No Tributes to Caesar: Good or Evil in Atlas Shrugged (MP3 download)

By Tara Smith Why does Galt declare that "man's reason is his moral faculty?" What does it mean—and what does it take—for a man to truly love his life? What does it mean to accept the death premise? By tracing pivotal elements in Hank's and Dagny's progressive understanding of the essential nature of their alternatives, Dr. Smith shows why Francisco is right in claiming that a man's existence permits "no tributes to Caesar." The lecture also explains how the heroes' deeper knowledge of the fundamental, either-or character of their alternatives makes sense of several of their actions that disturb some readers as unduly harsh (such as Dagny's killing the guard). More broadly, the lecture makes clear how the mutually exclusive, do-or-die character of the alternative between good and evil dictates the absolutism of Ayn Rand's moral code. This lecture examines the mutually exclusive nature of the life or death alternative as presented in Atlas Shrugged. By probing what it takes to truly lov