Ayn Rand - Post #2, Section 8, Group 2

“I am often asked whether I am primarily a novelist or a philosopher. The answer is: both. In a certain sense, every novelist is a philosopher, because one cannot present a picture of human existence without a philosophical framework. . . . In order to define, explain and present my concept of man, I had to become a philosopher in the specific meaning of the term.”

— Ayn Rand, “Preface,”
For the New Intellectual

            Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum, was born in 1905 and died in 1982. She was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She was born and raised in Russia, and her experiences there are especially reflected in her novel “We the Living”. She moved to the United States in 1926, and gained fame in 1943 with her novel “The Fountainhead”. In 1957 she published her best known work, and also my favorite novel, “Atlas Shrugged”. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected faith and religion. She was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her, except for some Aristotelians and classical liberals. Initially academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy, but recently academic interest has increased and her beliefs and ideas are becoming more widespread with the Objectivist movement. She has been a significant influence among libertarians and American Conservatives.