Ayn Rand held that reality has a fixed nature independent of consciousness, governed by the law of cause and effect, and that our minds are aware of external facts. She therefore opposed the view that the mind creates or distorts reality, as well as any form of supernaturalism.

She held that rational thought on the basis of the data provided by our senses is our only means of knowledge and our only guide to action. She therefore opposed both alleged alternative means of knowledge such as faith or intuition, and also skepticism, the idea that knowledge is impossible.

She held that each human being has free will — ultimately expressed in the decision to think or not to think — and has the power to make him- or herself into a hero. She was thus opposed to the idea that human beings are inherently evil (for example the Christian doctrine of Original Sin) or unable to control their behaviour.

She held that the moral purpose of each person’s life is his or her own happiness, and that each person should therefore pursue his or her own rational self-interest, neither sacrificing self to others nor others to self. She held that a person should deal with others according to the “trader principle”: seeking mutual exchange to mutual advantage.

She held that what is good or bad for a person is a matter of objective fact, to be decided by its effect on that person’s life — not just momentary survival, but full flourishing as a human being. Thus she opposed moral relativism, which holds that right and wrong is purely a matter of taste or subjective feeling, and also intrinsicism, which holds that value is solely a property of external objects and that a person’s choices, preferences, desires and ends are irrelevant.

On the basis of this moral code, she advocated a political system of laissez-faire capitalism, with a complete separation of economy and state. According to her, the government’s only proper purpose is the protection of individual freedom of action, as expressed by the rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. She thus had significant differences with both sides of the conventional political spectrum.

In art, she described her approach as “Romantic realism”, and set out, as Aristotle advocated, to portray “life as it might be and ought to be”.

Ayn Rand’s fiction gives us inspiring visions of heroes who fight for their values against the odds. But underlying her novels is a system of thought which rises above the stale ivory-tower debates and false alternatives of much of conventional philosophy, and challenges crucial aspects of modern culture at the deepest level. In an age when reason, self-interest and individual freedom are under relentless attack from every quarter, her ideas have never been more relevant.

For more information and further reading about Ayn Rand’s philosophy, which she called “Objectivism”, we recommend starting here at the website of the Ayn Rand Institute.