Taylor J. Smith wrote:
Ayn Rand hated the Communists. If you want to see where she was coming from, read
Yes, she hated them, yet she strongly resembled them. That's my point. Both were extremists. Both put their theories about human nature ahead of actual observations and experience. Both were blinded by the beauty of a doctrine and could not see where it did not fit reality.
Many scientists and intellectuals suffer from these faults. Experimentalists are less prone to it than theorists, I think. It was T. H. Huxley, the great experimentalist, who said: "Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact."
Pragmatists and experimentalists have what I consider a healthy distrust of theory.
- Jed
