Ayn Rand

Few philosophers have fan clubs and college student groups in their honor. Rand continues to inspire support for (some of) her views and continual interest in her works. Perhaps it is her personal passion and charisma that so effected those around her that continues to impact us. Perhaps it is the expression of her ideas in the form of novels, which make her ideas more accessible to the public than abstract academic text. Possibly it is the fact that so little advanced philosophical theory supports capitalism and self-interest, such that Rand's Objectivism stands as a beacon for those seeking justification for those approaches to society and morality. Whatever the basis Rand is a philosopher with significant influence particularly on U.S.culture (though there are Ayn Rand societies in Japan, Europe, and Russia).

It is ever critical to distinguish between a philosopher and her/his interpretors. Rand is celebrated today by many for her intellectual defense of capitalism and self-interest. In her own time, however, Rand routinely denounced and criticized some of the very commentators who cheered on her promotion of capitalism. In particular, she resisted the movement of American social conservativism that is based in Christianity. For instance:

"I consider National Review the worst and most dangerous magazine in America. The kind of defense that it offers to capitalism results in nothing except the discrediting and destruction of capitalism ... because it ties capitalism to religion. The ideological position of National Review amounts, in effect, to the following: In order to accept freedom and capitalism, one has to believe in God or in some form of religion, some form of supernatural mysticism. Which means that there are no rational grounds on which one can defend capitalism. Which amounts to an admission that reason is on the side of capitalism's enemies, that a slave society or a dictatorship is a rational system, and that only on the ground of mystic faith can one believe in freedom. Nothing more derogatory to capitalism could ever be alleged, and the exact opposite is true. Capitalism is the only system that can be defended and validated by reason." (Playboy Interview; March 1964)

The National Review is a traditional fixture of the American right. Denouncing it's writers as ultimately anti-capitalist was provocative the extreeme. Rand succeeded in alienating many conservatives by her atheism and rejection of religion as the moral basis for humans.

Rather than faith, Rand insisted that reason alone could form the basis of a coherent life. She meant this in the most practical way for everyone. Rand held that the value of an individual life was the supreme value, but that life only had value if the individual was dedicated to a productive task and consciously guided by rational principles. In effect, she held that the only free and morally consistent human being is the philosopher - not the adacademic professional or abstract dreamer, but the individual who takes personal responsibility for their own beliefs.

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