Atlas Shrugged as a
Philosophical Novel
David Kelley
and
William Thomas
Summer Seminar
2006
Atlas Shrugged As A Philosophical Novel
Lecture V
Unity of mind and body
William Thomas
Lecture 5: Unity of mind and body
0. Introduction: What is Mind-Body-Unity?
I. The Principle in Love and Work
II. Plot implementation and characterization: Rearden’s
struggle, the John Galt Line, Galt the inventor vs. Stadler
the theorist
III. Clearest Statement of the theme: The Engine room on the
John Galt Line, Francisco’s Sex Speech, Galt’s speech
IV. Buried riches: the sanctity of industry
Rearden’s confession
He spoke slowly, as if lashing himself with his words. …
"I held it as my honor that I would never need anyone. I need you. It
had been my pride that I had always acted on my convictions.
I've given in to a desire which I despise. It is a desire that has
reduced my mind, my will, my being, my power to exist into an
abject dependence upon you—not even upon the Dagny
Taggart whom I admired—but upon your body, your hands, your
mouth and the few seconds of a convulsion of your muscles. …
“I've chosen to do this—and I'll take all the consequences,
including the full recognition of my choice. It's depravity—and I
accept it as such—and there is no height of virtue that I wouldn't
give up for it….”
— Atlas Shrugged, pp. 238-239
Dagny Laughed
When he stopped, she burst out laughing.
The shock to him was that he heard no anger in her laughter. She laughed
simply, easily, in joyous amusement, in release, not as one laughs at
the solution of a problem, but at the discovery that no problem had ever
existed.
… She stood up. She saw her clothes on the floor and kicked them aside.
She stood facing him, naked. She said:
"I want you, Hank…. I am an animal who wants nothing but that sensation
of pleasure which you despise but I want it from you. You'd give up any
height of virtue for it, while I—I haven't any to give up. There's none I
seek or wish to reach. I am so low that I would exchange the greatest
sight of beauty in the world for the sight of your figure in the cab of a
railroad engine… I will sit at my desk, and work, and when the things
around me get hard to bear, I will think that for my reward I will be in
your bed that night. Did you call it depravity? I am much more depraved
than you are: you hold it as your guilt, and I—as my pride.”
— Atlas Shrugged, Pt. 1 Chapter IX, pp. 238-239
Mind-Body Dichotomy
•
•
•
•
•
Body
Matter
Practice
Emotion
Lust
VERSUS
•
•
•
•
•
Mind
Spirit
Theory
Reason
Love
Mind-Body Unity
•
•
•
•
•
Body
Matter
Practice
Emotion
Lust
AND
•
•
•
•
•
Mind
Spirit
Theory
Reason
Love
These are aspects of unified human nature
Philosophical Anthropology
(Theory of Human Nature)
 Metaphysics: Reality (Axioms of awareness)
---Ontology or Theory of Nature
 Philosophical Anthropology: (Mind-body Unity)
 Epistemology: Reason (Logic)
 Ethics: Self-interest (Virtues and Values)
 Politics: Capitalism (Rights and legal theory)
Mind-Body Unity and Philosophical Terminology
 “Spiritual”: pertaining to consciousness and thought
 “Physical”: pertaining to sensation and reality outside the mind
 “Perception”: direct awareness of reality
 “Abstraction”: conceptual awareness of reality via integrating
percepts
 “Theoretical”: known abstractly from particular cases
 “Moral”: relating to practical principles for achieving human life
and happiness
 “Practical”: works in fact, therefore true and/or good.
Lecture 5: Unity of mind and body
0. Introduction: What is Mind-Body-Unity?
I. The Principle in Love and Work
II. Plot implementation and characterization: Rearden’s
struggle, the John Galt Line, Galt the inventor vs. Stadler
the theorist
III. Clearest Statement of the theme: The Engine room on the
John Galt Line, Francisco’s Sex Speech, Galt’s speech
IV. Buried riches: the sanctity of industry
Mind-Body Unity in Love and Work
 Romantic Love
 Productive Work
Combines spiritual admiration
+ physical attraction
Applies mental effort to
supporting one’s life
Provides most intense and
intimate experience of self
and values
Requires and develops moral
virtue
Lecture 5: Unity of mind and body
0. Introduction: What is Mind-Body-Unity?
I. The Principle in Love and Work
II. Plot implementation and characterization: Rearden’s
struggle, the John Galt Line, Galt the inventor vs. Stadler
the theorist
III. Clearest Statement of the theme: The Engine room on the
John Galt Line, Francisco’s Sex Speech, Galt’s speech
IV. Buried riches: the sanctity of industry
Clearest Statements of the Theme
• Dagny’s reflections during the run of the John Galt Line (in the
engine room) (230-31)
• Rearden’s reflections as he prepares to sign the “miracle metal”
gift certificate.
• Francisco’s speech on sex (455-56)
• Hank Rearden’s speech to Dagny after she returns from the
valley. (790-91)
• Galt’s speech—the section on the mind-body dichotomy as the
handmaiden of altruism (943-45)
The Mind/Body Dichotomy in Galt’s Speech
pp. 943-945: (Begins: “No, they say, they do not preach that man is
evil....”):
1. The dichotomy holds that soul and body have incompatible
natures, needs, and aims, and that the good of the soul requires
the negation of the body.
2. The dichotomy presupposes the negation of reason, leaving
man to choose between guidance by physical instincts or by
mystic feelings.
3. The mystics of spirit substitute revelation for reason; they
demand that the individual surrender his mind and self-interest
to the will of God.
4. The mystics of muscle substitute reflexes for reason; they
demand that the individual surrender his mind and self-interest
to the will of Society.
5. Both varieties of mystics preach the same moral doctrine: selfsacrifice.
(source: outline of Galt’s Speech by David Kelley)
Rearden’s Guilt
…I damned the fact that my mind and body were a unit, and that
my body responded to the values of my mind. I damned the fact
that joy is the core of existence, the motive power of every living
being, that it is the need of one's body as it is the goal of one's
spirit, that my body was not a weight of inanimate muscles, but
an instrument able to give me an experience of superlative joy
to unite my flesh and my spirit. That capacity, which I damned as
shameful, had left me indifferent to sluts, but gave me my one
desire in answer to a woman's greatness. That desire, which I
damned as obscene, did not come from the sight of her body,
but from the knowledge that the lovely form I saw, did express
the spirit I was seeing—it was not her body that I wanted, but
her person—it was not the girl in gray that I had to possess, but
the woman who ran a railroad.
— Atlas Shrugged, Pt. 2 Chapter VI, p. 523
Lecture 5: Unity of mind and body
0. Introduction: What is Mind-Body-Unity?
I. The Principle in Love and Work
II. Plot implementation and characterization: Rearden’s
struggle, the John Galt Line, Galt the inventor vs. Stadler
the theorist
III. Clearest Statement of the theme: The Engine room on the
John Galt Line, Francisco’s Sex Speech, Galt’s speech
IV. Buried riches: the sanctity of industry
The Sacred and The Profane
 Sacred or Profane?
 Profane or Sacred?
 Chaste love
 Sexual love
 Holding to duty
 Seeking happiness
 Working for charity
 Making a profit
 A church
 A railroad terminal
 A spire
 A bridge
 Empty country
 Industrial development