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Ayn Rand’s Objectivism | Philosophy Tube

Philosophy Tube | November 6, 2025



Rand is “Capitalism’s pet philosopher,” so let’s look at Objectivism, which she described in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
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Recommended Reading:
TheLitCritGuy’s Storify on Rand: http://tinyurl.com/grsm2ge
And here he compares and contrasts the popularity of Rand and Dawkins: http://tinyurl.com/z9qfr9l
Denise Cummins, “This is What Happens when You Take Ayn Rand Seriously,” http://tinyurl.com/ze7jrdj and also here for more detail on Objectivism: http://tinyurl.com/zn9my7d
Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will (Brownmiller’s book is about rape, and the study of rape has certainly moved on since it came out – particularly her bits about animals are not thought highly of now. However, it does contain an analysis of the rape-ier bits of Rand.)

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Comments

This post currently has 45 comments.

  2. @ninjastu

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    I'm from the future, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people that took Ayn Rand seriously are in charge of the government now. it's very bad, everything sucks, and most of us are scared for our lives.

  3. @DDiez15

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    I am not familiar with her work but I guess the comparison to Nickelback says it all. I've seen dozens of videos explaining the Nickelback jokes and as it turns out its just a joke as no one actually has anything bad to say about them. It was always just a meme originating from a comment a guy made on TV. So I guess her work must be pretty good and this is just an AF joke and nothing more.

  7. @RandFanOne

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    He proves every negative thing she ever said about Leftists, only she showed the opposition enough respect to actually counter their arguments. He feels no such obligation.

  10. @PraniGopu

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    I have studied Objectivist works (Ayn Rand's and Leonard Peikoff's). I have to say, the articles and threads whose links are given in the description show an openly false grasp of Objectivism. I say openly false, because Objectivist works either oppose or don't say anything about most of the ideas they talk of as "Objectivist". Some of the ideas, such as the idea of man being born as a blank slate, are taken to imply something that wasn't implied. The analyses of the authors of these articles and threads are also very weak, as they try to decry points Objectivism never made based on strawmen and anecdotes. This video, of course, is also bad, in both intent and content.

    I have heard people talk of Objectivist ideas as shallow, immoral and dangerous to those who accept it. I beg to differ. I don't idolise Ayn Rand nor do I think all her ideas are right, but I judge her core philosophy as good and true. If it interests anyone to look further, maybe check the essay "Philosophy: Who Needs It", and if it interests you still, I suggest you check the works introducing Objectivism from first principles, especially by Leonard Peikoff (his lectures are available on YouTube, and his book on Objectivism is also well done).

  12. @nHans

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    Funnily enough, the only reason I even started to look into philosophy is because of Ayn Rand's strong push for it. Until I read her books, I considered philosophy as nothing more than a jerk-circle: You study philosophy so that you can teach philosophy; there being no paying jobs outside academia that require a degree in philosophy.

    But then, Ayn Rand herself was a big fan of Aristotle, and said outright that any rational person ought to study philosophy. So I did (as self-study, BTW, not as a formal course). I enjoyed studying epistemology, ethics, and logic. And that's the only reason I'm subscribed to philosophy-focused YouTube channels, including Philosophy Tube, Philosophy Overdose, Jeffrey Kaplan, Duncan, Crash Course etc. (I don't particularly care for aesthetics, metaphysics, theology etc.)

    Needless to say, I'm a big fan of Rand's works. But don't worry, I'm not going to defend her or explain her philosophy here. In particular, I don't intend to convert the haters. If her books couldn't do it, neither can I.

    In fact, it's easy to see why so many classes of people hate her:

    • Academic philosophers (and I'm looking at you, Abigail!) hate her because she was not formally trained in philosophy. She did not publish in their favorite peer-reviewed journals. They consider her an imposter, and her books as nothing more than commercial fiction posing as philosophy. And her philosophy—Objectivism—as pop-philosophy at best; nothing more than a hotchpotch collection of rehashed ideas from all over—economics, philosophy, politics.

    On top of that, she criticized all their favorite philosophers—the bread-and-butter of their profession! (All but Aristotle—as previously mentioned—and Aquinas.) You can't very well trample all over someone's idols—and still expect to be welcomed into their house now, can ya?!

    And of course her writing wasn't "academically rigorous" and doesn't use philosophy jargon—she wasn't writing for the academics; she was writing for the lay people.

    Her worst sin—achieving enormous popularity and financial success in her lifetime. How galling that must be!

    • She denounced religion as evil—as had Karl Marx. Now, 85% of the world's people today identify as being religious—so it's not surprising they hate her.

    • You'd think that would endear her to the Marxists—but no. She denounced socialism too as evil, praising individualism and selfishness instead—as had Adam Smith. The capitalists love that, of course, but in America (as in many other parts of the world), the political Right is very religious as well. And by equating religion and socialism both to evil, she made it an all-or-none kinda deal.

    So yeah—that left only a small handful of atheist libertarians as her devout followers. (Guess what—she even rejected the label "Libertarianism" for her philosophy.) Of course, you can always pick-and-choose portions of her philosophy to love (or hate)—and many do. But taken as a whole, it's not an easy pill to swallow. Yeah, I suppose you could compare it to a cult.

  13. @cryo311

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    What’s funny is that she claims to have despised racism but then calls Arabs “primitive savages” and said incredibly racist shit about native Americans

  17. @Donnieboy7

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    But how can you say that Ayn Rand’s philosophy is bad? I even read some people’s comments saying that it’s “philosophy”, like in quotes. Are you sure it’s that bad, or are you just denying the truth of the matter here?

  19. @justinphillips6900

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    Lmao I feel validated and I loved the dumpster fire joke. I read Atlas Shrugged recently just to say that I read it and see what it's all about so I was pretty interested to see what someone more well versed in philosophy could say. I certainly had a lot to say. It was exasperating to read and I though it was really dumb and mostly an emotional appeal to those in power to do who knows what because there was so much self contradiction. So much vague gesture at ideas with so little actual thought. I listened to John Galt's radio speech on audible (it's basically an Ayn Rand manifesto) and it was well over an hour in length of a man droning on. I remember imagining to myself an actual radio show this bad. I know I'm forcing myself to listen so I can say I finished the book but honestly if society was collapsing and this was the only thing on the radio, I am turning off that radio lmao it was unbearable.
    Anyway I'm glad to know this is how low anyone with half a brain regards Ayn Rand.

  20. @daniellanctot6548

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    LOL!! Yup, that about sums it up alright: Basically a traumatized victim that went on to inspire even greater evils than she ever was a victim of (I wonder if she could even have inspired ''Victim Mentality'' in the American right-wing).

  23. @undeathmetal1717

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    Is this what Kant meant by moral duty? Choosing the good will? You're not even going to address Ayn Rand yourself? You're just going to run away while you let anyone and everyone else speak for you? Have you no voice of your own?

  26. @Cecilia-ky3uw

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    she introduced me to selfishness as something plausible to be somewhat good so and then I basically just added everything else on that point and ignored everything else

  28. @doomicle

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    Lol, these aren't critiques, these are misinterpretations. Predominantly having completely missed the definition of rational self-interest as defined in Objectivism.

  29. @solortus

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    It's interesting when looking for a philosophical criticism of Ayn Rand's ideas, no one ever gives a simple explanation just a long garble dissertation to confuse people – either that, or polemics like this clip.

  36. @limitless1692

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    Man Fuck You !
    You are really up in the clouds and mislead people .
    Ayn Rand is about selfishness and Capitalism , I know it doesn't boat well with your altruist agenda.

  40. @terrafirmament

    November 6, 2025 at 11:41 pm

    The irony of Rand is that she is loved by Capitalists. Anyone with knowledge of Capitalism, social interactions, and economics would laugh at her garbage. Capital needs stability and a strong central government, not a voluntary tax structure. Capitalism needs centralized infrastructure. Capitalism requires more cooperativeness than her selfish self-interest. The list goes on. She is basing her Objectiveness upon the Czarist economic model, and how did that work out moron (Ayn, not you).

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