Objectivism, the philosophy created by Ayn Rand, is an integrated system of thought that defines the abstract principles by which a man must think and act if he is to live the life proper to man. The author herself characterises the philosophy in the following words:.
" My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". (www.aynrand.org).
It is noteworthy that in order to describe and understand the essence of any philosophy, Objectivism included, extensive reflection is due to be given to the following issues:.
1) Metaphysics - which becomes the study of Objective Reality in Rand's system of philosophical thought;.
2) Epistemology - the theory of perception which in Objectivism is founded upon Reason;.
3) Ethics - which is based on Self-interest as well as a Value Theory;.
4) Politics - leading to an unprecedented praise of Capitalism or, to be more precise, of the laissez-faire type of Capitalism (Rand, par 1).
When Rand was asked to "process" all those four factors into plain English so that they would be more readily comprehended, she ended up with the following:.
Ad. 1). " Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."/"Wishing won't make it so.".
Ad. 2). " You can't eat your cake and have it too.".
Ad. 3). " Man is an end in himself. ".
Ad. 4). " Give me liberty or give me death. " (par 2).
Firstly, Objectivism holds that "reality exists as an objective absolute" (par 4) In much broader sense it means that facts are just facts without any dose of human emotions, fears, hopes or wishes. In metaphysics, Rand affirms the primacy of existence - that existence is or exists, which is Rand's first axiom. While the inquiry into the reasons for the existence of any thing is simple, the very question about why existence itself exists is impossible and/or futile.
