What do you think of Ayn Rand?

Question

I'm doing my Bachelor's Essay on Rand, and I want to get a general idea of what people think of her...specifically if you've not read much by Rand, since she tends to have such a negative image. ANY thoughts in the affirmative or negative regarding her philosophy/fiction is appreciated.

Answer 1

If you like to think you will appreciate Ayn Rand's phylosophy. If you are mostly driven by emotion you will recoil away. I find that some people think she is too selfish or self-centered. They just don't get it. She is talking about "rational" self-interest. One must understand what rational means.


Reality = Rational. A is A. All the virtues follow from this rationality.

Some quotes from Rand:

Independence: this is your commitment to think for yourself and to accept the burden and responsibility of your own rational life.

Integrity: this is the conviction that man is an indivisible entity and that no breach can be permitted between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions. To forsake integrity is to try to fake your own consciousness, to think “yes” and do “no”, to live a contradiction.

Honesty: this is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud . . . honesty . . . is the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others.

Justice: this is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake the character of men. A is A and you cannot identify a person as A and treat him as non-A. "Every man must be judged for what he is and treated accordingly . . . just as you do not pay a higher price for a rusty chunk of scrap than for a piece of shining metal, so you do not value a rotter above a hero . . . To withhold your contempt from men's vices is an act of moral counterfeiting, and to withhold your admiration from their virtues is an act of moral embezzlement.

So, you see, if you follow through with careful thought and consideration, you start with rational self-interest and the result is a better world for all. Contrast this with the shared misery and hoplessness of collectivism, communism and socialism and you see the difference.

Rand makes it very clear that by happiness she does not mean just any kind of pleasure. Self-interest must be qualified by "rational": only that which is proper to a rational being is good and the ground of true happiness. This is why she opposes traditional hedonism which declares that "the proper value is whatever gives you pleasure".

Happiness, for Ayn Rand, "is a state of non-contradictory joy - a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction".

You cannot just read Clif Notes about an Ayn Rand novel. There are deep ideas worth hearing.

I think, therefore I appreciate Ayn Rand's work.

Answer 2

I've been reading Atlas Shrugged for the past couple of months (no time to just sit down and read) and it doesn't seem to carry a poor image of people. She sympathizes with all of the workers and commoners who hold faith in the devoted industrialists and she emphasizes how too much government is a bad thing, which is RECOGNIZED rather than ignored by the masses. Although she does note how most of the elites get caught up in their social image, she also notes that most people do not.

If you're writing an essay on her though, I'd stick to what you're saying since it's a lot easier to criticize her than to go along with her unless you're at hardcore libertarian school like the University of Chicago. Best of luck with your essay. Below is a link to the Ayn Rand institute just to speed things along.