In this series of posts, I will attempt a sympathetic critique of two extreme and conflicting philosophies– Objectivism, specifically the Objectivist ethic as embodied by John Galt from Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, and the ethic of Father Zosima from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov. As a result of my critique, I will attempt to combine their remainders into a single philosophical position more sound than its component parts.

I have taken on this task largely because I admire these two characters and would like to see the combination of their philosophies. Unfortunately they are, in many ways, contradictory with one another and seem to be incompatible. The respective cores of the Objectivist ethic and Zosima’s ethic seem to be selfishness and selflessness. It is hard to see how these can be consistent. After all, how could one be selfish and selfless at the same time?

In the interest of brevity, I will not be attempting a full-fledged, point-by-point critique of either ethic. A full critique of just one of these ethics would take several posts in and of itself, so instead I will be pinpointing what I think are the essential points in both and asking if they are true and/or absolute. As we will see, I believe there are many points expressed as absolutes or as either/or statements that need not be. Why, for instance, must one choose to either live solely with the self in mind, as Galt believes, or solely with the other in mind, as Zosima believes? It seems to me that both conclusions could be arrived at honestly and without negation of the other. We will look at the reasons given for believing such absolute claims and ask if they are in fact well founded. If not, we will then ask if there are any other good reasons for believing them as absolutes. If not, we will then ask if a non-absolute form can be properly founded. If so, it might then be compatible with our newly melded ethic.

Of course, this is all assuming that nothing else comes along to spoil our plans of a merger. If something unforeseen shows itself, we will deal with it accordingly.