Ayn Rand é um furacão pensante...

Ayn Rand pensa mais rápido que um F16. Eis o nosso modelo de Mulher. Como seria tomar chá com ela e Deus ao fim da tarde numa praia por aí...

What is Philosophy? Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man's relationship to existence. … In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.

— Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 2)

• A philosophy is a comprehensive system of ideas about human nature and the nature of the reality we live in. It is a guide for living, because the issues it addresses are basic and pervasive, determining the course we take in life and how we treat other people.

The topics that philosophy addresses fall into several distinct fields. Among those of fundamental concern are:

Metaphysics (the theory of reality). Epistemology (the theory of knowledge) Ethics (the theory of moral values) Politics (the theory of legal rights and government) Aesthetics (the theory of the nature of art)

Why is Objectivism a System of Ideas?

I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.

— Ayn Rand, "Introducing Objectivism" The Objectivist Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 8 August, 1962 p. 35

• Philosophies are systems of ideas because their theories are connected in a hierarchy. Beginning with the most fundamental issues, the conclusions one reaches in one field of philosophy have profound implications about what one can consistently conclude in another.

  Why Does Anyone Need a Philosophy?

  You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles are true or false, whether they represent your conscious, rational convictions - or a grab-bag of notions snatched at random, whose sources, validity, and consequences you do not know, notions which, more often than not, you would drop like a hot potato if you knew.

  — Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 5)

  What is Objectivism?

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.

— Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged

What is the Objectivist View of Law and Government (Politics)?

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may 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, i.e., 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. —

Ayn Rand, "What is Capitalism" Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, p. 19.

Dedicado à memória de Ayn Rand - especialmente pelo seu fulgor de pensamento e por nos ajudar a perceber que o egoísmo é uma força construtiva, desde que emane de um interesse pessoal iluminado. É destrutivo quando decorre da vaidade, da soberba, do narcisismo e da ambição desmedida. Dá-nos algum consolo perceber que algumas das nossas pequenas suposições metafísicas reencontram-se com algumas destas grandes conclusões. Afinal, para se ser egoísta tem que se saber sê-lo. Ou como diria o nosso amigo Dalai Lama - entalado pelos chineses que só conhecem a economia de mercado mas não revogam a ditadura do seu execrável regime político, é preciso ser sabiamente egoísta... E é por causa de mulheres assim que nos sentimos mui pequeninos...