Ayn Rand: Realism, Morality, Selfishness and Capitalism

Moral theories are not just theories regarding the nature of the world and human behaviour but also societal influences that enable or constrain human behaviour. One theory with significant influence is Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism which holds that the highest moral value is selfishness and ‘the words “to make money” hold the essence of human morality’. For Rand and her followers, this argument is built on the recognition of reality and the avoidance of the error of contradictory thinking. In this paper I consider objectivism from the standpoint of the well-developed ontological and epistemological framework of critical realism. This metatheoretical position is used because Rand explicitly builds her moral philosophy on the same ontological realist premises that are argued for in A Realist Theory of Science. By taking this approach, I show that Rand's conception of both epistemology and moral value is incompatible with the ontological realism she professes and therefore her influence is unwarranted.