Ayn Rand's Philosophy

Ayn Rand’s Philosophy

• Explain how Anthem is Ayn Rand's Anthem of who she is and whether or not you embrace any or all of her philosophy.
• Show how you do or do not adopt all or any of Ayn Rand's philosophy in your life.
• In addition, show how the world around you does or does not adopt any of Ayn Rand's philosophy.

Anthem is Ayn Rand’s own anthem of what she believes in and who she is as a person. Rand believes in the philosophy of objectivism, which she defines as egoism and reasoning. Through Anthem, Rand exposes what life is like in a non-objectivist society, where “the whole” is valued above the individual. In doing this, she expresses the problems with this type of society, showing that the individual needs to have his own ideas in order to achieve true happiness in life.

Rand lived the same life as Equality while she was growing up in Soviet Russia. She experienced the feelings of living in that world for herself firsthand, so she was able to apply them to her writing and Anthem became her own personal anthem full of all of her beliefs.

While I do agree with Ayn Rand on some of her objectivist ideas, I disagree on others. I think that it is important to be one person, an individual, and worry about your own happiness. However, I also think that it is important that we put others first at times, when they need our help. I adopt some of her ideas in my own life, but I don’t really put myself first at all times. I do use her idea of reason in my life, by reasoning my way through situations.

I don’t really see a lot of Rand’s philosophy alive in the world today. Many people worry about what others may think of them, instead of doing things for themselves. I don’t really think there are a lot of people that do the things they do without wanting the approval of others. Equality invents things out of his own passion to learn, to make himself happy, regardless of what those surrounding him think. Today, however, I think that people are getting lazy and just taking the easy way out, by doing what those around them also do, so that they won’t stand out from the rest, and I just might be one of them. Although there are many people in the world like this, there are still some people that absolutely do not care what everyone else around them thinks. They would rather do what they love and just enjoy their lives and be happy.