Objectivism

I was having a discussion with my friends on the topic of objectivism, and no one had clear cut definition of what it is!

According to me objectivism is philosophy about self. Achieving the goals set by yourself fro yourself without sacrificing yourself or others. According to an other girl its about choice, its about doing what you want without caring what others think of what you are doing.

Then I went to wikipedia and tried to understand what objectivism really means, I didn't understand a squat! They have five or more points and the main one is about The Fact being absolute, irrespective your emotional state, your social status or anything. The objectivism is about finding out this absolute fact.

Ayn Rand also hates government and doesn't want any government involvement in any sphere. This is where Objectivism equals to anarchism. I came out of it thoroughly confused. The moral of the story is the Individuals in the society should be try to do what they want to irrespective of what others expect! Self is the most important aspect of Human existence.

I would quote Ayn Rand trying to explain Objectivism in Lay man terms, from www.aynrand.org.

At a sales conference at Random House, preceding the publication of Atlas Shrugged, one of the book salesmen asked me whether I could present the essence of my philosophy while standing on one foot. I did as follows:

1. Metaphysics: Objective Reality
2. Epistemology: Reason
3. Ethics: Self-interest
4. Politics: Capitalism

If you want this translated into simple language, it would read: 1. "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed" or "Wishing won't make it so." 2. "You can't eat your cake and have it, too." 3. "Man is an end in himself." 4. "Give me liberty or give me death."

If you held these concepts with total consistency, as the base of your convictions, you would have a full philosophical system to guide the course of your life. But to hold them with total consistency—to understand, to define, to prove and to apply them—requires volumes of thought. Which is why philosophy cannot be discussed while standing on one foot—nor while standing on two feet on both sides of every fence. This last is the predominant philosophical position today, particularly in the field of politics.


Ayn Rand

My philosophy, Objectivism, holds that:

1. Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man's rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

If anyone understands this philosophy better could you explain it to me please?