Philosophical Outsiders

Stephen Hicks makes a telling point, in regard to philosophers who claim Rand was not a philosopher.

It reminds me of Friedrich Nietzsche’s reception by the philosophers at the University of Basel (I haven’t come across their names in the history books) when Nietzsche assumed his teaching position there. As biographer Marianne Cowen tells it, the professors told their students not to take Nietzsche’s courses since he was a lightweight and not really a philosopher:

“For a time, Nietzsche, then professor of classical philology at the University of Basle, had no students in his field. His lectures were sabotaged by German philosophy professors who advised their students not to show up for Nietzsche’s courses.”

Dismissal is an easier move
than working hard to disprove.