Supposedly Neitzsche was a big fan of mathematical determinism, whereas Ayn was a big fan of free will. I wonder what they’d say to each other?
I certainly do not think this is a GQ. However, I think Friedrich would think Ayn was pretty cute. However, he was pretty dead when she entered this world.
Seriously, Nietzsche’s complexities would have bored the hell out of Ayn Rand. I wish I had more time to get into this, maybe when it hit’s GD if it does get that far.
AR: “Nietzsche?”
FR: “Gesundheit.”
General Questions is for questions with factual answers. This is more of a Great Debate.
I’ll move this to Great Debates for you.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
Keep in mind that Nietzsche’s political ethic was greatly influenced by Dostoevsky’s Underground Man. Rand viewed Nietzsche’s egoism (as opposed to her own) as irrational and coercive. As he wrote, “the striving for excellence is the striving to overwhelm one’s neighbor, even if only very indirectly or only in one’s own feelings.” — Notes in the preface for the second edition of Morgenröthe. She considered her own brand of egoism to be rational, and based on self-interest, an ethic that she derived deductively from the original premise that “existence exits”.
I’ve always heard Nietzsche was a bit awkward with women, the covnersation probably wouldn’t go that well.
Who says determinism and free will are mutually exclusive? 
But seriously, I seem to remember someone describing Rand as “the poor man’s Nietzsche”. Of course Rand didn’t go as far as Nietzsche did in her philosophies, but they did have some similaries. (However, since I haven’t really read much of either, I can’t be more specific than that.)
“Ayn Rand is dead.” Nietzsche
“So are you, Poopiehead.” Ayn Rand
Tris
He’d say, “Ayn? AYN! Lemme outta this box!!!”
“Books? I’ve written many books…”
That is *supremely * funny!
FN: “Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.”
AR: “Ka-boom” (explodes)
How you doin’?
“Doesn’t this sound like the opening of some joke?”
“Indeed it does, Nieti, indeed it does.”
“Don’t call me Nieti, Annie.”
What would Nietsche say?
“THAT’S how you define ‘altruism’? Buy yourself a dictionary, lady!”
I did my thesis on Nietzsche, and I came across a footnote in one article that actually called Rand the K-Mart version of Nietzsche and said it was a shame that so many young people were reading her books instead of the N-man himself. I don’t remember the author, but I may have mention of it among my notes…I’ll look later.
As to whether Nietzsche would be hitting on Ms. Rand, some recent biographers seem certain that Nietzsche was gay. However, I have yet to see any convincing support for this – it seems just as likely to me that he was heterosexual but just lousy at dealing with women. So whatever he might have wanted to say to her may well have earned him a slap. 
Over at the Objectivist Center they held a “Cyber Seminar” in the spring of 2000. Titled “Nietzsche and Objectivism” it discussed many aspects of the two philosophies. When they finally get down to comparing the two philosophies in section 4, the author of the introductory essay concludes:
FWIW
I’ve not studied Nietzsche enough to give much of an opinion. What little I know (from reading the Wikipedia article about him indicates that his idea of “Will to Power” seems quite a bit different than Rand’s Rational Self Interest. Especially as (wikipedia seems to imply) he tried to apply it to inanimate objects and processes. Rational Self Interest was clearly deliminated to apply only to humans.
The tale I heard was that Neitzsche was just cruddy in dealing with girls, not gay, although who knows. Is it true that he died of an STD contracted from his first and only sexual experience with a woman? I read Human All Too Human and thought he sounded pretty bitter about the fairer sex, but that doesn’t prove anything.
I think they’d hate each other’s philosophy, although they do resemble one another on the surface. Bottom line: Neitzsche believed that morality and virtue were totally subjective (Beyond Good and Evil) whereas Rand believed that virtue should be the same for everyone. Neitzsche didn’t really believe in free will either, without which Rand’s philosophy (and most of her fiction) falls apart.
Uh…isn’t that almost exactly what I just said?
*It is widely believed that Nietzsche frequented brothels as a young man, and contracted syphilis from a prostitute in this way. However, there is also evidence to that this belief originated from an intentional smear campaign.
Nietzsche was indeed diagnosed with syphilis after the breakdown which led to his being committed, but even at the time his doctors were not confident in this diagnosis. Some of his symptoms were not consistent with the disease. He also survived longer than would be expected. Quite a few biographers, historians, and doctors today believe that he probably had a brain tumor instead. But either way, history does not tell us much about the man’s sex life.
Sputter, snort, inhale root beer. Now THAT is funny.
“Hey Ayn, do you philosophize here often?”
With pickup lines like that, no wonder he didn’t do well with the “chicks”.