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Ayn Rand anyone?

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?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.? ? Ayn Rand


Here?s a strange figure: novelist and promoter of ?objectivist? philosophy,
which implies capitalism as the only viable political system, selfishness as a
moral virtue, and other ?surprising? results in epistemology, metaphysics and
aesthetics.

Her supporters proclaim that her influence has been enormous both in the
academic and non-academic world. While the success of her novels testifies to
the latter claim, she has, in fact, been almost completely ignored in academic
circles. (Although Nozick had a pop at her in one article.) There is an
interesting question here about the role of fictional works in philosophy. It
worked for Sartre, who published both fiction and non-fiction, but Rand seems
more like Pirsig (author of Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance) ? an
academic outsider whose controversial views attain some level of popularity but
little serious acclaim.

Rand is opposed to any form of relativism or scepticism. Knowledge is possible
through applying the rules of logic to the objects of perception, through which
we gain clear images of reality. The moral ideals of self-sacrifice and
altruism are myths. In fact the greatest good is achieved through pursuing the
aims of the individual.

Anyone feel like enlightening me about this mysterious character? I?m at a bit
of a loss to find any substantive arguments behind the radical claims (this is
after an admittedly brief period of research on the internet.) Even
better?anyone feel like throwing their hat in the ring as a staunch Randian? 

The following links contain a lot of introductory information to the thought of
Ayn Rand, but beware: they are, for the most part, rather biased towards her
point of view.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand

http://www.ayn-rand.com/

http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/rand.htm


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