For the New Intellectual

In response to the practical problems of the 1960s—problems similar to those we face today—many public figures were calling for a retreat from intellectual concerns in favor of blind tradition or range-of-the-moment pragmatism. Ayn Rand rejected this approach. She held that abstract ideas are man’s basic means of dealing with practical life. They enable him to understand concrete issues, to evaluate them, and to act successfully to deal with them. The problem with Western civilization, she held, was not that it was too intellectual, but that too many of its intellectuals accepted and propagated fundamentally wrong ideas. What the world needs urgently, she said, are New Intellectuals.

For the New Intellectual is Ayn Rand’s manifesto on the fundamental clash between producers and their enemies in Western civilization, the philosophical ideas responsible for this conflict, and the philosophy necessary to lead Western civilization to new heights.

The 47-page title essay, a sweeping chronicle of the rise and fall of reason, freedom and capitalism in Western civilization—of how the rise was due primarily to Aristotle’s influence and the fall, to the default of philosophers and intellectuals—explains why new intellectuals are necessary to right America’s, and the world’s, course. The essay presents Ayn Rand’s distinctive view of the role of ideas in shaping history.

In presenting the antidote to the ideas that have undermined Western civilization, Ayn Rand offers the major philosophical speeches from her novels, We the Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. These include speeches on art, sex, business, money, dictatorship, individualism, collectivism—and her famous speech from Atlas Shrugged summarizing her entire philosophy (the most comprehensive summary that Ayn Rand ever wrote).

Ayn Rand’s call for New Intellectuals remains as necessary, as enlightening, and as inspiring as ever.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• For the New Intellectual
• We the Living
• Anthem
• The Fountainhead
  • The Nature of the Second-Hander
  • The Soul of a Collectivist
  • The Soul of an Individualist
• Atlas Shrugged
  • The Meaning of Money
  • The Martyrdom of the Industrialists
  • The Moral Meaning of Capitalism
  • The Meaning of Sex
  • “From Each According to His Ability, to Each According to His Need”
  • The Forgotten Man of Socialized Medicine
  • The Nature of an Artist
  • “This is John Galt Speaking”

(Paperback; 192 pages)

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