Quotes from Leonard Peikoff

In the field of morality, the Nazi's primary obligation is to renounce, to renounce his self, in the full, literal sense of the term: his values, in the name of society; his judgment, in the name of authority; his convictions, in the name of flexibility.

For the most part, the leading spirits of the Progressive era were men who had been students here or abroad in the 1880s or '90s. They were the voices of the first American generation to be reared in college on the new collectivist theories; they were men trained to the conviction that an increase in the power of the state is the solution to most of mankind's problems.

Although there are many variants of Plato's system, what makes them the same in regard to integration is their commitment to two fundamental principles. In metaphysics, their principle is supernaturalism. In epistemology, it is rationalism.

We believe on this earth solely in Adolf Hitler ... ," intoned Dr. Robert Ley to a reverent audience of 15,000 Hitler Youths. "We believe that God has sent us Adolf Hitler.

The voluntarist worship of mindless action may be designated by the term "activism." Activism is the form of irrationalism which extols direct physical action, based on will or instinct or faith, while repudiating the intellect and its products, such as abstractions, theory, programs, philosophy. In a very literal sense, activism is irrationalism—in action. "We approach the realities of the world only in strong emotion and in action ... ," says Hitler.

The motor behind Hitler was not men's immorality or amorality; it was the Germans' obedience to morality—as defined by their nation's leading moral philosopher.

To liberate humanity from intelligence, Hitler counted on the doctrines of irrationalism. To rid men of conscience, he counted on the morality of altruism. To free the world of freedom, he counted on the idea of collectivism.

Moral laws, according to Kant, are a set of orders issued to man by a nonheavenly, nonearthly entity (which I shall discuss shortly), a set of unconditional commandments or "categorical imperatives"—to be sharply contrasted with mere "counsels of prudence.

An interest," writes Kant, "is present only in a dependent will which is not of itself always in accord with reason; in the divine will we cannot conceive of an interest.

It is Kant who made possible the sudden mushrooming of the Platonic collectivism in the modern world, and especially in Germany.

Both sides in Germany's cultural battle elevated feeling above reason. And both sides experienced the same basic kind of feeling. The left called it alienation or the angst of nothingness. The right called it götterdämmerung or the philosophy of Schopenhauer. The common denominator is the conviction of doom.

To satisfy this need, one must recognize that philosophy is a system of ideas. By its nature as an integrating science, it cannot be a grab bag of isolated issues. All philosophic questions are interrelated. One may not, therefore, raise any such questions at random, without the requisite context. If one tries the random approach, then questions (which one has no means of answering) simply proliferate in all directions.

Reality, declares Hegel, is inherently contradictory;

Kant is the first and greatest nihilist in the history of thought. A nihilist is one who works to destroy man's mind and values as an end in itself, for the sake of the destruction.

Plato appeals to soaring idealism scornful of the practical. Aristotle appeals to joyful realism on earth. Kant appeals to rage.

Fundamental philosophic ideas are almost always profoundly controversial. They are not bromides; they are not self-evident, unless it's like "A is A." They involve tremendous abstraction and tremendous complexity. And therefore, if you find that you can zip them off in one or two sentences that absolutely no one could ever question, the chances are very strong that you did something wrong, that you missed out on what this idea actually says.

Reason the Only Oracle of Man, Ethan Allen titled his work, expressing the widespread viewpoint. "Fix reason firmly in her seat," writes Jefferson to a nephew, "and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Kant did not preach Nazism. But, on a fundamental level and for the first time, he flung at Western man its precondition: "Du bist nichts" ("You are nothing").

Dein Volk ist alles" ("Your people is everything") soon followed

During the twenties, Germany's youngsters (both rightist and leftist) were in the vanguard of the growing rebellion against the Weimar Republic. The youngsters were rebelling against the establishment in the name of every fundamental idea which they had been taught by every influential spokesman of that establishment

A German Volkisch ethic educates men to make the People the centre of their thought."' (Professor Ernst Bergmann, a Nazi intellectual)

Our own German language possesses a word which magnificently designates this kind of activity: Pflichterfüllung (fulfillment of duty); it means not to be self-sufficient but to serve the community." (Meln Kampf)

A valid code of morality, Ayn Rand concludes, a code based on reason and proper to man, must hold man's life as its standard of value. "All that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; all that which destroys it is the evil."16

To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason—Purpose—Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge—Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve-Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living. These three values imply and require all of man's virtues ... 20