Objective romanticism : a study of the romantic roots in the objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand

The purpose of this study was to examine a thesis stating that the fundamental concepts of Romanticism form the basic components of the Objectivist philosophy demonstrated in the works of Ayn Rand. The study reviewed some of the scholarship on the topic of Romanticism, notably that of Morse Peckham and Henry Remak. Analogies were drawn between European and American Romanticism; the nature of romanticism as a developmental morality in relation to principles established by Lawrence Kohlberg was discussed. This study adopted a definition of Romanticism as a state of mind which begins in the individual and involves an entire society in a moral development that renounces the static, embraces the dynamic, and holds humanity at its center.Next examined was the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. A review of that ethic indicated that Objectivism also is a developmental ethic that holds humanism as its primary tenet. The characteristics of diversity, the creative imagination, growth and change, pride/self-worth/self-knowledge/love, leadership of the mind, and autonomy were found evident in both Objectivism and Romanticism, leading into a blending of the systems into an ethic of objective Romanticism. Such an ethic was examined in the context of Ayn Rand's works and found consistent in its appearance as an epistemology consequent to the progression of an individual or a community toward a level of self-actualization as defined by Abraham Maslow.A review of Rand's aesthetic ethic as presented in The Romantic Manifesto provided support for the romantic roots in Rand's writing. Rand's own premises for the evaluation of a romantic work were found evident in her own writings. It was therefore determined that Ayn Rand's works do indeed blend the components of Romanticism and Objectivism into a moral ethic that relies heavily upon the development of the individual state of mind toward a level of self-actualization in which the "I" becomes the axiom of human existence.Department of EnglishThesis (M.A.