Ethical egoism (also called simply egoism)^[1] is the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people can only act in their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational egoism, which holds merely that it is rational to act in one's self-interest. Contractual egoism acknowledges the interdependence of self-interests through voluntary, freely chosen exchanges. These doctrines may, though, be combined with ethical egoism.

Ethical egoism contrasts with ethical altruism, which holds that moral agents have an obligation to help and serve others. Egoism and altruism both contrast with ethical utilitarianism, which holds that a moral agent should treat one's self (also known as the subject) with no higher regard than one has for others (as egoism does, by elevating self-interests and "the self" to a status not granted to others), but that one also should not (as altruism does) sacrifice one's own interests to help others' interests, so long as one's own interests (i.e. one's own desires or well-being) are substantially equivalent to the others' interests and well-being. Egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism are all forms of consequentialism, but egoism and altruism contrast with utilitarianism, in that egoism and altruism are both agent-focused forms of consequentialism (i.e. subject-focused or subjective), but utilitarianism is called agent-neutral (i.e. objective and impartial) as it does not treat the subject's (i.e. the self's, i.e. the moral "agent's") own interests as being more or less important than the interests, desires, or well-being of others. Although the utilitarian concept of enlightened self-interest could be considered an agent-focused form of the philosophy.

Ethical egoism does not, however, require moral agents to harm the interests and well-being of others when making moral deliberation; e.g. what is in an agent's self-interest may be incidentally detrimental, beneficial, or neutral in its effect on others. Individualism allows for others' interest and well-being to be disregarded or not, as long as what is chosen is efficacious in satisfying the self-interest of the agent. Nor does ethical egoism necessarily entail that, in pursuing self-interest, one ought always to do what one wants to do; e.g. in the long term, the fulfillment of short-term desires may prove detrimental to the self. Fleeting pleasure, then, takes a back seat to protracted eudaimonia. In the words of James Rachels, "Ethical egoism [...] endorses selfishness, but it doesn't endorse foolishness."^[2]

Ethical egoism is sometimes the philosophical basis for support of right-libertarianism or individualist anarchism, although these can also be based on altruistic or utilitarian motivations.^[3] These are political positions based partly on a belief that individuals should not coercively prevent others from exercising freedom of action.

Types of ethical egoism[link]

Three different formulations of ethical egoism have been identified: individual, personal and universal. An individual ethical egoist would hold that all people should do whatever benefits them;^[4] a personal ethical egoist would hold that he or she should act in his or her own self-interest, but would make no claims about what anyone else ought to do; a universal ethical egoist would argue that everyone should act in ways that are in their own interest.^[5]

According to Deepak Patidars, a philosophy holding that one should be honest, just, benevolent etc., because those virtues serve one's self-interest is egoistic; one holding that one should practice those virtues for reasons other than self-interest is not egoistic.

Proponents[link]

Max Stirner, in his book The Ego and Its Own, was the first philosopher to call himself an egoist, though his writing makes clear that he desired not a new idea of morality (ethical egoism) but a rejection of morality (amoralism), as a nonexistent and limiting “spook”; for this, Stirner has been described as the first individualist anarchist. Other philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes and David Gauthier, have argued that the conflicts which arise when people each pursue their own ends can be resolved for the best of each individual only if they all voluntarily forgo some of their aims — that is, one's self-interest is often best pursued by allowing others to pursue their self-interest as well so that liberty is equal among individuals. Sacrificing one's short-term self-interest to maximize one's long-term self-interest is one form of "rational self-interest" which is the idea behind most philosophers' advocacy of ethical egoism. Egoists have also argued that one's actual interests are not immediately obvious, and that the pursuit of self-interest involves more than merely the acquisition of some good, but the maximizing of one's chances of survival and/or happiness.

Philosopher Ayn Rand argued that there is a positive harmony of interests among free, rational humans, such that no moral agent can rationally coerce another person consistently with his own actual, long-term self-interest. Rand argued that other people are an enormous value to an individual's well-being (through education, trade and affection), but also that this value could be fully realized only under conditions of political and economic freedom. According to Rand, voluntary trade alone can assure that human interaction is mutually beneficial.^[6] Rand's student, Leonard Peikoff has argued that the identification of one's interests itself is impossible absent the use of principles, and that self-interest cannot be consistently pursued absent a consistent adherence to certain ethical principles.^[7] Recently, Rand's position has also been defended by such writers as Tara Smith, Tibor Machan, Allan Gotthelf, David Kelley, Douglas Rasmussen, Nathaniel Branden, Harry Binswanger, Andrew Bernstein and Craig Biddle in his 2002 work, Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It.

Philosopher David L. Norton identified himself an "ethical individualist," and, like Rand, saw a harmony between an individual's fidelity to his own self-actualization, or "personal destiny," and the achievement of society's well being.^[8]

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that egoistic or "life-affirming" behavior stimulates jealousy or "ressentiment" in others, and that this is the psychological motive for the altruism in Christianity. Sociologist Helmut Schoeck similarly considered envy the motive of collective efforts by society to reduce the disproportionate gains of successful individuals through moral or legal constraints, with altruism being primary among these.^[9]

In addition, Nietzsche (in Beyond Good and Evil) and Alasdair MacIntyre (in After Virtue) have pointed out that the ancient Greeks did not associate morality with altruism in the way that post-Christian Western civilization has done. Aristotle's view is that we have duties to ourselves as well as to other people (e.g. friends) and to the polis as a whole. The same is true for Thomas Aquinas, Christian Wolff and Immanuel Kant, who claim that there are duties to ourselves as Aristotle did, although it has been argued that, for Aristotle, the duty to one's self is primary.^[10]

The term ethical egoism has been applied retroactively to philosophers such as Bernard de Mandeville and to many other materialists of his generation, although none of them declared themselves to be egoists. Note that materialism does not necessarily imply egoism, as indicated by Karl Marx, and the many other materialists who espoused forms of collectivism.

It has been argued that ethical egoism can lend itself to individualist anarchism such as that of Benjamin Tucker, or the combined anarcho-communism and egoism of Emma Goldman, both of whom were proponents of many egoist ideas put forward by Max Stirner. In this context, egoism is another way of describing the sense that the common good should be enjoyed by all. However, most notable anarchists in history have been less radical, retaining altruism and a sense of the importance of the individual that is appreciable but does not go as far as egoism. Recent trends to greater appreciation of egoism within anarchism tend to come from less classical directions such as post-left anarchy or Situationism (e.g. Raoul Vaneigem). Egoism has also been referenced by those who claim themselves to be anarcho-capitalists, such as Murray Rothbard.

Supporting arguments[link]

James Rachels, in an essay that takes as its title the theory's name, outlines the three arguments most commonly touted in its favour:^[11]

• "The first argument," writes Rachels, "has several variations, each suggesting the same general point:^[12]
  • "Each of us is intimately familiar with our own individual wants and needs. Moreover, each of us is uniquely placed to pursue those wants and needs effectively. At the same time, we know the desires and needs of others only imperfectly, and we are not well situated to pursue them. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that if we set out to be 'our brother's keeper,' we would often bungle the job and end up doing more mischief than good."^[2]
  • To pursue actively the interests of others is to be officious. We should mind our own business and allow others to mind theirs.
  • To give charity to someone is to degrade him, implying as it does that he is reliant on such munificence and quite unable to look out for himself. "That," reckons Rachels, "is why the recipients of 'charity' are so often resentful rather than appreciative."^[13]
• Altruism, ultimately, denies an individual value and is therefore destructive both to society and its individual components, viewing life merely as a thing to be sacrificed. Rand is quoted as writing that, "[i]f a man accepts the ethics of altruism, his first concern is not how to live his life but how to sacrifice it."^[14] Moreover, "[t]he basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification for his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue or value." Rather, she writes, "[t]he purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live."^[15]

• All of our commonly accepted moral duties, from doing no harm unto others to speaking always the truth to keeping promises, are rooted in the one fundamental principle of self-interest.

Rand has argued that a form of egoism, although inconsistent and incomplete, was one of the revolutionary aspects the American Revolution, citing evidence such as the natural "right to pursue happiness" found in the Declaration of Independence, and further argued that the capitalistic "profit motive" which characterized 19th Century American history was essential to the rapid economic and cultural development that the nation also experienced.^[16]

Criticisms[link]

According to amoralism, there is nothing wrong with egoism, but there is nothing ethical about it. One can simply adopt rational egoism and completely drop morality as a superfluous attribute of the egoism.

Some contend that ethical egoism is intuitively implausible,^[17]

Ethical egoism has also been alleged as the basis for immorality. Thomas Jefferson writes in a 1814 letter to Thomas Law:

Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality. But I consider our relations with others as constituting the boundaries of morality. With ourselves, we stand on the ground of identity, not of relation, which last, requiring two subjects, excludes self-love confined to a single one. To ourselves, in strict language, we can owe no duties, obligation requiring also two parties. Self-love, therefore, is no part of morality. Indeed, it is exactly its counterpart.^[18]

In contrast, Rand saw ethics as a necessity for human survival and well-being, and argued that the "social" implications of morality, including natural rights, were simply a subset of the wider field of ethics. Thus, for Rand, "virtue" included productiveness, honesty with oneself, and scrupulousness of thought. Although she greatly admired Jefferson, she also wrote:

[To those who say] that morality is social and that man would need no morality on a desert island—it is on a desert island that he would need it most. Let him try to claim, when there are no victims to pay for it, that a rock is a house, that sand is clothing, that food will drop into his mouth without cause or effort, that he will collect a harvest tomorrow by devouring his stock seed today—and reality will wipe him out, as he deserves; reality will show him that life is a value to be bought and that thinking is the only coin noble enough to buy it.^[19]

In The Moral Point of View, Kurt Baier objects that ethical egoism provides no moral basis for the resolution of conflicts of interest, which, in his opinion, form the only vindication for a moral code. Were this an ideal world, one in which interests and purposes never jarred, its inhabitants would have no need of a specified set of ethics, according to Baier. This, however, is not an "ideal world." Baier believes that ethical egoism fails to provide the moral guidance and arbitration that it necessitates. Far from resolving conflicts of interest, claimed Baier, ethical egoism all too often spawns them. To this, as Rachels has shown, the ethical egoist may object that he cannot admit a construct of morality whose aim is merely to forestall conflicts of interest. "On his view," he writes, "the moralist is not like a courtroom judge, who resolves disputes. Instead, he is like the Commissioner of Boxing, who urges each fighter to do his best."^[20]

Baiers is also part of a team of philosophers who hold that ethical egoism is paradoxical, implying that to do what is in one's best interests can be both wrong and right in ethical terms. Although a successful pursuit of self-interest may be viewed as a moral victory, it could also be dubbed immoral if it prevents another person from executing what is in his best interests. Again, however, the ethical egoists have responded by assuming the guise of the Commissioner of Boxing. His philosophy precludes empathy for the interests of others, so forestalling them is perfectly acceptable. "Regardless of whether we think this is a correct view," adds Rachels, "it is, at the very least, a consistent view, and so this attempt to convict the egoist of self-contradiction fails."^[21]

Finally, it has been averred that ethical egoism is no better than bigotry in that, like racism, it divides people into two types — themselves and others — and discriminates against one type on the basis of some arbitrary disparity. This, to Rachels's mind, is probably the best objection to ethical egoism, for it provides the soundest reason why the interests of others ought to concern the interests of the self. "What," he asks, "is the difference between myself and others that justifies placing myself in this special category? Am I more intelligent? Do I enjoy my life more? Are my accomplishments greater? Do I have needs or abilities that are so different from the needs and abilities of others? What is it that makes me so special? Failing an answer, it turns out that Ethical Egoism is an arbitrary doctrine, in the same way that racism is arbitrary. [...] We should care about the interests of other people for the very same reason we care about our own interests; for their needs and desires are comparable to our own."^[22]

It has been observed, however, that the very act of eating (especially, when there are others starving in the world) is such an act of self-interested discrimination. Egoists such as Rand who readily acknowledge the (conditional) value of others to an individual, and who readily endorse empathy for others, have argued the exact reverse from Rachels, that it is altruism which discriminates: "If the sensation of eating a cake is a value, then why is it an immoral indulgence in your stomach, but a moral goal for you to achieve in the stomach of others?"^[23] It is, thus, altruism which is the arbitrary position, according to Rand.

Footnotes[link]

See also[link]

• Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand
• altruism (ethics)
• Aristotle
• Ayn Rand
• Baruch Spinoza
• behavioral economics
• Christian hedonism
• Epicurus
• ethics
• Friedrich Nietszche
• Gordon Clark
• Hedonism
• helping behavior
• individualism
• Individualist anarchism
• Max Stirner
• Objectivism
• profit motive
• psychological egoism
• rational egoism
• rational expectations
• self-interest
• Thomas Hobbes

References[link]

• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
• Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics.
• Baier, Kurt, 1990, "Egoism" in A Companion to Ethics, Peter Singer (ed.), Blackwell: Oxford. ISBN 978-0-631-18785-1
• Biddle, Craig, Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It, 2002, Glen Allen.
• Branden, Nathaniel, The Psychology of Self-Esteem, 1969, Nash.
• Hobbes, Thomas, 1968, Leviathan, C. B. Macpherson (ed.), Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-043195-7
• Machan, Tibor, Classical Individualism: The Supreme Importance of Each Human Being, 1998, Routledge.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich, 1886, Beyond Good and Evil.
• Norton, David, Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism, 1976, Princeton University Press.
• Peikoff, Leonard, "Why Should One Act on Principle?," The Objectivist Forum, 1988.
• Rachels, James. "Ethical Egoism." In Reason & Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy, edited by Joel Feinberg and Russ Shafer-Landau, 532–540. California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. ISBN 978-0-495-50069-8.
• Rand, Ayn, Atlas Shrugged, 1957, Random House.
• Rand, Ayn, 1964, The Virtue of Selfishness. Signet. ISBN 978-0-451-16393-6
• Rosenstand, Nina. 2000. 'Chapter 3: Myself or Others?'. In The Moral of the Story. (3rd Edition). Mountain View, Calif: Mayfield Publishing: 127–167. ISBN 978-0-07-296335-9
• Schoeck, Helmut, Der Neid. Eine Theorie der Gesellschaft (Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour), 1966, 1st English ed. 1969.
• Smith, Tara, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality, 2000, Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-9760-6.
• Smith, Tara, The Virtuous Egoist: Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics, 2006, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86050-4.
• Waller, Bruce, N. 2005. "Egoism." In Consider Ethics: Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues. New York: Pearson Longman: 79–83. ISBN 978-0-321-20280-2

External links[link]

• Egoism entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry for egoism

James Rachels (May 30, 1941 – September 5, 2003) was an American philosopher who specialized in ethics.

Biography[link]

Rachels was born in Columbus, Georgia, and graduated from Mercer University in 1962. He received his Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying under Professors W. D. Falk and E. M. Adams. He taught at the University of Richmond, New York University, the University of Miami, Duke University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he spent the last twenty-six years of his career. He married Carol Williams in 1962, and they had two sons, David and Stuart. He died of cancer in 2003 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Over the course of his career, Rachels wrote six books and 85 essays, edited seven books and gave some 275 professional lectures. His work has been translated into Dutch, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Indonesian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Chinese, Swedish and Serbo-Croatian.

Rachels has argued for moral vegetarianism and animal rights, preferential quotas, the humanitarian use of euthanasia and the idea that parents should give as much fundamental moral consideration to another's children as they do to their own. Later in his career, Rachels realised that a lifetime of analysing specific moral issues had led him to adopt the general ethic of utilitarianism, according to which actions are assessed by their effects on both human and nonhuman happiness (Rachels also moved from classic utilitarianism which is mainly concerned with happiness to modern utilitarianism which focuses on well-being.)

Works[link]

Rachels's best-known work is The Elements of Moral Philosophy. It went to its sixth edition in 2009, having been revised by Rachels's son, Stuart Rachels. Among the subjects covered are ethical and simple subjectivism, emotivism, as well as ethical and psychological egoism, to name but a few. The text uses real-world examples to highlight points regarding complicated philosophical principles. Rachels had a history of using such examples. The publication in 1971 of his anthology Moral Problems marked a shift from teaching meta-ethics in American colleges to teaching concrete practical issues.^[1] Moral Problems sold 100,000 copies over three editions.

In 1975, Rachels wrote "Active and Passive Euthanasia", which originally appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine and argued that the distinction so important in the law between killing and letting die (often based on the principle of double effect) has no rational basis. Rachels claims that, if we allow passive euthanasia, we should also allow active euthanasia. He supports this claim with two more:

1. Active euthanasia is more humane than passive euthanasia; and
2. killing versus letting die makes no moral difference in itself.

"The End of Life" (1986), a moral treatise on life and death, broadened and deepened these ideas.

Rachels wrote only a few works that were not directly focussed on ethics. Created from Animals (1990) made the case that a Darwinian world-view has widespread philosophical implications, including drastic implications for our treatment of nonhuman entities. Can Ethics Provide Answers? (1997) was Rachels's first collection of papers. His second, The Legacy of Socrates, was published posthumously in 2007. Shortly before his death, he wrote Problems from Philosophy, an introduction to philosophy. This book was published posthumously in 2005 and revised by his son Stuart in 2008.^[2]

Bibliography[link]

• Rachels, James; Stuart Rachels (2008). The Truth About the World : Basic Readings in Philosophy. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN 978-0-07-338661-4. 
• Rachels, James; Stuart Rachels (2006). The Legacy of Socrates: Essays in Moral Philosophy. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13844-X. 
• Rachels, James (1998). Ethical Theory: Theories About how we Should Live. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-875186-1. 
• Rachels, James (1997). Can Ethics Provide Answers?: And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc. ISBN 0-8476-8347-8. http://www.jamesrachels.org/CEPA.htm. 
• Rachels, James (1990). Created From Animals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-217775-3. http://www.jamesrachels.org/CFA.htm. 
• Rachels, James; Stuart Rachels (1989). The Right Thing to Do: Basic Readings in Moral Philosophy. Random House. ISBN 0-07-340740-2. 
• Rachels, James (1986). The End of Life: euthanasia and morality. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-286070-4. http://www.jamesrachels.org/EoL.htm. 
• Rachels, James; Stuart Rachels (1986). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-07-803824-3. 

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

• James Rachels, Ph.D. 1941-2003. The official website of James Rachels.

External links[link]

• James Rachels. Selected writings on animal rights.
• Text of Active and Passive Euthanasia

Ayn Rand
File:Ayn Rand1.jpg Ayn Rand in 1957
Born	Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (1905-02-02)February 2, 1905 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	March 6, 1982(1982-03-06) (aged 77) New York City, United States
Resting place	Kensico Cemetery
Occupation	Philosopher, writer
Language	English
Ethnicity	Russian Jew
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Petrograd State University
Period	1934–1982
Subjects	Philosophy
Notable work(s)	The Fountainhead Atlas Shrugged
Notable award(s)	Prometheus Award – Hall of Fame 1983 Atlas Shrugged 1987 Anthem
Spouse(s)	Frank O'Connor (m. 1929-1979, his death)
Influences Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, O. Henry, Victor Hugo, Ludwig von Mises, H.L. Mencken, Friedrich Nietzsche, Isabel Paterson
Influenced Martin Anderson, Bob Barr, Andrew Bernstein, Harry Binswanger, Barbara Branden, Nathaniel Branden, Steve Ditko, Edith Efron, Terry Goodkind, Allan Gotthelf, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen, Erika Holzer, John Hospers, David Kelley, Anton LaVey, Liu Junning, Edwin A. Locke, Tibor Machan, Stefan Molyneux, Ron Paul, Neil Peart, Leonard Peikoff, George Reisman, Murray Rothbard, John Ridpath, Paul Ryan, Chris Matthew Sciabarra, George H. Smith, Kay Nolte Smith, L. Neil Smith, Tara Smith, John Stossel, Clarence Thomas, Jimmy Wales
Signature

Ayn Rand ( /ˈaɪn ˈrænd/;^[1] born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher,^[2] playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism.

Born and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two initially unsuccessful early novels, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-known work, the philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward she turned to nonfiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own magazines and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected all forms of faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism, and rejected ethical altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed all forms of collectivism and statism, instead supporting laissez-faire capitalism, which she believed was the only social system that protected individual rights. She promoted romantic realism in art. She was sharply critical of the philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her besides Aristotle.

Rand's fiction was poorly received by many literary critics,^[3] and academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy. The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings.^[4] She is a major influence among libertarians and American conservatives.

Life[link]

Early life[link]

Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Russian: Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум) on February 2, 1905, to a bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg. She was the eldest of the three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum, largely non-observant Jews. Rand's father was a successful pharmacist, eventually owning a pharmacy and the building in which it was located.^[5] Rand was twelve at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, during which her sympathies were with Alexander Kerensky. Rand's family life was disrupted by the rise of the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin. Her father's pharmacy was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and the family fled to the Crimea, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. She later recalled that while in high school she determined that she was an atheist and that she valued reason above any other human attribute. After graduating from high school in the Crimea, at 16 Rand returned with her family to Petrograd (the new name for Saint Petersburg), where they faced desperate conditions, on occasion nearly starving.^[6][7]

Rand completed a three-year program at Petrograd State University.

After the Russian Revolution, universities were opened to women, including Jews, allowing Rand to be in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University,^[8] where she studied in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history.^[9] At the university she was introduced to the writings of Aristotle and Plato,^[10] who would form two of her greatest influences and counter-influences, respectively.^[11] A third figure whose philosophical works she studied heavily was Friedrich Nietzsche.^[12] Able to read French, German and Russian, Rand also discovered the writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, and Friedrich Schiller, who became her perennial favorites.^[13]

Along with many other "bourgeois" students, Rand was purged from the university shortly before graduating. However, after complaints from a group of visiting foreign scientists, many of the purged students were allowed to complete their work and graduate,^[14] which Rand did in October 1924.^[15] She subsequently studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad. For one of her assignments, she wrote an essay about the actress Pola Negri, which became her first published work.^[16]

By this time she had decided her professional surname for writing would be Rand,^[17] possibly as a Cyrillic contraction of her birth surname,^[18] and she adopted the first name Ayn, either from a Finnish name or from the Hebrew word עין (ayin, meaning "eye").^[19]

Cover of Rand's first published work, a 2,500-word monograph on the Polish femme fatale Pola Negri published in 1925.^[16]

In the fall of 1925, Rand was granted a visa to visit American relatives. Rand was so impressed with the skyline of Manhattan upon her arrival in New York Harbor that she cried what she later called "tears of splendor".^[20] Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with relatives in Chicago, one of whom owned a movie theater and allowed her to watch dozens of films for free. She then set out for Hollywood, California.^[21]

Initially, Rand struggled in Hollywood and took odd jobs to pay her basic living expenses. A chance meeting with famed director Cecil B. DeMille led to a job as an extra in his film, The King of Kings, and to subsequent work as a junior screenwriter.^[22] While working on The King of Kings, she met an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor; the two were married on April 15, 1929. Rand became an American citizen in 1931. Taking various jobs during the 1930s to support her writing, Rand worked for a time as the head of the costume department at RKO Studios.^[23] She made several attempts to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they were unable to acquire permission to emigrate.^[24]

Early fiction[link]

Rand's first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn to Universal Studios in 1932, although it was never produced.^[25] This was followed by the courtroom drama Night of January 16th, first produced by E.E. Clive in Hollywood in 1934 and then successfully reopened on Broadway in 1935. Each night the "jury" was selected from members of the audience, and one of the two different endings, depending on the jury's "verdict", would then be performed.^[26] In 1941, Paramount Pictures produced a movie version of the play. Rand did not participate in the production and was highly critical of the result.^[27]

Rand's first novel, the semi-autobiographical We the Living, was published in 1936. Set in Soviet Russia, it focused on the struggle between the individual and the state. In a 1959 foreword to the novel, Rand stated that We the Living "is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual sense. The plot is invented, the background is not..."^[28] Initial sales were slow and the American publisher let it go out of print,^[29] although European editions continued to sell.^[30] After the success of her later novels, Rand was able to release a revised version in 1959 that has since sold over three million copies.^[31] Without Rand's knowledge or permission, the novel was made into a pair of Italian films, Noi vivi and Addio, Kira, in 1942. Rediscovered in the 1960s, these films were re-edited into a new version which was approved by Rand and re-released as We the Living in 1986.^[32]

Her novella Anthem was written during a break from the writing of her next major novel, The Fountainhead. It presents a vision of a dystopian future world in which totalitarian collectivism has triumphed to such an extent that even the word 'I' has been forgotten and replaced with 'we'.^[33] It was published in England in 1938, but Rand initially could not find an American publisher. As with We the Living, Rand's later success allowed her to get a revised version published in 1946, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies.^[34]

[edit] The Fountainhead and political activism

During the 1940s, Rand became politically active. Both she and her husband worked full time in volunteer positions for the 1940 Presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. This work led to Rand's first public speaking experiences, including fielding the sometimes hostile questions from New York City audiences who had just viewed pro-Willkie newsreels, an experience she greatly enjoyed.^[35] This activity also brought her into contact with other intellectuals sympathetic to free-market capitalism. She became friends with journalist Henry Hazlitt and his wife, and Hazlitt introduced her to the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Despite her philosophical differences with them, Rand strongly endorsed the writings of both men throughout her career, and both of them expressed admiration for her. Once von Mises referred to Rand as "the most courageous man in America," a compliment that particularly pleased her because he said "man" instead of "woman."^[36] Rand also developed a friendship with libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Rand questioned the well-informed Paterson about American history and politics long into the night during their numerous meetings and gave Paterson ideas for her only nonfiction book, The God of the Machine.^[37]

Rand's first major success as a writer came with The Fountainhead in 1943, a romantic and philosophical novel that she wrote over a period of seven years.^[38] The novel centers on an uncompromising young architect named Howard Roark and his struggle against what Rand described as "second-handers"—those who attempt to live through others, placing others above self. It was rejected by twelve publishers before finally being accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company on the insistence of editor Archibald Ogden, who threatened to quit if his employer did not publish it.^[39] While completing the novel, Rand was prescribed the amphetamine Benzedrine to fight fatigue.^[40] The drug helped her to work long hours to meet her deadline for delivering the finished novel, but when the book was done, she was so exhausted that her doctor ordered two weeks' rest.^[41] Her continued use of the drug for a number of years may have contributed to what some of her later associates described as volatile mood swings.^[42]

The Fountainhead eventually became a worldwide success, bringing Rand fame and financial security.^[43] In 1943, Rand sold the rights for a film version to Warner Bros., and she returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay. Finishing her work on that screenplay, she was hired by producer Hal Wallis as a screenwriter and script-doctor. Her work for Wallis included the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated Love Letters and You Came Along.^[44] This role gave Rand time to work on other projects, including a planned nonfiction treatment of her philosophy to be called The Moral Basis of Individualism. Although the planned book was never completed, a condensed version was published as an essay titled "The Only Path to Tomorrow", in the January 1944 edition of Reader's Digest magazine.^[45]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ayn Rand's testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities

While working in Hollywood, Rand extended her involvement with free-market and anti-communist activism. She became involved with the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group, and wrote articles on the group's behalf. She also joined the anti-Communist American Writers Association.^[46] A visit by Isabel Paterson to meet with Rand's California associates led to a final falling out between the two when Paterson made comments that Rand saw as rude to valued political allies.^[47] In 1947, during the Second Red Scare, Rand testified as a "friendly witness" before the United States House Un-American Activities Committee. Her testimony described the disparity between her personal experiences in the Soviet Union and the portrayal of it in the 1944 film Song of Russia.^[48] Rand argued that the film grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union, portraying life there as being much better and happier than it actually was.^[49] When asked about her feelings on the effectiveness of the investigations after the hearings, Rand described the process as "futile".^[50]

After several delays, the film version of The Fountainhead was released in 1949. Although it used Rand's screenplay with minimal alterations, she "disliked the movie from beginning to end," complaining about its editing, acting, and other elements.^[51]

[edit] Atlas Shrugged and Objectivism

After the publication of The Fountainhead, Rand received numerous letters from readers, some of whom it had profoundly influenced. In 1951 Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where she gathered a group of these admirers around her. This group (jokingly designated "The Collective") included future Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a young psychology student named Nathan Blumenthal (later Nathaniel Branden) and his wife Barbara, and Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff. At first the group was an informal gathering of friends who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment to discuss philosophy. Later she began allowing them to read the drafts of her new novel, Atlas Shrugged, as the manuscript pages were written. In 1954 Rand's close relationship with the much younger Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair, with the consent of their spouses.^[52]

Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, was Rand's magnum opus.^[53] Rand described the theme of the novel as "the role of the mind in man's existence—and, as a corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest."^[54] It advocates the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement. The plot involves a dystopian United States in which the most creative industrialists, scientists and artists go on strike and retreat to a mountainous hideaway where they build an independent free economy. The novel's hero and leader of the strike, John Galt, describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation's wealth and achievement. With this fictional strike, Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart. The novel includes elements of mystery and science fiction,^[55] and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction, a lengthy monologue delivered by Galt. Atlas Shrugged became an international bestseller, and in an interview with Mike Wallace, Rand declared herself "the most creative thinker alive."^[56] Atlas Shrugged was to be Rand's last work of fiction; a turning point in her life, it marked the end of Rand's career as a novelist and the beginning of her role as a popular philosopher.^[57] After completing the novel of more than one thousand pages, however, Rand fell into a severe depression that may have been aggravated by her use of prescription amphetamines.^[58]

In 1958 Nathaniel Branden established Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later incorporated as the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Rand's philosophy. Collective members gave lectures for NBI and wrote articles for Objectivist periodicals that she edited. Rand later published some of these articles in book form. Critics, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, have described the culture of NBI as one of intellectual conformity and excessive reverence for Rand, with some describing NBI or the entire Objectivist movement as a cult or religion.^[59] Rand expressed opinions on a wide range of topics, including literature, music, sexuality, even facial hair, and some of her followers mimicked all her preferences, wearing clothes to match characters from her novels and buying furniture like hers.^[60] Rand was unimpressed with many of the NBI students^[61] and held them to strict standards, sometimes reacting coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her.^[62] However, some former NBI students believe the extent of these behaviors has been exaggerated, with the problem being concentrated among Rand's closest followers in New York.^[63]

Later years[link]

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rand developed and promoted her Objectivist philosophy through her nonfiction works and by giving talks to students at institutions such as Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University,^[64] Harvard University and MIT.^[65] She received an honorary doctorate from Lewis & Clark College in 1963.^[66] She also began delivering annual lectures at the Ford Hall Forum, responding afterward to questions from the audience.^[67] During these speeches and Q&A sessions, she often took controversial stances on political and social issues of the day. These included supporting abortion rights,^[68] opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft (but condemning many draft dodgers as "bums"),^[69] supporting Israel in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 as "civilized men fighting savages",^[70] saying European colonists had the right to take land from American Indians,^[71] and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting", while also advocating the repeal of all laws against it.^[72] She also endorsed several Republican candidates for President of the United States, most strongly Barry Goldwater in 1964, whose candidacy she promoted in several articles for The Objectivist Newsletter.^[73]

Grave marker for Rand and her husband at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York

In 1964 Nathaniel Branden began an affair with the young actress Patrecia Scott, whom he later married. Nathaniel and Barbara Branden kept the affair hidden from Rand. When she learned of it in 1968, though her romantic relationship with Branden had already ended,^[74] Rand terminated her relationship with both Brandens, which led to the closure of NBI.^[75] Rand published an article in The Objectivist repudiating Nathaniel Branden for dishonesty and other "irrational behavior in his private life."^[76] Branden later apologized in an interview to "every student of Objectivism" for "perpetuating the Ayn Rand mystique" and for "contributing to that dreadful atmosphere of intellectual repressiveness that pervades the Objectivist movement."^[77] In subsequent years, several more of her closest associates parted company with her.^[78]

Rand underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974 after decades of heavy smoking.^[79] In 1976 she retired from writing her newsletter and, despite her initial objections, reluctantly allowed Evva Pryor, a consultant from her attorney's office, to sign her up for Social Security and Medicare.^[80] During the late 1970s her activities within the Objectivist movement declined, especially after the death of her husband on November 9, 1979.^[81] One of her final projects was work on a never-completed television adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.^[82]

Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982, at her home in New York City,^[83] and was interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.^[84] Rand's funeral was attended by some of her prominent followers, including Alan Greenspan. A six-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket.^[85] In her will, Rand named Leonard Peikoff the heir to her estate.^[86]

Philosophy[link]

Objectivist movement
Philosophy Objectivism Rational egoism Individualism Capitalism Romantic realism
Organizations Ayn Rand Institute Atlas Society Nathaniel Branden Institute Objectivist Party Libertarianz
Theorists Ayn Rand Andrew Bernstein Harry Binswanger Nathaniel Branden · Yaron Brook Allan Gotthelf · David Kelley Tibor R. Machan Leonard Peikoff · George Reisman John Ridpath · Richard Salsman Tara Smith
Literature Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal For the New Intellectual Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology The New Left Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand Philosophy: Who Needs It The Romantic Manifesto The Virtue of Selfishness The Voice of Reason Objectivist periodicals Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
Related topics Libertarianism and Objectivism Objectivism and homosexuality Objectivist movement in India Randian hero Philosophical movement
Philosophy portal
v t e

Rand called her philosophy "Objectivism", describing its essence 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."^[87] She considered Objectivism a systematic philosophy and laid out positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy and esthetics.^[88]

In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion.^[89] In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic,^[90] and reason, which she described as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses."^[91] She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or a priori knowledge, including "'instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing.'"^[92] In her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Rand presented a theory of concept formation and endorsed the rejection of the analytic–synthetic dichotomy.^[93]

In ethics, Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should "exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself."^[94] She referred to egoism as "the virtue of selfishness" in her book of that title,^[95] in which she presented her solution to the is-ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of "man's survival qua man".^[96] She condemned ethical altruism as incompatible with the requirements of human life and happiness,^[97] and held that the initiation of force was evil and irrational, writing in Atlas Shrugged that "Force and mind are opposites".^[98]

Rand's political philosophy emphasized individual rights (including property rights),^[99] and she considered laissez-faire capitalism the only moral social system because in her view it was the only system based on the protection of those rights.^[100] She opposed statism, which she understood to include theocracy, absolute monarchy, Nazism, fascism, communism, democratic socialism, and dictatorship.^[101] Rand believed that rights should be enforced by a constitutionally limited government.^[102] Although her political views are often classified as conservative or libertarian, she preferred the term "radical for capitalism". She worked with conservatives on political projects, but disagreed with them over issues such as religion and ethics.^[103] She denounced libertarianism, which she associated with anarchism.^[104] She rejected anarchism as a naïve theory based in subjectivism that could only lead to collectivism in practice.^[105]

Rand's esthetics defined art as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments." According to Rand, art allows philosophical concepts to be presented in a concrete form that can be easily grasped, thereby fulfilling a need of human consciousness.^[106] As a writer, the art form Rand focused on most closely was literature, where she considered Romanticism to be the approach that most accurately reflected the existence of human free will.^[107] She described her own approach to literature as "romantic realism".^[108]

Rand acknowledged Aristotle as her greatest influence^[109] and remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's"—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand.^[110] She also found early inspiration in Friedrich Nietzsche,^[111] and scholars have found indications of his influence in early notes from Rand's journals,^[112] in passages from the first edition of We the Living (which Rand later revised),^[113] and in her overall writing style.^[114] However, by the time she wrote The Fountainhead, Rand had turned against Nietzsche's ideas,^[115] and the extent of his influence on her even during her early years is disputed.^[116] Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster",^[117] although philosophers George Walsh^[118] and Fred Seddon^[119] have argued that she misinterpreted Kant and exaggerated their differences.

Rand said her most important contributions to philosophy were her "theory of concepts, [her] ethics, and [her] discovery in politics that evil—the violation of rights—consists of the initiation of force."^[120] She believed epistemology was a foundational branch of philosophy and considered the advocacy of reason to be the single most significant aspect of her philosophy,^[121] stating, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."^[122]

Reception and legacy[link]

Reviews[link]

During Rand's lifetime, her work evoked both extreme praise and condemnation. Rand's first novel, We the Living, was admired by the literary critic H.L. Mencken,^[123] her Broadway play Night of January 16th was both a critical and popular success,^[124] and The Fountainhead was hailed by a reviewer in The New York Times as "masterful".^[125] Rand's novels were derided by some critics when they were first published as being long and melodramatic.^[3] However, they became bestsellers largely through word of mouth.^[126]

The first reviews Rand received were for Night of January 16th. Reviews of the production were largely positive, but Rand considered even positive reviews to be embarrassing because of significant changes made to her script by the producer.^[124] Rand believed that her first novel, We the Living, was not widely reviewed, but Rand scholar Michael S. Berliner says "it was the most reviewed of any of her works," with approximately 125 different reviews being published in more than 200 publications. Overall these reviews were more positive than the reviews she received for her later work.^[127] Her 1938 novella Anthem received little attention from reviewers, both for its first publication in England and for subsequent re-issues.^[128]

Rand's first bestseller, The Fountainhead, received far fewer reviews than We the Living, and reviewers' opinions were mixed.^[129] There was a positive review in The New York Times that Rand greatly appreciated.^[130] The reviewer called Rand "a writer of great power" who wrote "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly," and stated that "you will not be able to read this masterful book without thinking through some of the basic concepts of our time."^[125] There were other positive reviews, but Rand dismissed most of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications.^[129] Some negative reviews focused on the length of the novel,^[3] such as one that called it "a whale of a book" and another that said "anyone who is taken in by it deserves a stern lecture on paper-rationing." Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian."^[129]

Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged was widely reviewed, and many of the reviews were strongly negative.^[3][131] In the National Review, conservative author Whittaker Chambers called the book "sophomoric" and "remarkably silly". He described the tone of the book as "shrillness without reprieve" and accused Rand of supporting a Godless system (which he related to that of the Soviets), claiming "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber—go!'"^[132] Atlas Shrugged received positive reviews from a few publications, including praise from the noted book reviewer John Chamberlain,^[131] but Rand scholar Mimi Reisel Gladstein later wrote that "reviewers seemed to vie with each other in a contest to devise the cleverest put-downs," calling it "execrable claptrap" and "a nightmare;" they said it was "written out of hate" and showed "remorseless hectoring and prolixity."^[3] Author Flannery O'Connor wrote in a letter to a friend that "The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail."^[133]

Rand's nonfiction received far fewer reviews than her novels had. The tenor of the criticism for her first nonfiction book, For the New Intellectual, was similar to that for Atlas Shrugged,^[134][135] with philosopher Sidney Hook likening her certainty to "the way philosophy is written in the Soviet Union",^[136] and author Gore Vidal calling her viewpoint "nearly perfect in its immorality".^[137] Her subsequent books got progressively less attention from reviewers.^[134]

On the 100th anniversary of Rand's birth in 2005, Edward Rothstein, writing for The New York Times, referred to her fictional writing as quaint utopian "retro fantasy" and programmatic neo-Romanticism of the misunderstood artist, while criticizing her characters' "isolated rejection of democratic society".^[138] In 2007, book critic Leslie Clark described her fiction as "romance novels with a patina of pseudo-philosophy".^[139] In 2009, GQ's critic columnist Tom Carson described her books as "capitalism's version of middlebrow religious novels" such as Ben-Hur and the Left Behind series.^[140]

Popular interest[link]

A quote from Rand's book The Fountainhead, on the wall directly across from the entrance to The American Adventure rotunda at Walt Disney World's Epcot

In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club asked club members what the most influential book in the respondent's life was. Rand's Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice, after the Bible.^[141] Rand's books continue to be widely sold and read, with 25 million copies sold as of 2007^[142] and another 800,000 sold in 2008. (This includes approximately 300,000 copies distributed for free by the Ayn Rand Institute.)^[143] Although Rand's influence has been greatest in the United States, there has been international interest in her work.^[144]

Rand's contemporary admirers included fellow novelists, such as Ira Levin, Kay Nolte Smith and L. Neil Smith, and later writers such as Erika Holzer and Terry Goodkind have been influenced by her.^[145] Other artists who have cited Rand as an important influence on their lives and thought include comic book artist Steve Ditko^[146] and musician Neil Peart of Rush.^[147] Rand provided a positive view of business, and in response business executives and entrepreneurs have admired and promoted her work.^[148] John Allison of BB&T and Ed Snider of Comcast Spectacor have funded the promotion of Rand's ideas,^[149] while Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and John P. Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, among others, have said they consider Rand crucial to their success.^[150]

Rand and her works have been referred to in a variety of media. References to her have appeared on television shows including animated sitcoms, live-action comedies, dramas, and game shows.^[151] She, or characters based on her, figure prominently (in positive and negative lights) in literary and science fiction novels by prominent American authors.^[152] Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason, has remarked that "Rand's is a tortured immortality, one in which she's as likely to be a punch line as a protagonist..." and that "jibes at Rand as cold and inhuman, run through the popular culture."^[153] Two movies have been made about Rand's life. A 1997 documentary film, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.^[154] The Passion of Ayn Rand, a 1999 television adaptation of the book of the same name, won several awards.^[142] Rand's image also appears on a U.S. postage stamp designed by artist Nick Gaetano.^[155]

Political influence[link]

A protester at an April 2009 Tea Party rally carries a sign referring to John Galt, the hero of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged

Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian,"^[156] Rand has had continuing influence on right-wing politics and libertarianism.^[157] Jim Powell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, considers Rand one of the three most important women (along with Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson) of modern American libertarianism,^[158] and David Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, stated that "without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist."^[159] In his history of the libertarian movement, journalist Brian Doherty described her as "the most influential libertarian of the twentieth century to the public at large,"^[141] and biographer Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right."^[160]

She faced intense opposition from William F. Buckley, Jr. and other contributors for the National Review magazine. They published numerous attacks in the 1950s and 1960s by Whittaker Chambers, Garry Wills, and M. Stanton Evans. Nevertheless, her influence among conservatives forced Buckley and other National Review contributors to reconsider how traditional notions of virtue and Christianity could be integrated with support for capitalism.^[161]

The political figures who cite Rand as an influence are most often members of the United States Republican Party^[162] despite Rand being a pro-choice atheist.^[163] A 1987 article in The New York Times referred to her as the Reagan administration's "novelist laureate".^[164] Republican Congressmen and conservative pundits have acknowledged her influence on their lives and recommended her novels.^[165]

The late-2000s financial crisis spurred renewed interest in her works, especially Atlas Shrugged, which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis,^[166] and opinion articles compared real-world events with the plot of the novel.^[167] During this time, signs mentioning Rand and her fictional hero John Galt appeared at Tea Party protests.^[168] There was also increased criticism of her ideas, especially from the political left, with critics blaming the economic crisis on her support of selfishness and free markets, particularly through her influence on Alan Greenspan.^[169] For example, Mother Jones remarked that "Rand's particular genius has always been her ability to turn upside down traditional hierarchies and recast the wealthy, the talented, and the powerful as the oppressed",^[163] while The Nation alleged similarities between the "moral syntax of Randianism" and fascism.^[170]

Academic reaction[link]

During Rand's lifetime her work received little attention from academic scholars.^[4] When the first academic book about Rand's philosophy appeared in 1971, its author declared writing about Rand "a treacherous undertaking" that could lead to "guilt by association" for taking her seriously.^[171] A few articles about Rand's ideas appeared in academic journals prior to her death in 1982, many of them in The Personalist.^[172] One of these was "On the Randian Argument" by respected libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick, who argued that her meta-ethical argument is unsound and fails to solve the is–ought problem posed by David Hume.^[173] Some responses to Nozick by other academic philosophers were also published in The Personalist arguing that Nozick misstated Rand's case.^[172] Academic consideration of Rand as a literary figure during her life was even more limited. Gladstein was unable to find any scholarly articles about Rand's novels when she began researching her in 1973, and only three such articles appeared during the rest of the 1970s.^[174]

Since Rand's death, interest in her work has gradually increased.^[175] Historian Jennifer Burns has identified "three overlapping waves" of scholarly interest in Rand, the most recent of which is "an explosion of scholarship" since the year 2000.^[176] However, few universities currently include Rand or Objectivism as a philosophical specialty or research area, with many literature and philosophy departments dismissing her as a pop culture phenomenon rather than a subject for serious study.^[177]

Academics Mimi Gladstein, Chris Sciabarra, Allan Gotthelf, Edwin A. Locke and Tara Smith have taught her work in academic institutions. Sciabarra co-edits the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, a nonpartisan peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of Rand's philosophical and literary work.^[178] In 1987 Gotthelf helped found the Ayn Rand Society, and has been active in sponsoring seminars about Rand and her ideas.^[179] Smith has written several academic books and papers on Rand's ideas, including Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, a volume on Rand's ethical theory published by Cambridge University Press. Rand's ideas have also been made subjects of study at Clemson and Duke universities.^[180] Scholars of English and American literature have largely ignored her work,^[181] although attention to her literary work has increased since the 1990s.^[182]

Some academic philosophers have criticized Rand for what they consider her lack of rigor and limited understanding of philosophical subject matter.^[4][95] The Philosophical Lexicon, a satirical web site maintained by philosophers Daniel Dennett and Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen, defines a 'rand' as: "An angry tirade occasioned by mistaking philosophical disagreement for a personal attack and/or evidence of unspeakable moral corruption."^[183] Chris Matthew Sciabarra has called into question the motives of some of Rand's critics because of the unusual hostility of their criticisms.^[184] Sciabarra writes, "The left was infuriated by her anti-communist, pro-capitalist politics, whereas the right was disgusted with her atheism and civil libertarianism."^[4]

Rand scholars Douglas Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen, while stressing the importance and originality of her thought, describe her style as "literary, hyperbolic and emotional."^[185] Philosopher Jack Wheeler says that despite "the incessant bombast and continuous venting of Randian rage," Rand's ethics are "a most immense achievement, the study of which is vastly more fruitful than any other in contemporary thought."^[186] In the Literary Encyclopedia entry for Rand written in 2001, John Lewis declared that "Rand wrote the most intellectually challenging fiction of her generation".^[187] In a 1999 interview in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra commented, "I know they laugh at Rand," while forecasting a growth of interest in her work in the academic community.^[188]

Objectivist movement[link]

In 1985, Rand's heir Leonard Peikoff established the Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading Rand's ideas and promoting her works. In 1990, philosopher David Kelley founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies, now known as The Atlas Society.^[189] In 2001 historian John McCaskey organized the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, which provides grants for scholarly work on Objectivism in academia.^[190] The charitable foundation of BB&T Corporation has also given grants for teaching Rand's ideas or works. The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pittsburgh, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are among the schools that have received grants. In some cases these grants have been controversial due to their requiring research or teaching related to Rand.^[191]