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HandWiki. Objectivism (Ayn Rand). Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29824 (accessed on 26 September 2026).
HandWiki. Objectivism (Ayn Rand). Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29824. Accessed September 26, 2026.
HandWiki. "Objectivism (Ayn Rand)" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29824 (accessed September 26, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, October 18). Objectivism (Ayn Rand). In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29824
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Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
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Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered". Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception (see direct and indirect realism), 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 (see rational egoism), 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. Academic philosophers have mostly ignored or rejected Rand's philosophy. Nonetheless, Objectivism has been a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives. The Objectivist movement, which Rand founded, attempts to spread her ideas to the public and in academic settings.

social system objective knowledge morality

References

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  2. Rand 1967, p. 23
  3. Peikoff 1991, p. 36
  4. "About the Author" in Rand 1992, pp. 1170–71
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  6. Rand 1992, p. 1040.
  7. Peikoff 1991, p. 11
  8. Rand 1992, p. 1016.
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  10. Peikoff 1991, p. 5
  11. Gotthelf 2000
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  17. Rand 1961, p. 124
  18. Rand 1964, p. 22
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  21. Branden, Nathaniel (January 1963). "The Stolen Concept". The Objectivist Newsletter 2 (1): 2, 4. 
  22. Rand 1990, p. 3
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  26. Peikoff, Leonard. "The Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy". In Rand 1990, pp. 97–98. The quotes within this passage are of Rand's material elsewhere in the same book.
  27. Rand 1990, p. 12; for more on Rand's theory of concepts see also Kelley, David "A Theory of Abstraction" and "The Psychology of Abstraction", Cognition and Brain Theory vol. vii, no. 3 and 4 (Summer/Fall 1984), and Rasmussen, Douglas B., "Quine and Aristotelian Essentialism", The New Scholasticism 58 (Summer, 1984)
  28. Rand 1990, pp. 15–28
  29. Peikoff, Leonard. "The Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy". In Rand 1990, p. 94
  30. Peikoff, Leonard. "The Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy". In Rand 1990, pp. 116–18
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  34. Lecture by Leonard Peikoff, cited in Sciabarra 1995.
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  41. Long, Roderick T. (2000). Reason and Value: Rand versus Aristotle. Objectivist Studies Monographs. Poughkeepsie, New York: The Objectivist Center. ISBN 978-1-57724-045-7. OCLC 49875339.  http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49875339
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  43. Rand 1964, p. 18; for more on Rand's metaethics see Binswanger 1990, pp. 58–66, Smith 2000 and Gotthelf & Lennox 2010
  44. Rand 1964, p. 22; for more on Rand's theory of volition, see Binswanger 1991; Branden 1969; and Peikoff 1991, pp. 55–72.
  45. Rand 1992, p. 1013
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  52. Rand 1964, p. 18
  53. See also Smith 2006
  54. Rand 1992, p. 731
  55. O'Neil, Patrick M. (Spring 1983). "Ayn Rand and the Is-Ought Problem" (PDF). Journal of Libertarian Studies 7 (1): 81–99. https://www.mises.org/sites/default/files/7_1_4_0.pdf. 
  56. Den Uyl, Douglas; Rasmussen, Douglas (April 1978). "Nozick On the Randian Argument". The Personalist 59: 184–205.  Reprinted along with Nozick's article in Reading Nozick, J. Paul, ed., 1981, Rowman & Littlefield.
  57. King, J. Charles. "Life and the Theory of Value: The Randian Argument Reconsidered" in Den Uyl & Rasmussen 1984.
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  59. Peikoff 1991, p. 354; Sciabarra 1995, p. 274
  60. Bernstein 2009, pp. 25–31
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  63. Rand 1982, p. 66
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  65. Smith 1997, pp. 150–55
  66. Peikoff 1991, pp. 319
  67. Rand 1964, pp. 129–30
  68. Rand 1964, p. 126; Peikoff 1991, p. 320
  69. Peikoff 1991, pp. 351–52. The Objectivist understanding of rights is explored at length in Smith 1997.
  70. Rand 1964, p. 110
  71. Peikoff 1991, p. 355
  72. Smith 1997, pp. 165–82; Touchstone 2006, p. 108
  73. Peikoff 1991, pp. 356–58; Rand 1964, pp. 120
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  81. Rand 1964, p. 131
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  86. Rand 1964, pp. 173–84; cf. Wortham, Anne (1981). The Other Side of Racism. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-0318-7. 
  87. Rand, Ayn (1989). "Of Living Death". The Voice of Reason. Edited by Leonard Peikoff. New York: New American Library. ISBN 978-0-453-00634-7. 
  88. Rand 2005, pp. 45–46
  89. Rand 1967, pp. 226–28
  90. Rand 1982, pp. 173–84
  91. "Free Speech". http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/free_speech.html. 
  92. Greenspan, Alan. "Antitrust" in Rand 1967, pp. 63–71
  93. Branden, Nathaniel. "Common Fallacies about Capitalism" in Rand 1967, pp. 89–92
  94. Hessen, Robert. "The Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Women and Children" in Rand 1967, pp. 110–13
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  96. Binswanger, Harry (March 3, 2005). "The Ten Commandments vs. America". Ayn Rand Institute. http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?&id=10889. Retrieved June 19, 2009. 
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  103. Burns 2009, pp. 250–51
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  106. Peikoff 1991, p. 422
  107. Peikoff 1991, p. 426
  108. Barr 2012
  109. "What is Romanticism?" in Rand 1971
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  113. Peikoff 1989; Schwartz 1989
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  117. Harriman, David, The Logical Leap, 2010, New American Library.
  118. Locke, Edwin, and Kenner, Ellen, Platform, 2011
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  121. Ghate, Onkar (February 2, 2008). "The Appeal of Ayn Rand". http://capitalismmagazine.com/2008/02/the-appeal-of-ayn-rand/. Retrieved April 22, 2014. 
  122. Gladstein 1999, p. 111
  123. Doherty, Brian (2007). Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. New York: Public Affairs. p. 544. ISBN 978-1-58648-350-0. 
  124. Burns 2009, p. 4
  125. Sciabarra 2013, p. 1; Badhwar & Long 2012; Gotthelf 2000, p. 1; Machan 2000, p. 9; Gladstein 1999, p. 2; Heyl 1995, p. 223; Den Uyl & Rasmussen 1984, p. 36
  126. McLemee, Scott (September 1999). "The Heirs Of Ayn Rand: Has Objectivism Gone Subjective?". Lingua Franca 9 (6): 45–55. http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9909/rand.html. 
  127. Harvey, Benjamin (May 15, 2005). "Ayn Rand at 100: An 'ism' struts its stuff". Rutland Herald. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050515/NEWS/505150346/1014. Retrieved July 20, 2007. 
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  137. Gladstein 2009, pp. 116–17; Burns 2009, p. 297
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