words have an exact meaning

[Elliot Temple]

Atlas Shrugged:

> "Don't you ever think of anything but d'Anconia Copper?" Jim asked him once.
> "No."
> "It seems to me that there are other things in the world."
> "Let others think about them."
> "Isn't that a very selfish attitude?"
> "It is."
> "What are you after?"
> "Money."
> "Don't you have enough?"
> "In his lifetime, every one of my ancestors raised the production of d'Anconia Copper by about ten per cent. I intend to raise it by one hundred."
> "What for?" Jim asked, in sarcastic imitation of Francisco's voice.
> "When I die, I hope to go to heaven—whatever the hell that is—and I want to be able to afford the price of admission.”
> "Virtue is the price of admission," Jim said haughtily.
> "That's what I mean, James. So I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of all—that I was a man who made money."
> "Any grafter can make money."
> "James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning."

I agree with what's being said here that "words have an exact meaning" in the way Frisco means. I mention this in connection with the definitions debate.



lol @ price of admission + the use of "hell" in that sentence.

-- Elliot Temple
http://elliottemple.com/

[David Deutsch]

On the passage itself:

Hmm. I can't see a way of agreeing that the greatest virtue of all is to have made money. To have made money (honestly) means to have made other people better off. It may or may not make oneself better off, so I don't see how the claim can be exactly true in Rand's philosophy either. (And Francisco's keen on exact meanings, apparently. Maybe he isn't a Randian.)

-- David Deutsch

[Elliot Temple]

Of course he's not a Randian. Rand asked everyone not to be one. Only people who don't respect Rand, or don't know much about her, would choose to be a Randian.

Rand preferred that people be Objectivists.

The passage is exalting production and creation. That is compatible with Objectivism.

Francisco doesn't know everything at the time he says this. This is before Francisco has studied philosophy and learned from Galt. As you know, later in timeline he destroys a great deal of money and wealth -- and considers his actions virtuous.

-- Elliot Temple
http://beginningofinfinity.com/