Hacker News Reader

Do you think it's a valid criticism then to complain about Ayn Rand's ideas when you haven't been able to comprehend them?

View on HN

Sure! -- or would you have me believe every Randite who criticizes Marx has read his impenetrable opus? Being responsible for what posterity does to one's logos is an occupational hazard of the propheting trade.

Anyone who criticizes Marx without having first studied Marx should not be thought highly of. The degree to which you have studied something is roughly proportional to how much criticism you can reasonably heap on it.

I cannot launch an in-depth criticism of, say, Finnish politics because I have not studied Finnish politics in any detail.

I can give a limited criticism of Robert Greene, because I have studied a selection of his writings.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com