Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum on February 2nd, 1905. She emigrated to the United States in 1926, after experiencing communism under Soviet Russia first hand. She wrote four major novels ("We the Living", "Anthem", "The Fountainhead", and her 1100-page masterwork "Atlas Shrugged") and many other essays and nonfiction works in which she explains and explores her own philosophy, which she named "Objectivism". She used a capital "O" to distinguish her philosophy from objectivism with a lowercase "o", which predates Rand and is simply a belief in an objective, rather than a subjective, reality. While Rand's Objectivism encompasses classic objectivism, it is a much larger philosophy, addressing areas such as economics and politics.

Ayn Rand was the one of the few recent philosophers who believed in objective reality and the power of human reason. She rejected the notion that humans are helpless creatures who are incapable of controlling their own destinies or knowing anything with any certainty. She was also a stalwart defender of classical American liberalism, which encompasses laissez-faire capitalism, constitutional government, and protection of civil liberties. Because of this, she is reviled by today's self-described "liberals" (read: socialists). However, she is also despised by members of the religious right, as she did not believe in God and considered faith to be the antithesis of reason.

Ayn Rand's philosphy, which she named "Objectivism" (as distinguished from objectivism with a lowercase "o", which predates Rand and is simply a belief in an objective, rather than a subjective, reality) can be divided into four main parts:

Metaphysics: Objective Reality (There is a real world which exists independent of our senses.)

Epistemology: Reason (The only way to determine the truth of a statement is by the use of reason; faith gives us no certain knowledge whatever)

Ethics: Rational Self-interest (Rand rejected altruism as a slave morality in which the individual is sacrificed for the good of the group)

Politics: Laissez-faire capitalism and individual rights

Ayn Rand claimed that America is the only moral country in history because it is the only country which was founded on the notion of individual rights and limited government. Unfortunately, the classical liberalism which made this statement true and our country free has been replaced with two competing versions of fascism: the religious totalitarianism of the right, and the paternalism and collectivism of the left.