Study Of Ayn Rand's Thought

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was one of the most famous 20th-century American writers, thinkers and public intellectuals, whose works have a wide range of supporters in the United States, and one of her books sales just second to the Bible in America. Ayn Rand established the objectivist philosophy to argue against the Christian traditional ethics and irrationalism, and advocated a philosophy based on rationality, egoism, laissez-faire capitalism as the core of the philosophy. Academia once refused to recognize Ayn Rand as a philosopher and also disagree with her ideas, but her impact on the American public cannot be ignored. With the expansion of research scale in the field of intellectual history, public ideas, which are not originated in academia, come to become important topics in the field.By introducing Ayn Rand's life, philosophical ideas and their origins, this paper is intended to provide a full-range examination on the life of Ayn Rand and her objectivist philosophy with some scholarly appraisals.The Chapter I will give a brief portrait of Ayn Rand's life. She spent her early years in Russia and then moved to the United States. Rand strongly deprecated the Soviet totalitarian regime, and turned to praise American society that in her eyes was full of freedom and ideals. The two world wars and the Cold War in the 20th century put the global situation in danger and turbulence. Ayn Rand wrote novels and columns to express her views on the current situation and promote her ideal world. Her life as her works was full of charm.The Chapter II aims at examining the origins of Ayn Rand's thought. Rand once said that her objectivism comes from the greatest philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle's teachings of reason, eudemonism, materialism and others could be found their similarities but also further developed in Rand's thought. In addition, this chapter will discuss the intellectual relationship between Nietzsche and Rand and also explain how the Russian thought and cultural traditions have their impacts on Ayn Rand.The Chapter III will analyze Rand's objectivist philosophy in all aspects, including the objective reality, reason, self-interest and capitalism, combining with the most representative pieces of her novels. By analyzing why Rand criticized against the mainstream under the special circumstances she lived, we can understand her tremendous influence to public.The Chapter IV tries to examine Ayn Rand's influence both in the public and the academic community. The admirations from the mass public made Rand catch more and more attentions from the academia that finally realized the significance of scholarly research of Ayn Rand. Her influence on the conservatism of the United States shows that Ayn Rand had an extensive infiltration to contemporary thinking of the United States. This chapter also describes the development of objectivist philosophy after Rand's death up to now.The Chapter V concludes the paper with some critical remarks on Ayn Rand's thought. In doing so, we may acquire more balanced understanding about Rand and her ideas. Then this paper sets a basis for further and more comprehensive study on the topic in the future.