Ayn Rand
Libertarian philosophy icon
Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher, best known for *The Fountainhead* and *Atlas Shrugged*.
Her philosophy, which she called Objectivism, champions rational self-interest, laissez-faire capitalism, and individual rights against collectivism.
She remains polarizing—venerated by libertarians and free-market advocates, dismissed by critics as simplistic or callous.
He went through an Ayn Rand phase in college.
Commerce without state intervention
- laissez-faireNoninterference in commerce
- entrepreneurshipCreating and managing ventures
- industrialistMajor manufacturing business owner
- profit motiveDrive to earn money
private property · deregulation · gold standard · Alan Greenspan · big business · self-made man · wealth creation · economic freedom
Sound judgment quality
- self-interestConcern for personal advantage
- egoismDoctrine of self-motivation
- reasonBasis or justification
- objectivityFreedom from personal bias
reality · existence · consciousness · individual rights · moral purpose · John Galt
Of both nations' heritage
- St. PetersburgRussian Baltic port city
- Soviet RussiaFormer communist superpower
- emigrationLeaving homeland permanently
- cigarette holderTube for smoking elegantly
Causing sharp division
- cult of personalityExcessive veneration of leader
- dogmaticAsserting opinions as facts
- ideologueDogmatic political advocate
- excommunicationFormal barring from sacraments
inner circle · devotees · critics · atheism · abortion rights · anti-feminism · HUAC
free market
Commerce without state intervention
- laissez-faireNoninterference in commerce
- entrepreneurshipCreating and managing ventures
- industrialistMajor manufacturing business owner
profit motive · private property · deregulation · gold standard · Alan Greenspan · big business · self-made man · wealth creation · economic freedom
rationality
Sound judgment quality
- self-interestConcern for personal advantage
- egoismDoctrine of self-motivation
- reasonBasis or justification
objectivity · reality · existence · consciousness · individual rights · moral purpose · John Galt
Atlas Shrugged
Objectivist epic novel
- The FountainheadObjectivist philosophical novel
Russian-American
Of both nations' heritage
- St. PetersburgRussian Baltic port city
- Soviet RussiaFormer communist superpower
- emigrationLeaving homeland permanently
polarizing
Causing sharp division
- cult of personalityExcessive veneration of leader
- dogmaticAsserting opinions as facts
- ideologueDogmatic political advocate
excommunication · inner circle · devotees · critics · atheism · abortion rights · anti-feminism · HUAC
- Emigre IntellectualsThomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht
- Russian Emigre WritersVladimir Nabokov
- Women WritersJane Austen, Emily Bronte, Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, Anne Bronte
- 20th Century AuthorsErnest Hemingway, Hemingway, William Faulkner, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- philosophersAristotle, Plato, Socrates, Kant, Descartes
- Political WritersThomas Paine, George Orwell, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
Ayn RandKarl Marx
Friedrich Engels · collectivist · Vladimir Lenin · socialist · Mao Zedong
Ayn Randaltruist
Selfless benefactor of others
Mother Teresa · self-sacrificing · selfless · Immanuel Kant · Albert Schweitzer
Ayn RandJohn Steinbeck
Upton Sinclair · Leo Tolstoy · Ursula K. Le Guin · Charles Dickens · Victor Hugo