Objectivism In The Crucible By Ayn Rand

Every philosophical idea comes with a flaw, or a contradiction. There is no perfect philosophy that everyone agrees on. For instance, Aristotle’s approach of everything is true if it is logical, but his four elements theory is false because if you look on the periodic table there is definitely more than four elements. Several people have even dismissed Ayn Rand as being a philosopher, but in fact we are all philosophers ourselves. There are some major and minor flaws of Ayn Rand’s philosophy on the idealized individual inspired by Classical Greek philosophy. Ayn Rand’s flaws in Objectivism are the way she presents logic in the individual, and selfishness into charity, which doesn’t really mix well. Her industrialists in Atlas Shrugged, has similar virtue ethics because they all have characteristics of gaining their knowledge through reason and having a moral code of “reason, purpose, and self-esteem,” truly being “rational beings” (reason is an absolute to Ayn Rand). Ayn Rand is disliked because her ideas aren’t acceptable in society, and she was misunderstood by her peers. “There are no contradictions. If you find one, check your premises.”

Finding philosophy in The Crucible begins with comparing just two characters with Atlas Shrugged. The novel shows a comprehensive tool into Ayn Rand’s philosophy (Objectivism) by her characters virtues. I will pick Hank Reardon from Atlas Shrugged, and John Proctor from The Crucible. They both have dilemmas of the individual, and the majority because both do not fit in with the majority. I will first discuss John Proctor’s society, which is the majority, and then Hank Rearden's society.

“Everyone lies,” wouldn’t that accusation offended anyone who is truthful? Well, in The Crucible he shows th...

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...in Emerson’s eyes. Someone who was once misunderstood was Democritus’ and his Atomic Theory because his contemporaries (Aristotle and Socrates) thought the theory was crazy. However, we now know that not everything that is logical is true and that Democritus was right all along, which was proven by John Dalton.

The discontent of both characters John Proctor and Hank Rearden leads them to find their self- interest to make them happy, expressing the romantic side of Ayn Rand’s work. The dilemmas they faced included being misunderstood by their peers, trying to stick with their morals, being truthful and honest to themselves to find justice in their corrupt political systems. Overall, once said by Friedrich Nietzsche, “Morality is the herd.” is untrue in both characters because they know that the majority is not always right into claiming what is right, or wrong.