Objectivism is the name that Ayn Rand gave to the philosophical system that she discovered. It is the answer to the questions posed in the five main branches of philosophy as Plato defined them. (See above.)
Ayn Rand is an Aristotelian philosopher. Since Objectivism answers the fundamental questions that Plato posed on the nature of the universe, of the mind, of human life on this earth and man's life in society, it is also a Western philosophy. This means that Ayn Rand is in the same tradition as other great Western philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza and Rene Descartes. This includes her declared enemies including the philosopher Immanuel Kant and the myraids of twentieth-century professional philosphers who do not merit that label.
In contrast to the great majority of philosophers and philosophies of the last two millenia, Objectivism is a secular philosophy. But most importantly, Objectivism is true. As a result, it has practical consequences and beneficial consequences for life on this earth if properly applied to one's life.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, philosophy as a guide to life has become a dead subject. Ayn Rand through Objectivism has rescued philosophy and has once again given legitimacy to the Enlightenment ideal of living a life of reason.
Ayn Rand summarized her philosophy in "The Objectivist Newsletter" in 1962:
1. Reality exists as an objective absolute--facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man--every man--is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man's rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals and foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but historically has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church."
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ref: The Objectivist FAQ
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