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Ayn Rand was a Russian-born philosopher and best-selling novelist who fled the Bolshevik revolution to settle in America. She is most widely known for her opposition to collectivism and for developing a philosophical system, calledObjectivism, based upon the primacy of individual freedom.

Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic; that the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism.

Rand’s magnum opus is the novel Atlas Shrugged, which chronicles a dystopian social-democratic United States where leading innovators, ranging from industrialists to artists, finally refuse to be exploited by elected tyranny. Woven into the narrative, Atlas Shrugged expresses many facets of Rand’s philosophy, including the advocacy of reason, of individualism, of the market economy and the failure of government coercion.

Rand’s political views, reflected in both her fiction and her theoretical work, emphasize individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by constitutionally limited government. She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, and the welfare state, and promoted ethical egoism while condemning altruism.

She considered reason to be the only means of acquiring knowledge, and considered reason to be the most important aspect of her philosophy, stating:
“I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.”