Objectivism
from 1957
Reality is objective, reason is the only means of knowing it, self-interest is a virtue, and capitalism follows from all three.
- Active
- from 1957
- Where
- New York
- Status
- living
- Tradition
- Anglo American
The claim
Existence exists, and consciousness is the faculty of perceiving it. Man's life is the standard of value; rational self-interest is the proper moral purpose; and laissez-faire capitalism is the only system consistent with that.
What it held
Rand's system was presented mostly through novels, and Atlas Shrugged sold in numbers no work of philosophy approaches. That is the first thing to say about it: whatever its academic standing, its reach is enormous and it has shaped how a great many people talk about markets and obligation.
The metaphysics and epistemology are broadly Aristotelian — an objective world, concepts formed by abstraction from perception, reason as the means of survival for a being with no instincts adequate to the job.
The ethics is where the argument is. Rand denies that altruism is a virtue, arguing that a morality demanding you treat your own life as a means to others' is a morality against life. Rational self-interest, on her account, is not licence to exploit — she rejects the initiation of force absolutely — but a claim that each person is an end in themselves and not a resource.
The standing objections are serious. Academic philosophers point to the is-ought move from man's life as the standard, the treatment of altruism as a single position when it covers many, and a general reluctance to engage opposing arguments in their strongest form.
How it argued
Presentation through fiction, followed by essays and lectures; the movement was organised around an inner circle and produced several public excommunications.
What it was arguing against
Altruism as a moral ideal, collectivism in every form, Kantian duty, and mixed-economy compromise.
Where it disagreed with itself
Whether the derivation of ought from life's requirements succeeds. Whether the movement's institutional history — the expulsions, the deference to Rand's judgement — reflects on the philosophy.
Common misconceptions
That it endorses exploitation or cruelty. Rand rejected the initiation of force categorically and regarded fraud and coercion as violations of the same principle that grounds self-interest. Whether the system delivers this consistently is a separate question.
How it began
Rand left the Soviet Union in 1926 and the philosophy is legible as a lifelong argument with what she had left.
What became of it
Living, through institutes, campus groups and a large readership, largely outside universities.
Lasting influence
American libertarianism and the rhetoric of business. Alan Greenspan was in her circle. Its academic presence is small and its public presence is not.
Why it still matters
The argument about whether self-interest can ground a morality is a real one, and this is its most widely read statement.
Put another way
An architect who would rather destroy his building than see it altered — her own image, from The Fountainhead.
Where to start
The Virtue of Selfishness. The arguments are there without the plot.
The surprising bit
She began Atlas Shrugged as a novel and had to construct the philosophy to finish it. The seventy-page speech at its centre took her two years to write.
In their own words
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
Existence exists.
Connections
- Opposed by
- Communitarianism, Classical Marxism, Ubuntu Philosophy
The verdict
The most widely read philosophy of the twentieth century, and the one academic philosophy has engaged with least.