Trials of Howard Roarke :: essays research papers fc

THE TRIALS OF HOWARD ROARK I. INTRODUCTIONThere are some literary beginnings so well-known as immediately to call to mind the halts in which they appear Call me Ishmael1 It was the best of quantify. It was the worst of times2 and, increasingly, Howard Roark laughed.3 So begins the novel, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Published in 1943, The Fountainhead continues to sell 100,000 copies a year.4 For millions it provides the introduction to a philosophic/ genial movement known as Objectivism. It has been suggested that Objectivism provided intellectual grounding for the decline of left-liberalism and the expanding incline of a libertarian shift in American culture.5 Yet despite its influence, the password has engendered scant academic attention6 and virtually no attention in the well-grounded academy. In The Fountainhead, as in all of Rands mature false works, the honormore specifically, unity or more trial scenesfigures prominently. Indeed, in all of them trials are essentia l elements of the plot development.7 Although Rands work is precisely unique in its use of the trial for dramatic purposes,8 it is distinctive in its use of the trial as illustrative of moral or philosophical principles.9 One would expect, therefore, that 431 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------at least in the philosophical literature of Objectivism, one would find discussion about the role and meaning of law that one would be disappointed. Apart from occasional bromides about the importance of intent law, there is precious little, even in Objectivist literature, about law. Leonard Peikoff, Rands intellectual heir, has written what is perhaps the most systematic exegesis of Rands philosophy.10 The index to his book has no independent listing for law it lists law only as a subhead of government, under the rubric as requiring objective law.11 His discussion consumes just a few pages and is prone almost merely to criminal law.12 The coup le of paragraphs on civil law are devoted entirely to the law of contracts.13 Moreover, the treatment is incredibly superficial and seems to equate objectiveness to particular concretes, as if abstractions could not be objectivea mail service one would think Rand would find antithetical to her philosophy, which placed a agiotage on the conceptual level of awareness.14 The other leading book space interpretations of Rands work also lack so much as an index entry for law.15 This essay is an attempt at filling the unemployed in legal scholarship and Objectivist literature at the intersection of law and Objectivism. I do not attempt a comprehensive query of the Objectivist view of law.