Editing Objectivism (section)

==Beliefs==
When discussing Objectivism it is important to note that it isn't merely an ideology but rather a full philosophy, meaning that instead of just being a theory of politics it's a theory of philosophy as a whole (meaning: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics as well as politics). Or at least that's what it's intended to be.

===Metaphysics===
As Ayn Rand wrote in "The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made" (Philosophy: Who Needs It): "The primacy of existence (of reality) is the axiom that existence exists, i.e., that the universe exists independent of consciousness (of any consciousness), that things are what they are, that they possess a specific nature, an identity.

===Epistemology===
Rand bases her solution to the problem of universals on a quasi-mathematical analysis of similarity. Rejecting the common view that similarity is unanalysable, she defines similarity as: "the relationship between two or more existents which possess the same characteristic(s), but in different measure or degree."

The grasp of similarity, she holds, requires a contrast between the two or more similar items and a third item that differs from them, but differs along the same scale of measurement (which she termed a "Conceptual Common Denominator"). Thus two shades of blue, to be perceived as similar must be contrasted with something differing greatly in hue from both—e.g., a shade of red.

Accordingly, Rand defines "concept" as: a "mental integration of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristic(s) with their particular measurements omitted."

===Ethics===
The provocative title of Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness matches an equally provocative thesis about ethics. Traditional ethics has always been suspicious of self-interest, praising acts that are selfless in intent and calling amoral or immoral acts that are motivated by self-interest. A self-interested person, on the traditional view, will not consider the interests of others and so will slight or harm those interests in the pursuit of his own. Rand’s view is that the exact opposite is true: Self-interest, properly understood, is the standard of morality and selflessness is the deepest immorality. Self-interest rightly understood, according to Rand, is to see oneself as an end in oneself.

===Politics===
Although her political views are often classified as conservative or libertarian, Rand preferred the term "radical for capitalism". She worked with conservatives on political projects, but disagreed with them over issues such as religion and ethics. Rand denounced libertarianism, which she associated with anarchism.

===Aesthetics===
The essence of Rand's view of art is that an artwork presents a philosophy, that is, a basic view of life. To identify what an artwork concretizes, Rand introduces her concept of metaphysical value-judgments. Rand's aesthetic theory, being reached inductively rather than being deductively imposed on phenomena, allows for special cases which differ in certain respects, such that the same general principles apply in a somewhat different way. Architecture and music are such cases. Rand's championing of Romanticism is one more case in which she applies the principle that underlies her entire aesthetics. Art serves a fundamental need of man's consciousness by bringing his concepts to the perceptual level of his consciousness and allowing him to grasp them directly, as if they were precepts, thereby unifying man's consciousness and offering him a coherent view of existence