Unity of Mind & Body by The Atlas Society

Atlas Shrugged as a Philosophical Novel Lecture V

Unity of Mind & Body William Thomas

Lecture 5: Unity of Mind & 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

• Mind

• Matter

• Spirit

• Practice • Emotion • Lust

VERSUS

• Theory • Reason • Love

Mind-Body Unity • Body

• Mind

• Matter

• Spirit

• Practice

AND

• Theory

• Emotion

• Reason

• Lust

• 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.

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

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

The Sacred and The Profane  Sacred or Profane?  Chaste love  Holding to duty  Working for charity  A church  A spire  Empty country

 Profane or Sacred?  Sexual love  Seeking happiness  Making a profit  A railroad terminal  A bridge  Industrial development