced by[show]
Pāṇini, Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Mikhail Bakunin, Karl Marx, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Adam Smith, Rudolf Rocker, Zellig Harris, Immanuel Kant, René Descartes, George Orwell, C. West Churchman, W.V.O. Quine, Alan Turing.
Influenced[show]
Colin McGinn, Edward Said, Steven Pinker, Tanya Reinhart, Daniel Everett, Morris Halle, Gilbert Harman, Jerry Fodor, Brian Eno, Howard Lasnik, Robert Fisk, Neil Smith, Ray Jackendoff, Norbert Hornstein, Jean Bricmont, Marc Hauser, Norman Finkelstein, Robert Lees, Mark Baker, Julian Boyd, Bill Hicks, Ray C. Dougherty, Derek Bickerton, Thom Yorke, Amy Goodman, Michael Albert.
Avram Noam Chomsky (pronounced /noʊm ˈtʃɑmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher,[2][3][4] cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[5] Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modern linguistics.[6][7] Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident, an anarchist,[8] and a libertarian socialist intellectual.

In the 1950s, Chomsky began developing his theory of generative grammar, which has undergone numerous revisions and has had a profound influence on linguistics. He also established the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power. In 1959, Chomsky published a widely influential review of B. F. Skinner's theoretical book Verbal Behavior, which was the first attempt by a Radical Behaviorist to provide a functional, operant analysis of language. Chomsky used this review to broadly and aggressively challenge the behaviorist approaches to studies of behavior dominant at the time and contributed to the cognitive revolution in psychology. His naturalistic[9] approach to the study of language has affected the philosophy of language and mind.[10] Randy Harris, author of The Linguistics Wars, has described him as: "a hero of Homeric proportions, belonging solidly in the pantheon of our country's finest minds, with all the powers and qualities thereof. First, foremost, and initially he is staggeringly smart. The speed, scope, and synthetic abilities of his intellect are legendary. He is, too, a born leader, able to marshal support, fierce and uncompromising support, for positions he develops or adopts. Often, it seems, he shapes linguistics by sheer force of will."[11]

Beginning with his opposition to the Vietnam War, Chomsky established himself as a prominent critic of US foreign and domestic policy. He is a self-declared adherent of libertarian socialism which he regards as "the proper and natural extension of classical liberalism into the era of advanced industrial society."[12]

According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar during the 1980–92 period, and was the eighth most-cited source.[13][14][15] He is also considered a prominent cultural figure.[16] At the same time, his status as a leading critic of US foreign policy has made him controversial.[17]

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism


In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened…. These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism – the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock – did not begin with September 11, 2001. The book traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today. New, surprising connections are drawn between economic policy, “shock and awe” warfare and covert CIA-funded experiments in electroshock and sensory deprivation in the 1950s, research that helped write the torture manuals used today in Guantanamo Bay.

The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas though our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The Shock Doctrine

The Shock Doctrine

On this website, you can receive the latest news about Naomi Klein's latest book, The Shock Doctrine, read reviews, and see where you can purchase a copy. ShockDoctrine.com is designed to serve as a living companion to the book for readers who want to delve deeper into the book's material and themes, and who want to see the evidence for themselves.

One Year After the Publication of The Shock Doctrine:
A Response to the Attacks


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disaster Capitalism in Action
SEC to Examine Boards' Role in Financial Crisis
Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post, February 20, 2009

oversight
"Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro plans to look into whether the boards of banks and other financial firms conducted effective oversight leading up to the financial crisis, according to SEC officials, part of efforts to intensify scrutiny of the top levels of management and give new powers to shareholders to shape boards.

"As she examines what went wrong, Schapiro is also considering asking boards to disclose more about directors' backgrounds and skills, specifically how much they know about managing risk, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no policy initiative has been launched....

"The boards signed off on the risks the companies took and the compensation packages awarded to top executives. But many corporate watchdogs say the boards of top financial firms had characteristics that promoted risky business practices and harmed shareholders....

"Watchdogs point to flawed boards at many firms -- including Countrywide, American International Group and Wachovia -- involved in the crisis. [Nell] Minow points out that at Bear Stearns, the compensation committee had nine criteria to decide on the chief executive's compensation, such as total return to shareholders and earnings per share. But in the end, it could choose to award the maximum compensation to the chief executive based on only one of the criteria."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research
Andrew Pollack, New York Times, February 20, 2009

GMOs
Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry’s genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists....

"The problem, the scientists say, is that farmers and other buyers of genetically engineered seeds have to sign an agreement meant to ensure that growers honor company patent rights and environmental regulations. But the agreements also prohibit growing the crops for research purposes.

"So while university scientists can freely buy pesticides or conventional seeds for their research, they cannot do that with genetically engineered seeds. Instead, they must seek permission from the seed companies. And sometimes that permission is denied or the company insists on reviewing any findings before they can be published, they say....

"'If a company can control the research that appears in the public domain, they can reduce the potential negatives that can come out of any research,' said Ken Ostlie, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jobless Paying Fees to Banks When Collecting Unemployment Benefits
Christopher Leonard, Associated Press, February 19, 2009

Bailout Unemployment
"For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there's a new twist to their financial pain: Even when they're collecting unemployment benefits, they're paying the bank just to get the money — or even to call customer service to complain about it.

"Thirty states have struck such deals with banks that include Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and US Bancorp, an Associated Press review of the agreements found. All the programs carry fees, and in several states the unemployed have no choice but to use the debit cards. Some banks even charge overdraft fees of up to $20 — even though they could decline charges for more than what's on the card....

"With the national unemployment rate now at 7.6 percent, the market for bank-issued unemployment cards is booming. In 2003, states paid only $4 million of unemployment insurance through debit cards. By 2007, it had ballooned to $2.8 billion, and by 2010 it will likely rise to $10.5 billion, according to a study conducted by Mercator Advisory Group, a financial industry consulting firm."

» More
Home

Ayn Rand Quotes

Ayn Rand Quotes



Type:
Writer Quotes
Category:
Russian Writer Quotes
Date of Birth:
February 2, 1905
Date of Death:
March 6, 1982
Nationality:
Russian
Find on Amazon:
Ayn Rand

Related Authors:
Natan Sharansky
Andrei Platonov
Nikolai Gogol
Sholom Aleichem
Madame Swetchine
Samuel Hoffenstein
Alexander Berkman


A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.
Ayn Rand

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Ayn Rand

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.
Ayn Rand

A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Ayn Rand

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
Ayn Rand

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.
Ayn Rand

Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
Ayn Rand

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
Ayn Rand

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
Ayn Rand

Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
Ayn Rand

Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth.
Ayn Rand

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.
Ayn Rand

Evil requires the sanction of the victim.
Ayn Rand

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.
Ayn Rand

From the smallest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from one attribute of man - the function of his reasoning mind.
Ayn Rand

God... a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive.
Ayn Rand

Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.
Ayn Rand

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
Ayn Rand

I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.
Ayn Rand

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
Ayn Rand

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.
Ayn Rand

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Ayn Rand

Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.
Ayn Rand

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.
Ayn Rand

Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property.
Ayn Rand

Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.
Ayn Rand

Man's unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.
Ayn Rand

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.
Ayn Rand

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.
Ayn Rand

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.
Ayn Rand

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started.
Ayn Rand

People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don't sit looking at it - walk.
Ayn Rand

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.
Ayn Rand

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
Ayn Rand

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?
Ayn Rand

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.
Ayn Rand

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
Ayn Rand

The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.
Ayn Rand

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Ayn Rand

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.
Ayn Rand

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.
Ayn Rand

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
Ayn Rand

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.
Ayn Rand

The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.
Ayn Rand

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.
Ayn Rand

There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions to an individual, but permitted to a mob.
Ayn Rand

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Ayn Rand

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
Ayn Rand

To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.
Ayn Rand

To say "I love you" one must first be able to say the "I."
Ayn Rand

Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.
Ayn Rand

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
Ayn Rand

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.
Ayn Rand

When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.
Ayn Rand

When man learns to understand and control his own behavior as well as he is learning to understand and control the behavior of crop plants and domestic animals, he may be justified in believing that he has become civilized.
Ayn Rand

Objectivism (Ayn Rand)....from Wikipedia

Objectivism (Ayn Rand)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Individualism

Related topics[show]
Individualism · Individual rights · Classical liberalism · Individualist anarchism
Existentialism · Capitalism · Egoism
Libertarianism · Negative liberty · Objectivism
Individualist thinkers[show]
Lao Tzu · Aristotle · Locke · Smith · Jefferson · Warren · Emerson · Stirner · Mill · Kierkegaard · Thoreau · Spencer · Nietzsche · Rand · Rothbard
Opposing ideas[show]
Collectivism · Communitarianism · Communism · Socialism · Fascism · Social anarchism
v • d • e
Objectivism is a philosophy[1] developed by Ayn Rand in the 20th century that encompasses positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, and aesthetics.[2]

Contents [hide]
1 Brief overview
2 Etymology
3 Objectivist principles
3.1 Metaphysics: Objective reality
3.2 Epistemology: Reason
3.3 Ethics: Rational self-interest
3.4 Politics: Individual rights and capitalism
3.5 Aesthetics: Metaphysical value-judgements
4 Intellectual impact
5 Monographs and essays
6 References
7 See also
8 External links



[edit] Brief overview
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged 35th anniversary edition[3]

Ayn Rand characterized Objectivism as "a philosophy for living on earth," grounded in reality, and aimed at defining man's nature and the nature of the world in which he lives. Rand initially expressed these ideas in her novels The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and other works. She further elaborated on them in The Objectivist Newsletter, The Objectivist, The Ayn Rand Letter, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, and other non-fiction books.[4]

Objectivism holds: that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation; that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez-faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond.


[edit] Etymology
Objectivism derives its name from the idea that both knowledge and values are objective: neither intrinsic nor subjective. According to Rand, concepts and values are not intrinsic to external reality, nor are they created by the thoughts one has. Rather, valid concepts and values are, as she wrote, "determined by the nature of reality, but to be discovered by man's mind."[5]

Rand chose Objectivism as the name of her philosophy, saying her ideal term to label a philosophy based on the primacy of existence, Existentialism, had already been taken.[6] The word is capitalized to distinguish it from other philosophical positions to which the term "objectivism" has been applied.


[edit] Objectivist principles

[edit] Metaphysics: Objective reality
Main article: Objectivist metaphysics
Rand's philosophy is based on three axioms: the Axiom of Existence, the Law of Identity, and the Axiom of Consciousness. Rand defined an axiom as "a statement that identifies the base of knowledge and of any further statement pertaining to that knowledge, a statement necessarily contained in all others whether any particular speaker chooses to identify it or not. An axiom is a proposition that defeats its opponents by the fact that they have to accept it and use it in the process of any attempt to deny it".[3] As Leonard Peikoff noted, Rand's argumentation "is not a proof that the axioms of existence, consciousness, and identity are true. It is proof that they are axioms, that they are at the base of knowledge and thus inescapable."[6]

Objectivism states that "Existence exists" (the Axiom of Existence) and "Existence is Identity." To be is to be "an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes."[3] That which has no attributes does not and cannot exist. Hence, the Law of Identity: a thing is what it is. Whereas "existence exists" pertains to existence itself (whether something exists or not), the law of identity pertains to the nature of an object as being necessarily distinct from other objects (whether something exists as this or that). As Rand wrote, "A leaf cannot be all red and green at the same time, it cannot freeze and burn at the same time. A is A."[3]

Rand held that when one is able to perceive something, then one's "Consciousness exists" (the Axiom of Consciousness), consciousness "being the faculty of perceiving that which exists."[6] Objectivism maintains that what exists does not exist because one thinks it exists; it simply exists, regardless of anyone's awareness, knowledge or opinion. For Rand, "to be conscious is to be conscious of something," so that an objective reality independent of consciousness has to exist first for consciousness to become possible, and there is no possibility of a consciousness that is conscious of nothing outside itself. Thus consciousness cannot be the only thing that exists. "It cannot be aware only of itself — there is no 'itself' until it is aware of something."[7] Objectivism holds that the mind cannot create reality, but rather, it is a means of discovering reality.[8]

Objectivist philosophy regards the Law of Causality, which states that things act in accordance with their natures, as "the law of identity applied to action."[3] Rand rejected the popular notion that the causal link relates action to action. According to Rand, an "action" is not an entity, rather, it is entities that act, and every action is the action of an entity. The way entities interact is caused by the specific nature (or "identity") of those entities; if they were different there would be a different result.[6]


[edit] Epistemology: Reason
Main article: Objectivist epistemology
The starting point of Objectivist epistemology is the principle, presented by Rand as a direct consequence of the metaphysical axiom that "Existence is Identity," that Knowledge is Identification. Objectivist epistemology[8] defines how one can translate perception, i.e., awareness acquired through the senses, into valid concepts that identify the facts of reality.

Objectivism rejects philosophical skepticism and states that only by the method of reason can man gain knowledge (identification of the facts of reality). Objectivism also rejects faith and "feeling" as means of attaining knowledge. Although Rand acknowledged the importance of emotion in humans, she maintained that emotion was a consequence of the conscious or subconscious ideas one already holds, not a means of achieving awareness of reality.

Rand was neither a classical empiricist (like Hume or the logical positivists) nor a classical rationalist (like Plato, Descartes, or Frege). She disagreed with the empiricists mainly in that she considered perception to be simply sensation extended over time, limiting the scope of perception to automatic, pre-cognitive awareness. Thus, she categorized so-called "perceptual illusions" as errors in cognitive interpretation due to complexity of perceptual data. She held that objective identification of the values of attributes of existents is obtained by measurement, broadly defined as procedures whose perceptual component, the comparison of the attribute's value to a standard, is so simple that an error in the resulting identification is not possible given a focused mind. Therefore, according to Rand, knowledge obtained by measurement (the fact that an entity has the measured attribute, and the value of this attribute relative to the standard) is "contextually certain."

Ayn Rand's most distinctive contribution in epistemology is her theory that concepts are properly formed by measurement omission. Rand uses measurement here in the broad sense of comparing any quantitative or qualitative relationship, even such things as the intensity of love, not just physical measurements such as mass, time, or distance.

"According to Objectivism, concepts “represent classifications of observed existents according to their relationships to other observed existents.” To form a concept, one mentally isolates a group of concretes (of distinct perceptual units), on the basis of observed similarities which distinguish them from all other known concretes (similarity is “the relationship between two or more existents which possess the same characteristic(s), but in different measure or degree”); then, by a process of omitting the particular measurements of these concretes, one integrates them into a single new mental unit: the concept, which subsumes all concretes of this kind (a potentially unlimited number). The integration is completed and retained by the selection of a perceptual symbol (a word) to designate it. “A concept is a mental integration of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristic(s), with their particular measurements omitted.”" [9]

"...the term “measurements omitted” does not mean, in this context, that measurements are regarded as non-existent; it means that measurements exist, but are not specified. That measurements must exist is an essential part of the process. The principle is: the relevant measurements must exist in some quantity, but may exist in any quantity."[10]

Rand did not consider the analytic-synthetic distinction to have merit. She similarly denied the existence of a priori knowledge. Rand also considered her ideas distinct from foundationalism, naive realism, or representationalism (i.e., an indirect realist who believes in a "veil of ideas") like Descartes or John Locke.

Objectivist epistemology, like most other philosophical branches of Objectivism, was first presented by Rand in Atlas Shrugged.[3] It is more fully developed in Rand's 1967 Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.[8] Rand considered her epistemology and its basis in reason so central to her philosophy that she remarked, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."


[edit] Ethics: Rational self-interest
Main article: Objectivist ethics
The Objectivist ethic begins with a meta-ethical question: why do human beings need a code of values? The Objectivist answer is that humans, as beings of volitional consciousness, need such a code in order to survive as human beings.

Objectivism maintains that human beings, unlike other organisms, cannot act automatically to further their own survival. For man, the conceptual faculty is his tool for survival. An organism that possesses a faculty of sensation relies on its pleasure-pain mechanism; an animal that operates at the level of perception can use its perceptions to instinctively go through its essentially cyclic life; but a human being must rely on an integrated whole of his perceptual (rooted in sensations) and conceptual faculties.

Ayn Rand also claimed that in humans, who are conscious organisms, the motivation to pursue life is experienced as the pursuit of a conscious state—the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, in her one-sentence summary of Objectivism, Ayn Rand condensed her ethics into the statement that man properly lives "with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life." According to Objectivist epistemology states of mind, such as happiness, are not primary; they are the consequence of specific facts of existence. Therefore man needs an objective, principled standard, grounded in the facts of reality, to guide him in the pursuit of this purpose. Rand regarded happiness as a biological faculty evolved from the pleasure-pain mechanism of pre-human animals. This faculty functions as an instrument providing a continuous measurement of how successful one is at meeting the challenge of life. As she wrote in The Virtue of Selfishness (23, pb 27)

Just as the pleasure-pain mechanism of man's body is an automatic indicator of his body's welfare or injury, a barometer of its basic alternative, life or death—so the emotional mechanism of man's consciousness is geared to perform the same function, as a barometer that registers the same alternative by means of two basic emotions: joy or suffering.
Rand defined "ethics" as "a code of values to guide man's choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life." She sometimes referred to the Objectivist ethics in particular as "selfishness," as reflected in the title of her primary book on ethics, The Virtue of Selfishness. However, she did not use that term with the negative connotations that it usually has, but to refer to a form of rational egoism.

Rand summarized her ethical theories by writing[11]:

“ To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason, Purpose, Self-esteem. ”

Unlike many other philosophers, Ayn Rand limited the scope of ethics to the derivation of principles needed in all contexts, whether one is alone or with others.

The morality of Objectivism is based on the observation that one's own choices and actions are instrumental in maintaining and enhancing one's life, and therefore one's happiness. Rand wrote:

"Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice — and the alternative his nature offers him is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be man — by choice; he has to hold his life as a value — by choice; he has to learn to sustain it — by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues — by choice.
"A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality."[3]
There is a difference, therefore, between rational self-interest as pursuit of one's own life and happiness in reality, and what Ayn Rand called "selfishness without a self"—a range-of-the-moment pseudo-"selfish" whim-worship or "hedonism." A whim-worshipper or "hedonist," according to Rand, is not motivated by a desire to live his own human life, but by a wish to live on a sub-human level. Instead of using "that which promotes my (human) life" as his standard of value, he mistakes "that which I (mindlessly happen to) value" for a standard of value, in contradiction of the fact that, existentially, he is a human and therefore rational organism. The "I value" in whim-worship or hedonism can be replaced with "we value," "he values," "they value," or "God values," and still it would remain dissociated from reality. Rand repudiated the equation of rational selfishness with hedonistic or whim-worshipping "selfishness-without-a-self." She held that the former is good, and the latter evil, and that there is a fundamental difference between them.[12] A corollary to Rand's endorsement of self-interest is her rejection of the ethical doctrine of altruism—which she defined in the sense of August Comte's altruism (he coined the term), as a moral obligation to live for the sake of others.

Rand defined a value as "that which one acts to gain and/or keep." The rational individual's choice of values to pursue is guided by his need, if he chooses to live, to act so as to maintain and promote his own life. Rand did not hold that values proper to human life are "intrinsic" in the sense of being independent of one's choices, or that there are values that an individual must pursue by command or imperative ("reason accepts no commandments"). Neither did Rand consider proper values "subjective," to be pursued just because one has chosen, perhaps arbitrarily, to pursue them. Rather, Rand held that valid values are "objective," in the sense of being identifiable as serving to preserve and enhance one's life. Some values are specific to the nature of each individual, but there are also universal human values, including the preservation of one's own individual rights, which Rand defined as "conditions of existence required by man's nature for his proper survival."[3]

Objectivism holds that morality is a "code of values accepted by choice." According to Leonard Peikoff, Rand held that "man needs [morality] for one reason only: he needs it in order to survive. Moral laws, in this view, are principles that define how to nourish and sustain human life; they are no more than this and no less."[6] Objectivism does not claim that there is a moral requirement to choose to value one's life. As Allan Gotthelf points out, for Rand, "Morality rests on a fundamental, pre-moral choice:"[13] the moral agent's choice to live rather than die, so that the moral "ought" is always contextual and agent-relative. To be moral is to choose that which promotes one's life in one's actual context. There are no "categorical imperatives" (as in Kantianism) that an individual would be obliged to carry out regardless of consequences for his life.


[edit] Politics: Individual rights and capitalism
Objectivist politics begins with ethics: the question of if, and if so why, a rational agent needs a set of principles for living his life. The proper answer to ethics tells a rational individual how to preserve his individual rights while interacting with, benefiting from cooperation with, and trading with other individuals in society.[3] That is, it determines the principles which constitute a moral social system.[14] Objectivism holds that the only social system which fully recognizes individual rights is Capitalism[15]—as Rand understood it:

When I say "capitalism", I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.[12]
Objectivism holds that the individual possesses inalienable rights—the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of his own happiness. "Rights are moral principles defining and sanctioning a man's freedom of action in a social context" [12]. Government is the institution with a monopoly on the use of physical force in a given geographical area, so the issue is whether that force is to be used to protect or to violate individual rights—i.e., whether the government uses force only in retaliation or whether it initiates force against innocent citizens. Under laissez-faire Capitalism, the government is restricted to using retaliatory force, to protect individual rights—which means the only proper functions of the government are "the police, to protect men from criminals; the military forces, to protect men from foreign invaders; and the law courts, to protect men's property and contracts from breach by force or fraud, and to settle disputes among men according to objectively defined laws." [16]

Objectivism holds that human beings have the right to manipulate nature in any way they see fit, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. On the Objectivist account, the rights of other human beings are not of direct moral import to the agent who respects them; they acquire their moral purchase through an intermediate step. An Objectivist respects the rights of other human beings out of the recognition of the value to himself or herself of living in a world in which the freedom of action of other rational (or potentially rational) human beings is respected. One's respect for the rights of others is founded on the value, to oneself, of other persons as actual or potential partners in cooperation and trade.

For these reasons Ayn Rand defends capitalism as the ideal form of human society. Objectivism reserves the name "capitalism" for "full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism" —i.e., a society in which the defence of individual rights, which include individual property rights, are the only function of government.[17] Any system short of full laissez faire capitalism is regarded by Objectivists as a "mixed economy" consisting of certain aspects of personal ownership and its opposite (usually called socialism or statism),[3].

Rand describes Socialism as a system where individual rights, including private property rights, are not legally protected. "To deny property rights means to turn men into property owned by the state. Whoever claims the “right” to “redistribute” the wealth produced by others is claiming the “right” to treat human beings as chattel."[18]

Far from regarding capitalism as a dog-eat-dog pattern of social organization, Objectivism regards it as a beneficent system in which the innovations of the most creative benefit everyone else in the society (although that is not its justification). Indeed, Objectivism values creative achievement itself and regards capitalism as the only kind of society in which it can flourish.

A society is, by Objectivist standards, moral to the extent that individuals are free to pursue their own goals. This freedom requires that human relationships of all forms be voluntary (which, in the Objectivist view, means that they must not involve the use of physical force), mutual consent being the defining characteristic of a free society. Thus, the proper role of institutions of governance is limited to using force in retaliation against those who initiate its use—i.e., against criminals and foreign aggressors. Economically, people are free to produce and exchange as they see fit, with as complete a separation of state and economics as of state and church. Thus, Objectivism holds that a proper government must have its power strictly limited by an objectively defined charter and procedures designed to protect the pre-existing rights of its citizens.


[edit] Aesthetics: Metaphysical value-judgements
Main article: Romantic realism
The Objectivist theory of art flows from its epistemology, by way of "psycho-epistemology" (Rand's term for an individual's characteristic mode of functioning in acquiring knowledge). Art, according to Objectivism, serves a human cognitive need: it allows human beings to grasp concepts as though they were percepts.

Objectivism defines "art" as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments"—that is, according to what the artist believes to be ultimately true and important about the nature of reality and humanity. In this respect Objectivism regards art as a way of presenting abstractions concretely, in perceptual form.

The human need for art, on this view, stems from the need for cognitive economy. A concept is already a sort of mental shorthand standing for a large number of concretes, allowing a human being to think indirectly or implicitly of many more such concretes than can be held explicitly in mind. But a human being cannot hold indefinitely many concepts explicitly in mind either—and yet, on the Objectivist view, needs a comprehensive conceptual framework in order to provide guidance in life.

Art offers a way out of this dilemma by providing a perceptual, easily grasped means of communicating and thinking about a wide range of abstractions.

Objectivism regards art as an effective way to communicate a moral or ethical ideal. Objectivism does not, however, regard art as propagandistic: even though art involves moral values and ideals, its purpose is not to educate, only to show or project.

Moreover, art need not be, and often is not, the outcome of a full-blown, explicit philosophy. Usually it stems from an artist's sense of life (which is preconceptual and largely emotional).

Rand held that Romanticism was the highest school of literary art, noting that Romanticism was "based on the recognition of the principle that man possesses the faculty of volition."

What the Romanticists brought to art was the primacy of values… Values are the source of emotions: a great deal of emotional intensity was projected in the work of the Romanticists and in the reactions of their audiences, as well as a great deal of color, imagination, originality, excitement, and all the other consequences of a value-oriented view of life.[19]
The term "romanticism", however, is often affiliated with emotionalism, to which Objectivism is completely opposed. Historically, many romantic artists were philosophically subjectivist. Most Objectivists who are also artists subscribe to what they call romantic realism, which is how Ayn Rand labeled her own work.


[edit] Intellectual impact

The Fountainhead Cafe, a coffee shop in New York City inspired by Objectivism. The sign reads "Eat Objectively, Live Rich".See also: Criticisms of Objectivism
Ayn Rand's ideas are often supported with great passion or derided with great disgust, with little in between.[20] Some of this comes from Rand's challenging fundamental tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and some may be due to her own all-or-nothing, take-it-or-leave-it approach to her work. She warned her readers that, "If you agree with some tenets of Objectivism, but disagree with others, do not call yourself an Objectivist; give proper authorship for the parts you agree with — and then indulge any flights of fancy you wish, on your own."

Objectivism has been largely ignored or harshly criticized by academics. Objectivism has been called "fiercely anti-academic."[21] David Sidorsky, a professor of moral and political philosophy at Columbia University, says Rand's work is "outside the mainstream" and is more of an ideological movement than a well-grounded philosophy.[22]

In recent years Rand's works are more likely to be encountered in the classroom than in decades past.[21] Since 1999, several monographs were published and a refereed Journal of Ayn Rand Studies began.[23] In 2006 the University of Pittsburgh held a conference focusing on Objectivism.[24] In addition, two Objectivist philosophers (Tara Smith and James Lennox) hold tenured positions at two of the fifteen leading American philosophy departments.[25] Objectivist programs and fellowships have been supported at the University of Pittsburgh[26], University of Texas at Austin[27] and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill[28]. The Ayn Rand Society, dedicated to fostering the scholarly study of Objectivism, is affiliated with the American Philosophical Association's Eastern Division.[29]

Rand is not found in the comprehensive academic reference texts The Oxford Companion to Philosophy or The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. A lengthy article on Rand appears in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy;[30] she has an entry forthcoming in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,[31] as well as a brief entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy which features the following passage:

The influence of Rand’s ideas was strongest among college students in the USA but attracted little attention from academic philosophers. … Rand’s political theory is of little interest. Its unremitting hostility towards the state and taxation sits inconsistently with a rejection of anarchism, and her attempts to resolve the difficulty are ill-thought out and unsystematic.

Allan Gotthelf (chairman of the Ayn Rand Society)[32] responded unfavorably to this entry and came to her defense.[33] He and other scholars have argued for more academic study of Objectivism, viewing Rand's philosophy as a unique and intellectually interesting defense of classical liberalism that is worth debating.[34]

Despite the claims of critics, such as William F. Buckley, Jr. who called her philosophy "stillborn", Ayn Rand's books remain popular, selling over 400,000 copies per year.[35]


[edit] Monographs and essays
Main article: Bibliography of work on Objectivism
Prominent Objectivist Leonard Peikoff, published Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (E. P. Dutton), a comprehensive survey of Ayn Rand's philosophy. Objectivism is central to Ronald Merrill's introductory monograph The Ideas of Ayn Rand (Open Court Publishing.) Monographs on specific aspects of Objectivism include: The Capitalist Manifesto, by Andrew Bernstein (University Press of America), Viable Values (Rowman & Littlefield) and Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: the Virtuous Egoist (Cambridge University Press) by Tara Smith, The Evidence of the Senses (Louisiana State University Press) by David Kelley, What Art Is: the Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand (Open Court Publishing) by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi, and The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts (The Ayn Rand Institute Press) by Harry Binswanger.

A series of essay collections on the philosophical and literary dimensions of Rand's novels, edited by Robert Mayhew, have been published: Essays on Ayn Rand's We the Living (2004), Essays on Ayn Rand's Anthem (2005), and Essays on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (2006) (Lexington Books).


[edit] References
^ So identified by sources including:
Hicks, Stephen. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2006), s.v. "Ayn Rand" Retrieved June 22, 2006.
Smith, Tara. Review of "On Ayn Rand." The Review of Metaphysics 54, no. 3 (2001): 654–655. Retrieved from ProQuest Research Library.
Encyclopædia Britannica (2006), s.v. "Rand, Ayn." Retrieved June 22, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
One source notes: "Perhaps because she so eschewed academic philosophy, and because her works are rightly considered to be works of literature, Objectivist philosophy is regularly omitted from academic philosophy . Yet throughout literary academia, Ayn Rand is considered a philosopher. Her works merit consideration as works of philosophy in their own right." (Jenny Heyl, 1995, as cited in Mimi R Gladstein, Chris Matthew Sciabarra(eds), ed (1999). Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. Penn State Press. ISBN 0-271-01831-3. , p. 17)
^ Rand, Ayn. Introducing Objectivism, in Peikoff, Leonard, ed. The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought. Meridian, New York 1990 (1962.)
^ a b c d e f g h i j Rand, Ayn (1996). Atlas Shrugged (35th Anniv edition). Signet Book. ISBN 0451191145.
^ Rubin, Harriet (2007-09-15). "Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/business/15atlas.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
^ Rand, Ayn. "What Is Capitalism?". Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. p. 23.
^ a b c d e Peikoff, Leonard (1993). Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Meridian. ISBN 978-0452011014.
^ Gotthelf, Allan (2000). On Ayn Rand. Wadsworth.
^ a b c Rand, Ayn (1990). Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Meridian. ISBN 0-452-01030-6.
^ 'Peikoff, Leonard, “The Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy,” Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, 131
^ Rand, Ayn (1990). Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Meridian.
^ Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged, Dutton, 1957/1992, p. 1018 (Galt's speech)
^ a b c Rand, Ayn, with additional articles by Nathaniel Branden. (1964) The Virtue of Selfishness. Signet Book.
^ Gotthelf, Allan. On Ayn Rand, Wadsworth, 2000, p. 84
^ Ayn Rand, "Philosophy: Who Needs It", Philosophy: Who Needs It.
^ Rand, Ayn. "What Is Capitalism?". Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
^ Rand, Ayn. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. p. 73.
^ http://www.aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/capitalism.html
^ http://www.aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/socialism.html
^ Ayn Rand, "What is Romanticism," The Romantic Manifesto
^ Leonard Doyle. "Guru of greed: The cult of selfishness". http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18551.htm. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
^ a b McLemee, Scott (September 1999). "The Heirs Of Ayn Rand: Has Objectivism Gone Subjective?". http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9909/rand.html. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
^ Harvey, Benjamin (2005-05-15). "Ayn Rand at 100: An 'ism' struts its stuff". Rutland Herald. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050515/NEWS/505150346/1014. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
^ Sharlet, Jeff (1999-04-09). "Ayn Rand has finally caught the attention of scholars: New books and research projects involve philosophy, political theory, literary criticism, and feminism". The Chronicle of Higher Education 45 (31): 17–18.
^ "Concepts and Objectivity: Knowledge, Science, and Values" (PDF). http://www.pitt.edu/~hpsdept/news/news/ConceptsObjConf2006.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
^ Philosophy departments of the United States, ranked by the Philosophical Gourmet Report
^ http://www.pittmag.pitt.edu/summer2004/cornerstones.html
^ New fellowship for study of objectivism established at The University of Texas at Austin | The University of Texas at Austin
^ Carolina Development, UNC-Chapel Hill
^ "Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association – Eastern Division Program" (PDF). 2006. http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/publications/proceedings/v80n1/public/80_1_public.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
^ "Ayn Rand at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". 2006. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/r/rand.htm. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
^ "Table of Contents". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html#r. Retrieved on 2008-06-15.
^ Ayn Rand Society
^ "The Entry on Ayn Rand in the new Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy". http://web.archive.org/web/20000229050116/http://aynrandsociety.org/#The%20Entry%20on%20Ayn%20Rand%20in%20the%20newRoutledge%20Encyclopedia%20of%20Philosophy. Retrieved on 2007-07-20. , Archive copy at the Internet Archive
^ Uyl, Douglas J. Den (1998). "On Rand as philosopher" (PDF). Reason Papers 23: 70–71. http://www.mises.org/reasonpapers/pdf/23/rp_23_5.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
^ "Rand's lesson endures". 2007. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/reiland/s_518319.html. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.

[edit] See also
Objectivist Movement
Libertarianism and Objectivism

[edit] External links
Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism
Essentials of Objectivism at the Ayn Rand Institute
Ayn Rand Novels — a site aimed at introducing students to Objectivism
The Atlas Society: The Center for Objectivism
Ayn Rand Society — Includes an overview
The Objectivism Wiki – a user-created reference on Objectivism
The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism
The Objectivism Reference Center — Includes both advocacy and criticism articles