Replying to College students please read
I know it iss long but if you would please read and critique. thanks.
Objectivism is the philosophy of rational individualism founded by Ayn Rand . In novels such as The Fountainhead, Rand dramatized her ideal man, the man who lives by his own effort and does not give or receive the undeserved, who honors achievement and rejects envy.
Howard Roark, the lead character in Rands' novel the Fountainhead was the epitamy of objectivism. Roark is optimistic, holding that the universe is open to his achievement and happiness and that each person has the ability live a rich, fulfilling, independent life. These ideals are what Roark expressed through his architecture. He was completely original in his work, and followed no rules of the time except for the laws of physics. He was chastized for this, but he took no notice and held only belief in himself. The only thing he needed (This was one of Ayn Rands philosophies on life). Roark holds that there is one reality, the one in which he lives. It is self-evident that reality exists and is what it is: his job is to discover it. Roark stands against all forms of metaphysical relativism or idealism. he holds it as undeniable that humans have free will, and opposes metaphysical determinism or fatalism. More generally, Howard holds that there is no fundamental contradiction between the free, abstract character of mental life and the physical body in which it resides. And so it denies the existence of any "supernatural" or ineffable dimension for spirits or souls. By living for the day and living for himself Howard Roark follows word for word the common objectivists view of reality.
Roarks morals in the novel, his morality of reason, is contained in a single theorem: existence exists—and in a single choice, to live. The rest proceeds from these. To live, man must hold three things as the ruling values of his life: Reason—Purpose—Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge—Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve—Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: worthy of living.
Roark, in the novel, recognized individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from humanity, basically, rights can violated only by means of force. In capitalist society, no man or group many initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man's rights, suchas the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man's right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use; thus the government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control. in the novel the fountainhead this is not how government existed. It existed just as it does now. This is obviously not how Howard Roark believed it should exist.
Ayn Rand also showed many of her theories by relating them to art. She as well as Roark in the Fountainhead believed that we are living too much for other people and the past, instead of creating our own individual identity. Instead of trying to re-create a Rembrandt, why not do something completely original?
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