Abstract：No image of man that neglects or denies his rational nature is acceptable to Objectivism. Altruism, as Rand defined it, means self-sacrifice, self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, and ultimately self-destruction.
Key words：Rationalism Self- Interest Altruism Ayn Rand
From the time Atlas Shrugged appeared in 1957 until the day she died in 1982, Ayn Rand returned again and again, in articles and public addresses, to the radio speech of that novel’s mechanical genius John Galt. She considered it the essential statement of her public philosophy; and she quoted it as though Galt were a living authority and his words holy writ.
Rationalism
Ayn Rand made clear in her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology that she considered herself an Aristotelian, or a “moderate realist.” She rejected the “extreme realism” of Plato, who she said believed in a reality separate from concrete matter and thus accessible to man only through mysticism. She also rejected the postclassical schools of nominalism and conceptualism, both of which she said denied the objective reality of concepts. For Rand concepts are objectively real and are bonded to the concrete world. They are readily accessible to man through his reason. Complementary to her emphasis on the rational nature of reality, then, is her emphasis on the rational nature of man.
Rand once said that on her tombstone she wanted one word, the word that best described her philosophy, her sense of life. It was not “Novelist” or “Objectivist” or even “Individualist” but “Rationalist.” The heroes of her novels and the object of her praise in
philosophic essays are first and foremost men of reason. They do not depend for their knowledge, ethics, or morality upon social norms or mystical revelations. They are coldly rational, self-sufficient, and unapologetic of being that they are. For Rand reason stands as the foundation of all human achievement.
As we have seen, Rand credited Aristotle with establishing the value of rationalism; and she said that only in times when Aristotle is the guiding light is man self-confident and productive. The man of reason is always an individualist, shunning society’s values, following only the urgings of his own mind. Her heroes are strong rather than merciful, resolute rather than considerate. Their most outstanding, decisive, unalterable characteristic is supreme egoism. Rand was undisturbed by the way lesser mortals criticized the film. She was already at work on what she would later consider her true masterpiece, the largest and last of her novels, Atlas Shrugged. In the novel Anthem, the myth of one man’s escape from collectivist totalitarianism, she said that Ego is the one word that such a regime must strike from man’s vocabulary in order to enslave him. The hero of The Fountainhead, Roark, destroys his own building rather than see it modified by lesser minds; and in court he defends his actions with an appeal to individualism.
Self- Interest
The rational individual, the man of ego, is by nature a selfish being, a man of supreme self-confidence and self-interest. Ayn Rand called such a man a hero, a person to be respected and praised for his human spirit. It grieved her that selfishness had a negative connotation, and she blamed this on the advocates of what she considered destructive altruism.
Rand believed that the individualist must above all other things avoid the modern “cult” of altruism. It is the vampire that sucks the blood from producers. She believed that medieval Christian altruism, which was set aside by the rediscovery of Aristotelian ethics at the beginning of the Renaissance, was revived by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. This sense of duty, this altruism, was Rand’s main target as she tried to teach the virtue of selfishness. (1)
For her altruism was a primitive phenomenon, a reversion to a tribal ethic. In prehistoric times, she said, it was necessary to band together into tribes, to think of the needs of others, in order for humans to survive as a race. In modern times it is but a “psycho-epistemological” defense against the opportunities of individualism, a protection of lesser men against the growth of individualists. Altruism is used by the modern “mystic-altruistic-collectivist axis” of “second-handers” who cannot thrive in an open society to keep the “man of ability” in his place. There each man traded his skill for payment in pure gold and in turn paid pure gold for the skill of other men. There no one thought more of another than he did of himself. There each man thought and acted for himself and for no one else. Men of undiluted selfishness lived in harmony with each other, without conflict of interest, because all of them followed the dictates of reason.
Capitalism
The whitest of all Rand’s whites, the truest of all her truths, the principle least to be compromised, was capitalism. Capitalism was the creation and in turn the creator of heroic individualism. It was, when unspattered by the black ink of governmental controls, the perfect economic and social system, the only one under which an individualist can and will thrive. She insisted on a separation of economy and the state patterned on the lines of separation of church and state. She insisted, when asked her philosophy of economics, that she was “a radical for capitalism.”
For Rand capitalism is the only economic system “geared to the life of a rational being.” It is not only history’s most practical system but the most moral as well. Only under the capitalism of the late nineteenth century did men of rational self-interest flourish and produce as men are capable of doing. Only then was true freedom for all achieved. Capitalism wiped away European feudal serfdom in the fifteenth century and American slavery in the nineteenth.
Rand had her own version of the history of Western civilization. In it Aristotle and his descendants, men who chose reason over mysticism, freedom’s insecurity and opportunity over religious and political controls, led the way toward capitalism and progress. The Middle Ages were a time of Platonic mysticism, the Renaissance and industrial revolution times of Aristotelian rationalism, when intellectuals and businessmen combined to create a climate for progress.
Time and again Rand attacked the notion that capitalism dehumanizes workers. Under the great capitalists, men of rational self-interest, workers made more gains than at any other time in history. It was not businessmen but second-handers, looters, who were responsible for the excesses, abuses, and ultimately the decline of
capitalism. Government controls, concessions, subsidies all led to a “mixed” economy that rendered the capitalists ineffective. They were taxed, restricted, and publicly shamed until they either gave up and joined the cooperating tribe of second-handers or were crushed by the combined power.
This is of course the reason Rand believed it so important that America protect the right of private property. While capitalism in this country remains polluted by the socialist policies of recent administrations, America is still the most nearly capitalist nation on earth; and Rand believed that its future depends upon preserving as much of its former capitalist spirit and practice as possible. Man’s life is worth living only if he can be productive, and productivity requires private property.
Rand saw how difficult the road to a new capitalist era would be for a nation that has strayed from the straight and narrow to dabble in collectivist experimentation. She called the 1960s and 1970s an “age of envy,” a time when the individualist was despised for being better than the common man, when the great man was penalized simply for being great. (2)
Bibliography
[1]John Kobler, “Curious Cult of Ayn Rand,” Saturday Evening Post, 11 November 1961, 98.
[2]Gladstein, Mimi. Ayn Rand Companion, Twayne Publishers. 1997, 9.
本项目受上海政法学院 2019 年度校级科研项目经费支持。项目名称：安﹒兰德的利己主义伦理思想研究， 项目编号：2019XJ12