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Comment by mlillie | Hacker News Reader

Her work is unappreciated by philosophers because her work is not really in the scope of philosophy and fails to answer any of its core problems, either then or now. Political or social change is not a good barometer for importance in philosophy, even though her work may exhibit some philosophical underpinnings. By the standards of entertainers who dabble in philosophy and were extremely influential, this list could also include, say, Bob Dylan.

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It would take me longer than I have to respond well, but others can google “ayn rand philosophical questions” and be the judge. As best as I can tell, she is ignored and slandered because of her politics which are not in fashion and not her ideas.

Heidegger was a Nazi and he's well-regarded.

Adding Ayn Rand would help balance the gender disparity, as well, and yet they don't. The resistance to accepting her as a philosopher is just that great.

I'm not clear on what list you think Rand might be added to, but when I was an undergrad over 20 years ago, our philosophy department included a course that covered some of her work, among that of others. She was mentioned by name in the course description, though I can't speak to the content of the course beyond that.

In order to understand the problem of her popularity among philosophers compare her to someone else who was influential in having written philosophy, plays and fiction, and also for having had some political influence: Jean-Paul Sartre. Imagine Sartre's position in the canon if his writing was not Nobel-prize quality and was - let's be frank - pretty bad, but he was still in possession of some political influence, somehow, as a public intellectual. Under those analogous circumstances, I'm not sure we'd even know who he was here in the United States.

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