Editing Objectivist movement (section)

{{short description|Movement of individuals who seek to study and advance Objectivism}}
{{About|adherents to the philosophy of Ayn Rand|the modernist literary movement|objectivist poets}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Objectivist movement}}
The '''Objectivist movement''' is a [[Social movement|movement]] of individuals who seek to study and advance [[Objectivism]], the philosophy expounded by novelist-philosopher [[Ayn Rand]]. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand's novel, ''[[The Fountainhead]]''. The group, ironically named "The Collective" due to their actual advocacy of [[individualism]], in part consisted of [[Leonard Peikoff]], [[Nathaniel Branden]], [[Barbara Branden]], [[Alan Greenspan]], and [[Allan Blumenthal]]. Nathaniel Branden, a young Canadian student who had been greatly inspired by ''The Fountainhead'', became a close confidant and encouraged Rand to expand her philosophy into a formal movement. From this informal beginning in Rand's living room, the movement expanded into a collection of [[think tank]]s, academic organizations, and [[Objectivist periodicals|periodicals]].

Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute".<ref>"About the Author" in {{harvnb|Rand|1992|pp=1170–71}}</ref> Objectivism's main tenets are: that [[reality]] exists independently of [[consciousness]]; [[direct realism]], that human beings have direct and inerrant cognitive contact with reality through sense perception; that one can attain objective conceptual knowledge based on perception by using the process of [[concept]] formation and [[inductive logic]]; [[rational egoism]], that the [[Morality|moral]] purpose of one's life is the achievement of one's own happiness through productive work; that the only [[social system]] consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for [[individual rights]] embodied in ''[[laissez-faire]]'' [[capitalism]]; and that [[art]] is "a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments."