La philosophie sur un pied

On a un jour demandé à Ayn Rand si elle pouvait présenter les bases de sa philosophie, en bref, en se tenant sur un pied. Voici ce qu'elle a répondu :

1. LA MÉTAPHYSIQUE : LA RÉALITÉ OBJECTIVE

or “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed” or “Wishing won’t make it so.”
Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.

2. EPISTEMOLOGIE : RAISON

or “You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.”
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. ÉTHIQUE : INTÉRÊT PERSONNEL

or “Man is an end in himself.”
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. POLITIQUE : CAPITALISME

or “Give me liberty or give me death.”
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.

DERNIÈRES RÉFLEXIONS

Si vous teniez ces concepts avec une cohérence totale, comme base de vos convictions, vous auriez un système philosophique complet pour guider le cours de votre vie. Mais les tenir avec une cohérence totale - les comprendre, les définir, les prouver et les appliquer - exige des volumes de réflexion. C'est pourquoi on ne peut pas parler de philosophie en se tenant sur un seul pied, ni en se tenant sur deux pieds de part et d'autre de chaque clôture. C'est cette dernière position philosophique qui prédomine aujourd'hui, notamment dans le domaine de la politique.

Copyright © 1962 by Times-Mirror Company
This article has been edited by The Atlas Society. It was originally published on June 17, 1962 in the Los Angeles Times as "Ayn Rand Ties Her Beliefs to Today's World"

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