The understanding that all individuals are perpetually and singularly motivated by their own well-being. Follow your own rational judgment, act according to your own standards, and live for the sake of your own values and happiness. Ayn Rand's Objectivism is a philosophy based on the idea that reality exists independently of human consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can obtain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (rational self-interest), that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally. Here's a breakdown of its core tenets: 1. **Metaphysics: Objective Reality** - Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of our feelings, wishes, hopes, or fears. "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed." 2. **Epistemology: Reason** - Reason (the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by one's senses) is one's only means of perceiving reality, one's only source of knowledge, one's only guide to action, and one's basic means of survival. 3. **Ethics: Self-Interest (Rational Egoism)** - Each individual is an end in themselves, not the means to the ends of others. They must exist for their own sake, neither sacrificing themselves to others nor sacrificing others to themselves. The pursuit of their own rational self-interest and of their own happiness is the highest moral purpose of their life. - Productive achievement is the noblest activity. 4. **Politics: Capitalism** - The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where individuals deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. - The government acts only as a policeman that protects individual rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. - Individual rights (the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness) are paramount. 5. **Aesthetics: Romantic Realism** - Art's purpose is to concretize the artist's fundamental view of existence by selectively reproducing reality into a physical form that one can comprehend and respond to emotionally. Rand favored "Romantic Realism," which she described as the portrayal of life "as it could be and should be." In essence, Objectivism champions reason, individualism, and capitalism, advocating for a society where individuals are free to pursue their own rational self-interest without coercion or altruistic demands.