taraharris

So you haven't read her, and you admit that you're acting unfairly?

How do you know that comparing her to Aristotle is laughable if you don't actually know what she said?

I recommend "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" if you'd like to compare her epistemology with Aristotle's.

Edit: again, why the downvote? Yes, I know some people don't like Ayn Rand (and others adore her). But there's nothing in this message that warrants a downvote.

His comment is an ad-hominem attack on Objectivists (e.g., people like me.)

I was 19 when I first read Rand. I'm 29 now, and I still love her philosophy and her novels. I'm willing to be that you haven't read her very closely.

At any rate, your quote is a mere ad-hominem attack, and I don't think that anyone here will mistake it for an actual argument.

"The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort. Production is the application of reason to the problem of survival.

Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational faculty or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free of the interference of those who don’t. Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man’s mind."

-Ayn Rand

Socialism is fundamentally opposed to this view.