Ayn Rand's Objectivism

The author of Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead leaves us a lasting guide to living happier and more productive lives in the here and now. It's called Objectivism. It is a philosophy that has been credited as the guiding set of principles of many successful people, but one that has always been controversial because it advocates selfishness as a means to find happiness, vilifying altruism in and of itself as evil.

Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness, that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form - a work of art - that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally.

Rand's philosophy begins with the idea that reality is objective. The world around us is what it is – not what we would like it to be – and wishing otherwise won't make it so. Reality is an objective absolute; the only way we can perceive it is through the reason of the mind. Reason is all we have, but it is all we need for understanding the world around us. If reason is an absolute, there can therefore be no contradictions.

She also believed that we all need a morality based upon rationality, not faith, or arbitrary edict, or emotion - a morality that can be demonstrated by logic; and that our highest moral purpose must be the pursuit of our own selfish happiness through reason. Reason must be humanity's only guide to action.

The problem has always been that selfishness can be misinterpreted. It does not mean exploiting others for one's own gain. It means realizing one's highest potential by pursuing rational ends and living in harmony with others by respecting their right to pursue their own life and happiness without individual or institutional interference.

Rand's defense of individual liberty integrates elements from her entire philosophy. Since reason is the means of human knowledge, it is therefore each person's most fundamental means of survival and is necessary to the achievement of values. The use or threat of force neutralizes the practical effect of an individual's reason, whether the force originates from the state or from a criminal. According to Rand, "man's mind will not function at the point of a gun". Therefore, the only type of organized human behavior consistent with the operation of reason is that of voluntary cooperation.

Persuasion is the method of reason. By its nature, the overtly irrational cannot rely on the use of persuasion and must ultimately resort to force to prevail. Thus, Rand argued that reason and freedom are correlates, just as she argued that mysticism and force are corollaries. Based on this understanding of the role of reason, Objectivists claim that the initiation of physical force against the will of another is immoral, as are indirect initiations of force through threats, fraud, or breach of contract. The use of defensive or retaliatory force, on the other hand, is appropriate.

Objectivism claims that because the opportunity to use reason without the initiation of force is necessary to achieve moral values, each individual has an inalienable moral right to act as his own judgment directs and to keep the product of his effort. In content, as the founding fathers recognized, there is one fundamental right, which has several major derivatives. The fundamental right is the right to life. Its major derivatives are the right to liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.

A 'right' is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man's freedom of action in a social context. These rights are specifically understood to be rights to action, not to specific results or objects, and the obligations created by rights are negative in nature: each individual must refrain from violating the rights of others. Objectivists reject alternative notions of rights, such as positive rights, collective rights, or animal rights.

Objectivism claims that the only social system which fully recognizes individual rights is capitalism, specifically what Rand described as "full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism". Objectivism regards capitalism as the social system which is most beneficial to the poor, but does not consider this its primary justification. Rather, it is the only moral social system. Objectivism maintains that only societies seeking to establish freedom have a right to self-determination.

Objectivism describes government as "the means of placing the retaliatory use of physical force under objective control - i.e., under objectively defined laws"; thus, government is both legitimate and critically important in order to protect individual rights. Rand opposed anarchism because she considered that putting police and courts on the market is an inherent miscarriage of justice. Objectivism claims that the proper functions of a government are "the police, to protect men from criminals, and the armed services, to protect men from foreign invaders; the law courts, to settle disputes among men according to objective laws"; the executive, and legislatures. Furthermore, in protecting individual rights, the government is acting as an agent of its citizens and "has no rights except the rights delegated to it by the citizens" and it must act in an impartial manner according to specific, objectively defined laws.

Rand argued that limited intellectual property monopolies being granted to certain inventors and artists on a first-to-file basis are moral because she considered all property as fundamentally intellectual. Furthermore, the value of a commercial product derives in part from the necessary work of its inventors. However, Rand considered limits on patents and copyrights as important and said that if they were granted in perpetuity, it would necessarily result in de facto collectivism.

Rand opposed racism and any legal application of racism. She considered affirmative action to be an example of legal racism. Rand advocated the right to legal abortion and believed capital punishment is morally justified as retribution against a murderer, but dangerous due to the risk of mistakenly executing innocent people and facilitating state murder. She therefore said she opposed capital punishment "on epistemological, not moral, grounds".

She opposed involuntary military conscription. She opposed any form of censorship, including legal restrictions on pornography, opinion or worship, famously quipping; "In the transition to statism, every infringement of human rights has begun with a given right's least attractive practitioners".

Objectivists have also opposed a number of government activities commonly endorsed by both liberals and conservatives, including antitrust laws, the minimum wage, public education, and existing child labor laws. Objectivists have argued against faith-based initiatives, displaying religious symbols in government facilities, and the teaching of "intelligent design" in public schools. Rand opposed involuntary taxation and believed government could be financed voluntarily, although she thought this could only happen after other reforms of government were implemented.

The ultimate result of the application of Rand's philosophy is a life of reason, purpose, and self-esteem. Liberal academic philosophers, as well as religionists and theologians, have mostly ignored or rejected Rand's philosophy in large part because it attacks the entrenched belief that an elite few in the government or in the church can better manage the affairs of individuals in society than can the individuals themselves. Nonetheless, Objectivism continues to be a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives because of its emphasis upon freedom and reliance upon reason first and foremost, just as Atlas Shrugged continues to be the most read book in print aside from the Bible.