Ayn Rand's View On Happiness And Success

Ayn Rand (Alissa Rosenbaum) was a Russian-American author and philosopher. Her ideas are based on the theories of Aristotle and Friedrich Nietzsche. Her theory is influenced by the Russian Revolution, the Second World War and the different societies of Russia with its communism and the United States with their capitalism. Ayn Rand opposed individual freedom and therefore rejected conservatism, communism, socialism and collectivism. She can therefore be seen as a modern liberal thinker. How does this modern philosopher view happiness and success? Do her views reflect our current society? Does Ayn Rand think that the concepts of happiness and success are the same? In this paragraph the modern ideas of Ayn Rand, who lived in a society like ours,

1.4.2 Ayn Rand’s view on happiness and success

Ayn Rand’s view is rather strange when you hear it for the first time. How can we become happy according to her? And why is it strange? First of all, Rand’s

. . and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment. Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word ‘selfishness’ is: concern with one’s own interests” With this view Ayn Rand gave an entirely new meaning to the concept of egoism. So, striving for your rational self-interest is to strive for your own happiness and this can only be done if everybody strives for their own interest and their own happiness. “No one’s happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy ”. By this Ayn Rand means that we should only strive for our happiness and not for anyone else’s happiness. If we do this, if everybody strives for their own happiness, in the end everybody will become happy. In addition, no one has the right to prevent me from striving for my happiness. By saying this, Rand opposes selfishness - only striving for what you want- and opposes altruism - not striving for anyone else’s happiness. According to her altruism doesn’t make men self-respecting and self-supporting. A self-respecting and a self-supporting man supports his own life