What is Objectivism?
Objectivism is a philosophical system created by the novelist Ayn Rand. It covers knowledge, ethics and politics. It teaches that reality exists independent of anyone's wishes, that reason is the only means of knowing it, and that each person should live for his or her own happiness. Rand called selfishness, understood as rational self-interest, a virtue, and altruism, as demanding sacrifice to others, a vice. In politics she argued for a government limited to police, courts and defence, with a fully free market. Her followers see Objectivism as a complete worldview, while many academic philosophers treat it as unrigorous.
Core beliefs
- Reality exists as it is, whatever people feel or believe.
- Reason is a person's only reliable tool for knowing the world.
- Each person's own life and happiness is the proper goal of action.
- No person may initiate force against another.
- Government should be limited to protecting rights through police, courts and defence.
- Capitalism with no controls is the only moral social system, because it is based on trade and not force.
History
Alisa Rosenbaum was born in St Petersburg in 1905 and left Soviet Russia for the United States in 1926, where she took the name Ayn Rand. Her novel The Fountainhead appeared in 1943, and Atlas Shrugged in 1957 was her major statement of her ideas. A circle of followers formed around her in New York, including the psychologist Nathaniel Branden. They published the Objectivist Newsletter and lectured widely. In 1968 she broke with Branden in a bitter split. Rand died in 1982. Her heir Leonard Peikoff then set up the Ayn Rand Institute in 1985, and a rival group, now the Atlas Society, argued for a more open approach.
Variants
The movement has two main wings. The orthodox one, linked to the Ayn Rand Institute, says Objectivism is a closed system that only Rand defined. The more open wing, linked to the Atlas Society, accepts debate and cooperation with others who share some of her views. Rand herself rejected libertarians, calling many of them unprincipled, and she opposed anarchism. Many libertarians have nevertheless taken ideas from her, and her novels have been a common first step into pro market politics.
Criticisms
Philosophers criticise the arguments for her ethics as weak, and say she did not engage with earlier work. Critics argue that her view of people ignores how much everyone depends on family, communities and public goods. Religious critics reject her atheism and her attack on charity as a duty. Others say her heroes are unrealistic and her villains cartoonish. Economists note that unregulated markets can fail. Defenders say she raised hard questions about the moral basis of capitalism that others avoided.
In practice
Objectivism has not been adopted by any party, but it has influenced some conservative and libertarian thinkers and business leaders, mainly in the United States. Her books still sell in large numbers. On the 12 axes it scores at the top toward Private on Ownership, Free on Markets and Self-reliant on Welfare, and very strongly toward Secular on Religion and toward Global on Trade. It also scores strongly toward Democratic on Authority, because it opposes state power over individuals.