| The Harvard Salient | November 4, 1996 |
Over the past six weeks, the Harvard Objectivist Club has held a lecture series on the principles of Objectivism, a philosophy described by Ayn Rand in her well-known works The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Rand believed that the practice of reason and the understanding that objective reality exists are crucial to living a full and happy life.
The first lecture, delivered by Harry Binswanger, a teacher at the Objectivist Graduate Center in upstate New York, was a general overview of the principles of Objectivism. Not surprisingly, some students met the first lecture with vocal opposition. Subsequent lectures, which have been more sympathetically received, focused on specific aspects of Objectivism, such as Rand's theory of free will and the process of deriving morality from objective facts.
Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg in 1905. She taught herself to read at age six and quickly developed a love for reading and writing. Disgusted with the mysticism and collectivism of Russia, she fled to the United States in 1925. She later became one of the most outspoken defenders of American capitalism, calling it the system which redeemed the rest of the world. Rand believed that capitalism was the most appropriate economic system for human life because it glorifies individual achievement and respects individual rights and private property. She believed that rational self-interest should be the one guide of human action. She claimed, "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."
Many are put off by Rand's philosophy because of negative hearsay. In one "Simpsons" episode, Maggie is placed in the "Ayn Rand School for Tots," where a few angry matrons sit around with signs on the wall reading "Helping is Futile." I have nothing against "The Simpsons," but some people have actually formed what they think are educated opinions on Ayn Rand based only on such trivialized portrayals. She has been called a fascist and a Communist even though she despised systems such as fascism and Communism on the grounds that they violated individual rights and stifled individual achievement.
Objectivism is not an altogether new system. Rand was heavily influenced by the Aristotelian logic of the ancient Greeks. She glorifies the individual - his loves, his achievements, and most importantly, his mind. Ayn Rand's works are inspirational statements on what the rational mind can achieve. It is a refreshing alternative to the typical morass of cultural relativism and mediocrity that we see every day.
The next few lectures will deal with Objectivism as it relates to some current issues such as enviromentalism and multiculturalism. The lectures are held in the Sackler Museum lecture hall, and the times are posted on the "Ayn Rand Comes to Harvard" flyers around campus.
-Mike Hill