Who was Ayn Rand?

Question

What is the essence of her popularity and why is she and her scholars so popular?

Answer 1

Rand's writing (both fiction and non-fiction) emphasizes the philosophic concepts of objective reality in metaphysics, reason in epistemology, and rational egoism in ethics. In politics she was a proponent of laissez-faire capitalism and a staunch defender of individual rights, believing that the sole function of a proper government is protection of individual rights (including property rights).

She believed that individuals must choose their values and actions solely by reason, and that "Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others." According to Rand, the individual "must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life."

Rand decried the initiation of force and fraud, and held that government action should consist only in protecting citizens from criminal behavior (via the police) and foreign hostility (via the military) and in maintaining a system of courts to decide guilt or innocence and to objectively resolve disputes. Her politics are generally described as minarchist and libertarian, though she did not use the first term and disavowed any connection to the second.[2]

Rand, a self-described hero-worshiper, stated in her book The Romantic Manifesto that the goal of her writing was "the projection of an ideal man." In reference to her philosophy, Objectivism, she said: "My philosophy, in essence, is 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." (Appendix to Atlas Shrugged)

Answer 2

Ayn Rand was the head of, for lack of a better word, a literary "cult", which had herself as the centre.

She wrote a number of books (Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead) that struck a chord with a number of themes that were popular in American society at the time (e.g., a return to romanticism, hero worship, egocentrism (in the form of self-interest) and a desire to promote capitalism in the face of the "Red Threat").

As for her scholars being so popular, that is debatable. Many of them are respected and respectable -- for example, Murray Rothbard, Allan Greenspan -- but that is due to more of their own efforts than Rand's. (Most of the successes came after they managed to breakaway from the "cult".)

However, one can argue that a significant number of her followers -- like Rand herself -- did help give support to the New Right political movement, as well as helped provide a quasi-philosophical backing for libertarianism and free market capitalism.

Answer 3

I think Tom A's answer is pretty good. I agree with much of objectivism, but would not call myself an objectivist nor a big fan of Rand. I agree that there does seem to be a lot of idolatry of Saint Ayn, and this cultish behavior (including the usual "we are right, everyone else is wrong, end of story") has probably done much more to harm the spread of objectivist and libertarian ideas than any criticisms of the ideas themselves.

Answer 4

She was a novelist. She wrote fiction.

Answer 5

Yeah, what kvishwas said. good answer!!!