[MD] Alternatives to the scientific method

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[ian]
> Did it need a million words and a dozen books to express [Rand's point in her writings]?


Ian.
You're missing the point.  Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead, etc. are novels.  Rand could have (& did in her non-fiction) made her point more sustinctly.  But she wanted to reach an audience that would read a (philosophic) novel (however long) but not a philosophic treatise (however short).  She, like Pirsig, embedded her point in a story/stories.  Part of what she wanted to show was that ideas have consequences, that having a particular philosophy/morality makes a difference in how one acts, in what kind of life one leads.  Her characters purposely are shown to act in ways predictable from their, well, character.  In real life, being an altruist doesn't mean being cruel to animals.
Craig