Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two bestselling novels and for dev
…eloping a philosophical system that she called Objectivism. Born (Feb. 2 1905) and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead and her 1957 philosophical novel, Atlas Shrugged. In her philosophy of Objectivism, Rand advocated an epistemology in which evidence-based logic and reason were the only means of validating the truth-value of knowledge. She rejected faith or the supernatural as sources of knowledge. She was an atheist. Ethically, she supported a virtue-based ethics of rational egoism or enlightened self-interest. She considered the virtues of rationality, pride (self-esteem), productiveness, honesty, integrity, independence, and justice as major virtues. She rejected the ethical altruism of August Comte (who originated the term). What Rand opposed about altruism was the following idea: "The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value." To be clear, she did not reject or admonish charity or helping others. She also considered charity to be a virtue, but not as primary those identified above. She stressed, though, that in order for helping others to be moral, that it ought to be voluntary, that is, not coerced, which she argued is the basis of government welfare programs. Her politics can be classified as classic liberal or libertarian. Specifically, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed all forms of collectivism and statism. Instead, she argued for laissez-faire capitalism, which she believed was the only social system that properly protected individual and property rights. She ascribed to romantic realism in art. There is a growing body of literature on Ayn Rand, including work that is critical and expands on her Objectivist philosophy. Some of these scholars include David Kelley (Evidence of the Senses: A Realist Theory of Perception; Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence), Chris Sciabarra (Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical), Ronald Merrill (The Ideas of Ayn Rand), Tibor Machan (Ayn Rand), Tara Smith (Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: the Virtuous Egoist), Leonard Peikoff (Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand), and George Reisman (Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics). Chris Sciabarra founded a peer-reviewed scholarly journal called The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. Ayn Rand was married to Frank O'Connor and had no children. To learn about her personal life, there are several biographies: The Passion of Ayn Rand, by Barbara Branden, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, by Jennifer Burns, and Ayn Rand and the World She Made, by Anne Heller. There is also a memoir by Nathaniel Branden, My Years with Ayn Rand. (MORE) 
