Ayn Rand--Ideal Man

 

On Page vii of her Introduction to her book The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand admits that the purpose of her writing was to projection of ideal man, but the artist in her always reigned supreme, for she wants the protagonist of her novel, Howard Roark, to be an end in itself, and that is as it should be otherwise a creative work is not concrete, real and original.

 

Still, her general purpose, as she writes on Pages vii and viii is: “’Since my purpose is the presentation of an ideal man, I had to define and present the conditions which make him possible and which his existence requires. Since man’s character is the product of his premises, I had to present and define and present the kinds of premises and values that create the character of an ideal man and motivate his actions; which means I had to define and present a rational code of ethics. Since man acts and deals among other men, I had to present the kind of social system that makes it possible for ideal men to exist and to function—a free, productive, rational system which demands and rewards the best in every man, and which is, obviously, laissez-faire capitalism.

 

‘But neither politics or ethics nor philosophy are an end in itself, neither in life or in literature. Only Man is an end in himself.’”

 

My response: Rand the writer and artist is part-didactic ethical lecturer, part-philosopher and part whimsical artist allowing her original work to flow where is want to without structure or overburdensome, artificial design.

 

She likely is not the most talented, or most brilliant artist and philosopher in the world, but she strikes me as an original thinker and ethicist that comes close to discovering the truth about the human condition, and how people must live to be happy, fulfilled, and virtuous.

 

I admire her for defining man’s character as the product of his premises, and this may be roughly equivalent to suggesting that one’s character is the product of one’s choices, which typically would be grounded in one’s presuppositions about the world, and the premises that one acts upon.

 

She succeeds in laying out her ethical system, (rational selfishness), a rational code of ethics built upon the premises and values that motivate him to act as he does.

 

And his rational egoism is acted out by him in the social world of other people, a complex, interwoven world of political, structural, commercial, familial, and economic relations tying people to each other. She is not an anarchist or radical libertarian. The social structure is optimal for human happiness and success where rational egoism motivates citizens in a democracy whose economy is a free market one to demand and reward the best effort by every human.

 

Her social utopian vision has a lot to commend it.