The first volume to offer a comprehensive scholarly treatment of Rand’s entire corpus (including her novels, her philosophical essays, and her analysis of the events of her times), this Companion provides vital orientation and context for scholars and educated readers grappling with a controversial and understudied thinker whose enduring influence on American (and world) culture is increasingly recognized.
- The first publication to provide an in-depth scholarly treatment ranging over the whole of Rand’s corpus
- Provides informed contextual analysis for scholars in a variety of disciplines
- Presents original research on unpublished material and drafts from the Rand archives in California
- Features insightful and fair-minded interpretations of Rand’s controversial positions
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Acknowledgments xii
A Note on Abbreviations and References xiv
Part I Context 1
1 An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand 3
Gregory Salmieri
2 The Life of Ayn Rand: Writing, Reading, and Related Life Events 22
Shoshana Milgram
Part II Ethics and Human Nature 47
3 The Act of Valuing (and the Objectivity of Values) 49
Gregory Salmieri
4 The Morality of Life 73
Allan Gotthelf (completed by Gregory Salmieri)
5 A Being of Self-Made Soul 105
Onkar Ghate
6 Egoism and Altruism: Selfishness and Sacrifice 130
Gregory Salmieri
Part III Society 157
7 “A Human Society”: Rand’s Social Philosophy 159
Darryl Wright
8 Political Theory: A Radical for Capitalism 187
Fred D. Miller, Jr. and Adam Mossoff
9 Objective Law 209
Tara Smith
10 “A Free Mind and a Free Market are Corollaries”: Rand’s Philosophical Perspective on Capitalism 222
Onkar Ghate
Part IV The Foundations of Objectivism 243
11 Objectivist Metaphysics: The Primacy of Existence 245
Jason G. Rheins
12 The Objectivist Epistemology 272
Gregory Salmieri
Part V Philosophers and Their Effects 319
13 “Who Sets the Tone for a Culture?”: Ayn Rand’s Approach to the History of Philosophy 321
James G. Lennox
14 Ayn Rand’s Evolving View of Friedrich Nietzsche 34
Lester H. Hunt
15 A Philosopher on Her Times: Ayn Rand’s Political and Cultural Commentary 351
John David Lewis and Gregory Salmieri
Part VI Art 403
16 The Objectivist Esthetics: Art and the Needs of a Conceptual Consciousness 405
Harry Binswanger
17 Rand’s Literary Romanticism 426
Tore Boeckmann
Coda 451
18 Hallmarks of Objectivism: The Benevolent Universe Premise and the Heroic View of Man 453
Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri
Annotated Bibliography of Primary and Quasi-Primary Sources 463
Index 471
