Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy has been touted by her detractors as the philosophy of self-interested selfishness. Her four epistemological principles include the following:
Metaphysics: Objective reality of the world and the objects in it.
Epistemology: Reason as the one and only key to understanding.
Ethics: Self-interest not only in what behavior is but also what it should be.
Politics: Capitalism through the performance of deeds by individuals who are self-interested.
In the early 1960s, a student asked a spokesman for Objectivism what would happen to the poor in an Objectivist’s free society. The spokesman answered, “If you want to help them, you will not be stopped.” Based on Rand’s works, Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, one will conclude that this would be the answer Ayn would have given to that student as well.
Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, address all of the following:
What do you conclude from the answer given by the Objectivist spokesperson?
Examine the notion that Objectivism, like moral relativism, is the opposite of ethics. Provide support for your position.
What clue in what she taught leads to your conclusion?
Sample Solution
