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Academy Awards | Remarks about animated films as children's genre | Remarks about animated films as children's genre
At the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, the award for the Best Animated Feature was presented by three actresses who portrayed Disney princess characters in live-action remakes of their respective animated films: Lily James (Cinderella), Naomi Scott (Aladdin), and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid. While introducing the category, Bailey stated that animated films are "formative experiences as kids who watch them," as James put it, "So many kids watch these movies over and over, over and over again." Scott added: "I see some parents who know exactly what we're talking about." The remarks were heavily criticized by animation enthusiasts and those working in the industry as infantilizing the medium and perpetuating the stigma that animated works are strictly for children, especially since the industry was credited with sustaining the flow of Hollywood content and revenue during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Phil Lord, co-producer of one of the nominated films, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, tweeted that it was "super cool to position animation as something that kids watch and adults have to endure." The film's official social media accounts responded to the joke with an image reading: "Animation is cinema." A week later, Lord and his producing partner Christopher Miller wrote a guest column in Variety criticizing the Academy for the joke and how Hollywood has treated animation, writing that "no one set out to diminish animated films, but it's high time we set out to elevate them." They also suggested to the Academy that the category should be presented by a filmmaker who respects the art of animation as cinema.
Adding to the controversy was that the award for Best Animated Short Film (the nominees for which were mostly made up of shorts not aimed at children) was one of the eight categories that were not presented during the live broadcast. The winner for the Best Animated Short award was The Windshield Wiper, a multilingual Spanish-American film which is adult animated, while another nominee in three categories: Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature Film, and Best International Feature Film, was Flee, a PG-13 rated animated documentary about an Afghan refugee. Alberto Mielgo, director of The Windshield Wiper, later gave an acceptance speech for the Oscar: "Animation is an art that includes every single art that you can imagine. Animation for adults is a fact. It's happening. Let's call it cinema. I'm very honored because this is just the beginning of what we can do with animation." Some speculations suggested that the speech played a role in the decision not to broadcast the award.
Another factor is that numerous animated films have been made for mature audiences or with ranges of PG-13 or more, with a few of them—The Triplets of Belleville, Persepolis, Chico and Rita, The Wind Rises, Anomalisa, My Life as a Courgette, The Breadwinner, Loving Vincent, Isle of Dogs, I Lost My Body, Flee, and Memoir of a Snail—having been nominated in this category, with The Boy and the Heron being the first adult animated film (in this case, PG-13-rated) to win in the 96th Academy Awards.
These comments came as #NewDeal4Animation, a movement of animation workers demanding equal pay, treatment and recognition alongside their contemporaries working in live-action, was picking up momentum during negotiations for a new contract between The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839/SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and the presentation is being used to rally the movement.
During the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, host Jimmy Kimmel said: "Please raise your hand if you let your kid fill out this part of the ballot." These remarks would again prompt backlash, with Christopher Miller, producer of that year's nominated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, tweeting out that the joke was "tired and lazy". The PG-13-rated The Boy and the Heron would subsequently win the award. |
Academy Awards | Associated events | Associated events
The following events are closely associated with the annual Academy Awards:
Governors Awards, which includes the presentation of the Academy Honorary Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
The 25th Independent Spirit Awards (2010), usually held in Santa Monica, California the Saturday before the Oscars, marked the first time it was moved to a Friday and a change of venue to L.A. Live
The annual "Night Before", traditionally held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, begun in 2002 and generally known as the party of the season, benefits the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which operates a retirement home for SAG actors in the San Fernando Valley
Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party airs the awards live at the nearby Pacific Design Center
The Governors Ball is the Academy's official after-party, including dinner (until 2011), and is adjacent to the awards-presentation venueLos Angeles Times article, 2024
The Vanity Fair after-party, historically at the former Morton's restaurant, has been at the Sunset Tower since 2009Gary Baum (November 13, 2013), "Vanity Fair Oscar Party Exits Sunset Tower; Will It Land in Parking Lot? (Exclusive)", The Hollywood Reporter. . |
Academy Awards | Presenter and performer gifts | Presenter and performer gifts
It has become a tradition to give out gift bags to the presenters and performers at the Oscars. In recent years, these gifts have been extended to award nominees and winners. The value of each of these gift bags can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. In 2014, the value was reported to be as high as . The value has risen to the point where the U.S. Internal Revenue Service issued a statement regarding the gifts and their taxable status.
Oscar gift bags have included vacation packages to Hawaii and Mexico and Japan, a private dinner party for the recipient and friends at a restaurant, videophones, a four-night stay at a hotel, watches, bracelets, spa treatments, bottles of vodka, maple salad dressing, weight-loss gummie candy and up to worth of cosmetic treatments and rejuvenation procedures such as lip fillers and chemical peels from New York City facial plastic surgeon Konstantin Vasyukevich. Some of the gifts have even had a "risque" element to them; in 2014, the adult products retailer Adam & Eve had a "Secret Room Gifting Suite". Celebrities visiting the gifting suite included Judith Hoag, Carolyn Hennesy, Kate Linder, Chris Mulkey, Jim O'Heir and John Salley. |
Academy Awards | Television ratings and advertisement prices | Television ratings and advertisement prices
From 2006 onwards, results are Live+SD; all previous years are live viewing.
Year Viewers,millions Ad price,USD, millions Adjusted price,USD, millions Network 2025 19.69 1.7-2.3 Not available ABC 2024 19.49 1.7-2.2 Not available 2023 18.7 2.1 Not available 2022 16.6 1.71 Not available 2021 10.4 2 Not available 2020 23.6 2.2 Not available 2019 29.6 2-3 Not available 2018 26.5 2-2.6 Not available 2017 32.9 2.1 Not available 2016 34.4 2 Not available 2015 37.260 1.95 2014 43.740 1.8 – 1.9 – 2013 40.376 1.65 – 1.8 – 2012 39.460 1.610 2011 37.919 1.3684 2010 41.699 1.1267 2009 36.310 1.3 2008 32.006 1.82 2007 40.172 1.6658 2006 38.939 1.6468 2005 42.139 1.503 2004 43.531 1.5031 2003 33.043 1.3458 2002 41.782 1.29 2001 42.944 1.45 2000 46.333 1.305 1999 45.615 1 199857.249 0.95 1997 40.075 0.85 1996 44.867 0.795 1995 48.279 0.7 1994 45.083 0.6435 1993 45.735 0.6078 1992 44.406 Not available Not available 1991 42.727 Not available Not available 1990 40.375 0.45 1989 42.619 0.375 1988 42.227 0.36 1987 37.190 0.335 1986 37.757 0.32 1985 38.855 0.315 1984 42.051 0.275 1983 53.235 0.245 1982 46.245 Not available Not available 1981 39.919 Not available Not available 1980 48.978 Not available Not available 1979 46.301 Not available Not available 1978 48.501 Not available Not available 1977 39.719 Not available Not available 1976 46.751 Not available Not available 1975 48.127 Not available Not available NBC 1974 44.712 Not available Not available |
Academy Awards | Notable highest wins and nominees | Notable highest wins and nominees |
Academy Awards | By films | By films
The following nominees received at least 10 nominations:
Nominations Title 14 All About Eve Titanic La La Land 13 Gone with the Wind From Here to Eternity Mary Poppins Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Forrest Gump Shakespeare in Love The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Chicago The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Shape of Water Oppenheimer Emilia Pérez 12 Ben-Hur Mrs. Miniver The Song of Bernadette Johnny Belinda A Streetcar Named Desire On the Waterfront My Fair Lady Becket Oliver! Reds Dances With Wolves Schindler's List The English Patient Gladiator The King's Speech Lincoln The Revenant The Power of the Dog 11 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Rebecca Sergeant York The Pride of the Yankees Sunset Boulevard West Side Story Judgment at Nuremberg The Godfather Part II Chinatown The Turning Point Out of Africa The Color Purple Julia Gandhi Terms of Endearment Amadeus A Passage to India Saving Private Ryan The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King The Aviator Hugo Life of Pi Joker Everything Everywhere All at Once Poor Things 10 The Life of Emile Zola How Green Was My Valley Going My Way Wilson Roman Holiday Giant Sayonara The Apartment Lawrence of Arabia Tom Jones The Sound of Music Doctor Zhivago Bonnie and Clyde Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Anne of the Thousand Days Patton Airport The Godfather Cabaret The Sting The Exorcist Rocky Network Star Wars On Golden Pond Tootsie Bugsy Braveheart Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Gangs of New York Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Slumdog Millionaire True Grit The Artist American Hustle Gravity Mad Max: Fury Road The Favourite Roma The Irishman 1917 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Mank Dune Killers of the Flower Moon The Brutalist Wicked
The following winners received at least 5 awards (including non-competitive):
Awards Title 11 Ben-Hur Titanic The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 10 West Side Story 9 Gigi The Last Emperor The English Patient 8 Gone with the Wind From Here to Eternity On the Waterfront My Fair Lady Cabaret Gandhi Amadeus Slumdog Millionaire 7 Going My Way The Best Years of Our Lives The Bridge on the River Kwai Lawrence of Arabia Patton The Sting Star Wars Out of Africa Dances With Wolves Schindler's List Shakespeare in Love Gravity Everything Everywhere All at Once Oppenheimer 6 Mrs. Miniver All About Eve An American in Paris A Place in the Sun A Man for All Seasons Oliver! The Godfather Part II Forrest Gump Chicago The Hurt Locker Mad Max: Fury Road La La Land Dune 5 It Happened One Night How Green Was My Valley Wilson The Bad and the Beautiful Around the World in 80 Days The King and I The Apartment Mary Poppins The Sound of Music Doctor Zhivago Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the Heat of the Night The French Connection One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest The Deer Hunter Kramer vs. Kramer Raiders of the Lost Ark Terms of Endearment The Silence of the Lambs Braveheart Saving Private Ryan American Beauty Gladiator The Aviator Hugo The Artist Anora |
Academy Awards | By franchises | By franchises
The following nominees received at least 5 nominations:
Nominations Title No. of films 38 Star Wars 11 37 Middle-earth (consists of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) 6 29 Batman 7 28 The Godfather 3 27 Marvel Cinematic Universe 15 19 James Bond 11 16 Looney Tunes 16 16 Star Trek 7 15 Dune 2 15 Indiana Jones 5 14 Wizarding World 9 13 Avatar 2 13 Gladiator 2 13 Tom and Jerry 13 12 Rocky 3 11 Pirates of the Caribbean 3 11 The Sting 2 10 Top Gun 2 10 Alien 3 10 Mickey Mouse 10 8 Wallace & Gromit 8 8 Spider-Man 5 7 Blade Runner 2 7 Transformers 3 6 Planet of the Apes 4 6 Shrek 4 5 Back to the Future 2 5 The Incredibles 2 5 The Thin Man 2
The following winners received at least 2 awards:
Awards Title No. of films 17 The Lord of the Rings 3 10 Star Wars 3 9 The Godfather 2 8 Dune 2 7 Looney Tunes 16 Tom and Jerry 7 Indiana Jones 3 6 James Bond 5 Mad Max 5 5 Batman 3 4 Toy Story 3 Avatar 2 Marvel Cinematic Universe 2 3 Wallace & Gromit 3 Alien 2 Pinocchio 2 Rocky 1 |
Academy Awards | By people | By people
The following nominees received at least 5 nominations:
Nominations Title Role 59 Walt Disney Producer, animator, and voice actor 54 John Williams Composer 45 Alfred Newman Composer 39 Cedric Gibbons Production designer 35 Edith Head Costume designer 32 Edwin B. Willis Production designer 29 Lyle R. Wheeler Art director 26 Sammy Cahn Songwriter 25 Andy Nelson Sound engineer Max Steiner Composer 24 Woody Allen Filmmaker 23 Hans Dreier Art director Hal Pereira Art director and production designer Steven Spielberg Filmmaker 22 Samuel M. Comer Art director Randy Newman Composer and songwriter Dimitri Tiomkin Composer Victor Young Composer 21 Kevin O'Connell Sound mixer Meryl Streep Actress Billy Wilder Filmmaker 20 Gary Rydstrom Sound designer and film director 19 Alan Menken Composer and songwriter 18 Henry Mancini Composer and songwriter 17 Gordon Hollingshead Producer Fred Quimby Animator 16 Roger Deakins Cinematographer Charles LeMaire Costume designer Greg P. Russell Sound engineer Martin Scorsese Filmmaker Irene Sharaff Costume designer and art director Diane Warren Songwriter 15 Warren Beatty Actor and filmmaker Christopher Boyes Sound engineer Thomas Newman Composer Alex North Composer Sandy Powell Costume designer William Wyler Filmmaker 14 Ethan and Joel Coen Filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola Filmmaker Jean Louis Costume designer 13 Richard Day Art director Stanley Kubrick Filmmaker 12 Colleen Atwood Costume designer Bradley Cooper Actor, filmmaker, and producer Federico Fellini Filmmaker Katharine Hepburn Actress Dorothy Jeakins Costume designer Jack Nicholson Actor Hans Zimmer Composer 11 Paul Thomas Anderson Filmmaker Rick Baker Special make-up effects artist Alfonso Cuarón Filmmaker Alexandre Desplat Composer Clint Eastwood Actor and filmmaker Joe Letteri Visual effects artist Laurence Olivier Actor and filmmaker George Stevens Filmmaker 10 Anna Behlmer Sound mixer Bette Davis Actress Dante Ferretti Art director, production designer and costume designer Walter Plunkett Costume designer Helen Rose Costume designer Bill Thomas Costume designer Denzel Washington Actor and filmmaker 9 Ingmar Bergman Filmmaker Milena Canonero Costume designer Pete Docter Filmmaker, animator and voice actor Jacqueline Durran Costume designer Nancy Haigh Set decorator Alejandro González Iñárritu Filmmaker Peter Jackson Filmmaker Stanley Kramer Filmmaker Catherine Martin Costume designer, production designer and producer Scott Millan Sound mixer Scott Rudin Producer Thelma Schoonmaker Film editor Sherman Brothers Composers and songwriters 8 Wes Anderson Filmmaker Cate Blanchett Actress Kenneth Branagh Actor and filmmaker Marlon Brando Actor James L. Brooks Filmmaker George Clooney Actor and filmmaker Glenn Close Actress Judi Dench Actress Dede Gardner Producer Michael Kahn Film editor Kathleen Kennedy Producer Jack Lemmon Actor Francesca Lo Schiavo Set decorator Emmanuel Lubezki Cinematographer Frances McDormand Actress and producer Christopher Nolan Filmmaker Peter O'Toole Actor Ken Ralston Visual effects supervisor 7 Howard Ashman Lyricist Ingrid Bergman Actress Dennis Gassner Production designer Jeff Bridges Actor Richard Burton Actor James Cameron Filmmaker Leonardo DiCaprio Actor and producer Jane Fonda Actress Jeremy Kleiner Producer Martin McDonagh Filmmaker Brad Pitt Actor and producer Sydney Pollack Filmmaker Mary Wills Costume designer Kate Winslet Actress Albert Wolsky Costume designer 6 Amy Adams Actress John Bright Costume designer Alexandra Byrne Costume designer Ellen Burstyn Actress Daniel Day-Lewis Actor Guillermo del Toro Filmmaker Eric Fellner Producer Margaret Furse Costume designer Tom Hanks Actor Yorgos Lanthimos Filmmaker Nick Park Animator Ennio Morricone Composer Patricia Norris Costume designer Howard Shoup Costume designer Maggie Smith Actress Andrew Stanton Animator and filmmaker Gile Steele Costume designer Richard Taylor Costume designer, special make-up effects artist and visual effects artist 5 Tim Bevan Producer Brad Bird Animator and filmmaker Danilo Donati Costume designer and production designer Todd Field Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock Filmmaker Nicole Kidman Actress Frank Marshall Producer Vittorio Nino Novarese Costume designer Gregory Peck Actor Sean Penn Actor Renié Costume designer Ann Roth Costume designer David O. Russell Filmmaker Susan Sarandon Actress Emma Stone Actress and producer Barbra Streisand Actress, songwriter and producer Piero Tosi Costume designer Jacqueline West Costume designer Michelle Williams Actress
The following winners received at least 3 awards (including non-competitive):
Awards Title Role 26 Walt Disney Producer, animator, and voice actor 14 Douglas Shearer Sound engineer, visual effect supervisor 11 Cedric Gibbons Production designer 10 Farciot Edouart Special effects artist and innovator 9 Dennis Muren Special effects artist and supervisor Alfred Newman Composer 8 Edith Head Costume designer Alan Menken Composer and songwriter Edwin B. Willis Production designer 7 Rick Baker Special make-up effects artist Richard Day Art director Fred Quimby Animator Gary Rydstrom Sound designer, editor, and mixer Billy Wilder Director, producer, and writer 6 John Ford Director and producer Gordon Hollingshead Producer 5 John Barry Composer and songwriter Francis Ford Coppola Director, producer, and writer Clint Eastwood Actor, director, and producer Johnny Green Composer, music supervisor, and producer Alejandro González Iñárritu Director, producer, and writer Fred Hynes Sound engineer Gordon Jennings Special effects supervisor Joe Letteri Visual effects artist Thomas T. Moulton Sound engineer Ken Ralston Visual effects supervisor Irene Sharaff Costume designer Richard Taylor Costume designer, special makeup artist, and visual effects supervisor Lyle R. Wheeler Art director John Williams Composer 4 Woody Allen Filmmaker Colleen Atwood Costume designer Sean Baker Filmmaker Mark Berger Sound engineer John Box Production designer and art director Christopher Boyes Sound engineer Ben Burtt Sound designer, editor, and mixer Sammy Cahn Songwriter Milena Canonero Costume designer Ethan and Joel Coen Filmmakers Samuel M. Comer Art director Alfonso Cuarón Filmmaker Katharine Hepburn Actress Richard King Sound designer and editor Henry Mancini Composer and songwriter Catherine Martin Costume designer and production designer Frances McDormand Actress and producer Johnny Mercer Songwriter Scott Millan Sound mixer Laurence Olivier Actor and filmmaker Nick Park Animator André Previn Composer and music supervisor Dimitri Tiomkin Composer Jimmy Van Heusen Songwriter Robert Wise Director and producer William Wyler Director and producer 3 James Acheson Costume designer Cecil Beaton Costume designer and production designer Jenny Beavan Costume designer Alan and Marilyn Bergman Songwriters Ingrid Bergman Actress Bong Joon Ho Filmmaker Stephen Bosustow Producer Walter Brennan Actor James L. Brooks Filmmaker James Cameron Filmmaker Saul Chaplin Composer and music supervisor Daniels Directors, producers, and writers Daniel Day-Lewis Actor Adolph Deutsch Composer and music supervisor Pete Docter Director, writer, animator, and voice actor Ken Darby Composer and music supervisor Ralph Dawson Film editor Guillermo del Toro Director, producer, and writer Hans Dreier Art director Roger Edens Composer and music supervisor John Hubley Director and animator Marvin Hamlisch Composer and songwriter Peter Jackson Filmmaker Maurice Jarre Composer Dorothy Jeakins Costume designer Michael Kahn Film editor Paul Lambert Visual effects supervisor Michel Legrand Composer and songwriter Charles LeMaire Costume designer Emmanuel Lubezki Cinematographer Daniel Mandell Film editor Jack Nicholson Actor Orry-Kelly Costume designer Anthony Powell Costume designer Sandy Powell Costume designer Thelma Schoonmaker Film editor Stephen Schwartz Songwriter Steven Spielberg Filmmaker Max Steiner Composer Meryl Streep Actress Fran Walsh Producer, writer and songwriter Ned Washington Songwriter Paul Francis Webster Songwriter Richard Williams Director and animator |
Academy Awards | See also | See also
List of film awards
List of Academy Award-nominated films
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of superlative Academy Award winners and nominees |
Academy Awards | Footnotes | Footnotes |
Academy Awards | References | References |
Academy Awards | Further reading | Further reading
German-language book review of the book.
|
Academy Awards | External links | External links
Category:1929 establishments in California
Category:1953 American television series debuts
Category:American annual television specials
Category:American film awards
Category:American live television shows
Category:Annual events in Los Angeles County, California
Category:Awards established in 1929
Category:Cinema of Southern California
Category:Culture of Hollywood, Los Angeles
Category:Events in Los Angeles
Category:Performing arts trophies |
Academy Awards | Table of Content | Short description, History, Milestones, Oscar statuette, Overview, Naming, Engraving, Ownership of Oscar statuettes, Other awards presented by the Academy, Nomination, Voters, Rules, Academy Screening Room, Awards ceremonies, Telecast, TV ratings, Archive, Venues, Categories, Current categories, Upcoming categories, Discontinued categories, Proposed categories, Special categories, Current special categories, Discontinued special categories, Criticism and controversies, Accusations of commercialism, Accusations of bias, Lack of diversity, Miscategorization of actors, Symbolism or sentimentalization, Recognition of streaming media film, 2022 Chris Rock and Will Smith slapping incident, Refusals of the award, Disqualifications, Remarks about animated films as children's genre, Associated events, Presenter and performer gifts, Television ratings and advertisement prices, Notable highest wins and nominees, By films, By franchises, By people, See also, Footnotes, References, Further reading, External links |
Actrius | Use dmy dates | Actresses (Catalan: Actrius) is a 1997 Catalan language Spanish drama film produced and directed by Ventura Pons and based on the award-winning stage play E.R. by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet. The film has no male actors, with all roles played by females. The film was produced in 1996. |
Actrius | Synopsis | Synopsis
In order to prepare herself to play a role commemorating the life of legendary actress Empar Ribera, young actress (Mercè Pons) interviews three established actresses who had been the Ribera's pupils: the international diva Glòria Marc (Núria Espert), the television star Assumpta Roca (Rosa Maria Sardà), and dubbing director Maria Caminal (Anna Lizaran). |
Actrius | Cast | Cast
Núria Espert as Glòria Marc
Rosa Maria Sardà as Assumpta Roca
Anna Lizaran as Maria Caminal
Mercè Pons as Estudiant |
Actrius | Recognition | Recognition |
Actrius | Screenings | Screenings
Actrius screened in 2001 at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in an American Cinematheque retrospective of the works of its director. The film had first screened at the same location in 1998. It was also shown at the 1997 Stockholm International Film Festival. |
Actrius | Reception | Reception
In Movie - Film - Review, Christopher Tookey wrote that though the actresses were "competent in roles that may have some reference to their own careers", the film "is visually unimaginative, never escapes its stage origins, and is almost totally lacking in revelation or surprising incident". Noting that there were "occasional, refreshing moments of intergenerational bitchiness", they did not "justify comparisons to All About Eve", and were "insufficiently different to deserve critical parallels with Rashomon". He also wrote that The Guardian called the film a "slow, stuffy chamber-piece", and that The Evening Standard stated the film's "best moments exhibit the bitchy tantrums seething beneath the threesome's composed veneers". MRQE wrote "This cinematic adaptation of a theatrical work is true to the original, but does not stray far from a theatrical rendering of the story." |
Actrius | Awards and nominations | Awards and nominations
1997, won 'Best Catalan Film' at Butaca Awards for Ventura Pons
1997, won 'Best Catalan Film Actress' at Butaca Awards, shared by Núria Espert, Rosa Maria Sardà, Anna Lizaran, and Mercè Pons
1998, nominated for 'Best Screenplay' at Goya Awards, shared by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet and Ventura Pons |
Actrius | References | References |
Actrius | External links | External links
as archived 17 February 2009 (Spanish)
Category:1997 films
Category:1997 drama films
Category:Catalan-language films
Category:Films set in Barcelona
Category:Films directed by Ventura Pons
Category:Spanish drama films
Category:1990s Spanish films |
Actrius | Table of Content | Use dmy dates, Synopsis, Cast, Recognition, Screenings, Reception, Awards and nominations, References, External links |
Animalia (book) | Short description | Animalia is an illustrated children's book by Graeme Base. It was originally published in 1986, followed by a tenth anniversary edition in 1996, and a 25th anniversary edition in 2012. Over four million copies have been sold worldwide. A special numbered and signed anniversary edition was also published in 1996, with an embossed gold jacket. |
Animalia (book) | Synopsis | Synopsis
Animalia is an alliterative alphabet book and contains twenty-six illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each illustration features an animal from the animal kingdom (A is for alligator and armadillo, B is for butterfly, C is for cat, etc.) along with a tongue-twister utilizing the letter of the page for many of the words. The illustrations contain many other objects beginning with that letter that the reader can try to identify (e.g. the "D" entry features, besides a pair of dragons, the dinosaur Diplodocus and the pelycosaur Dimetrodon; however, there are not necessarily "a thousand things, or maybe more", contrary to what the author states; for instance, the "A" entry features an alarm clock, as does the "C" entry; also, a tennis racket appears in the "T" entry as well as in the "R" entry). As an additional challenge, the author has hidden a picture of himself as a child in every picture. |
Animalia (book) | Related products | Related products
Julia MacRae Books published an Animalia colouring book in 2008. H. N. Abrams also published a wall calendar colouring book version for children the same year.
H. N. Abrams published The Animalia Wall Frieze, a fold-out over 26 feet in length, in which the author created new riddles for each letter.
The Great American Puzzle Factory created a 300-piece jigsaw puzzle based on the book's cover. |
Animalia (book) | Adaptations | Adaptations
A television series was also created, based on the book, which airs in Canada. The Australian Children's Television Foundation released a teaching resource DVD-ROM in 2011 to accompany the TV series with teaching aids for classroom use.
In 2010, The Base Factory and AppBooks released Animalia as an application for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch. |
Animalia (book) | Awards | Awards
Animalia won the Young Australian's Best Book Award in 1987 for Best Picture Story Book.
The Children's Book Council of Australia designated Animalia a 1987 Picture Book of the Year: Honour Book.
Kid's Own Australian Literature Awards named Animalia the 1988 Picture Book Winner. |
Animalia (book) | References | References |
Animalia (book) | External links | External links
Graeme Base's official website
A Learning Time activity guide for Animalia created by The Little Big Book Club
Category:1986 children's books
Category:Alphabet books
Category:Australian children's books
Category:Children's books about animals
Category:Picture books by Graeme Base
Category:Puffin Books books
Category:Puzzle books |
Animalia (book) | Table of Content | Short description, Synopsis, Related products, Adaptations, Awards, References, External links |
International Atomic Time | Short description | International Atomic Time (abbreviated TAI, from its French name Temps atomique 1975) is a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard based on the notional passage of proper time on Earth's geoid. TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 450 atomic clocks in over 80 national laboratories worldwide. It is a continuous scale of time, without leap seconds, and it is the principal realisation of Terrestrial Time (with a fixed offset of epoch). It is the basis for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is used for civil timekeeping all over the Earth's surface and which has leap seconds.
UTC deviates from TAI by a number of whole seconds. , immediately after the most recent leap second was put into effect, UTC has been exactly 37 seconds behind TAI. The 37 seconds result from the initial difference of 10 seconds at the start of 1972, plus 27 leap seconds in UTC since 1972. In 2022, the General Conference on Weights and Measures decided to abandon the leap second by or before 2035, at which point the difference between TAI and UTC will remain fixed.
TAI may be reported using traditional means of specifying days, carried over from non-uniform time standards based on the rotation of the Earth. Specifically, both Julian days and the Gregorian calendar are used. TAI in this form was synchronised with Universal Time at the beginning of 1958, and the two have drifted apart ever since, due primarily to the slowing rotation of the Earth. |
International Atomic Time | Operation | Operation
TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 450 atomic clocks in over 80 national laboratories worldwide. The majority of the clocks involved are caesium clocks; the International System of Units (SI) definition of the second is based on caesium. The clocks are compared using GPS signals and two-way satellite time and frequency transfer. Due to the signal averaging TAI is an order of magnitude more stable than its best constituent clock.
The participating institutions each broadcast, in real time, a frequency signal with timecodes, which is their estimate of TAI. Time codes are usually published in the form of UTC, which differs from TAI by a well-known integer number of seconds. These time scales are denoted in the form UTC(NPL) in the UTC form, where NPL here identifies the National Physical Laboratory, UK. The TAI form may be denoted TAI(NPL). The latter is not to be confused with TA(NPL), which denotes an independent atomic time scale, not synchronised to TAI or to anything else.
The clocks at different institutions are regularly compared against each other. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM, France), combines these measurements to retrospectively calculate the weighted average that forms the most stable time scale possible. This combined time scale is published monthly in "Circular T", and is the canonical TAI. This time scale is expressed in the form of tables of differences UTC − UTC(k) (equal to TAI − TAI(k)) for each participating institution k. The same circular also gives tables of TAI − TA(k), for the various unsynchronised atomic time scales.
Errors in publication may be corrected by issuing a revision of the faulty Circular T or by errata in a subsequent Circular T. Aside from this, once published in Circular T, the TAI scale is not revised. In hindsight, it is possible to discover errors in TAI and to make better estimates of the true proper time scale. Since the published circulars are definitive, better estimates do not create another version of TAI; it is instead considered to be creating a better realisation of Terrestrial Time (TT). |
International Atomic Time | History | History
Early atomic time scales consisted of quartz clocks with frequencies calibrated by a single atomic clock; the atomic clocks were not operated continuously. Atomic timekeeping services started experimentally in 1955, using the first caesium atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory, UK (NPL). It was used as a basis for calibrating the quartz clocks at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and to establish a time scale, called Greenwich Atomic (GA). The United States Naval Observatory began the A.1 scale on 13 September 1956, using an Atomichron commercial atomic clock, followed by the NBS-A scale at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado on 9 October 1957.
The International Time Bureau (BIH) began a time scale, Tm or AM, in July 1955, using both local caesium clocks and comparisons to distant clocks using the phase of VLF radio signals. The BIH scale, A.1, and NBS-A were defined by an epoch at the beginning of 1958 The procedures used by the BIH evolved, and the name for the time scale changed: A3 in 1964 and TA(BIH) in 1969.
The SI second was defined in terms of the caesium atom in 1967. From 1971 to 1975 the General Conference on Weights and Measures and the International Committee for Weights and Measures made a series of decisions that designated the BIPM time scale International Atomic Time (TAI).
In the 1970s, it became clear that the clocks participating in TAI were ticking at different rates due to gravitational time dilation, and the combined TAI scale, therefore, corresponded to an average of the altitudes of the various clocks. Starting from the Julian Date 2443144.5 (1 January 1977 00:00:00 TAI), corrections were applied to the output of all participating clocks, so that TAI would correspond to proper time at the geoid (mean sea level). Because the clocks were, on average, well above sea level, this meant that TAI slowed by about one part in a trillion. The former uncorrected time scale continues to be published under the name EAL (Échelle Atomique Libre, meaning Free Atomic Scale).
The instant that the gravitational correction started to be applied serves as the epoch for Barycentric Coordinate Time (TCB), Geocentric Coordinate Time (TCG), and Terrestrial Time (TT), which represent three fundamental time scales in the Solar System. All three of these time scales were defined to read JD 2443144.5003725 (1 January 1977 00:00:32.184) exactly at that instant. TAI was henceforth a realisation of TT, with the equation TT(TAI) = TAI + 32.184 s.
The continued existence of TAI was questioned in a 2007 letter from the BIPM to the ITU-R which stated, "In the case of a redefinition of UTC without leap seconds, the CCTF would consider discussing the possibility of suppressing TAI, as it would remain parallel to the continuous UTC." |
International Atomic Time | Relation to UTC | Relation to UTC
Contrary to TAI, UTC is a discontinuous time scale. It is occasionally adjusted by leap seconds. Between these adjustments, it is composed of segments that are mapped to atomic time by a constant offset. From its beginning in 1961 through December 1971, the adjustments were made regularly in fractional leap seconds so that UTC approximated UT2. Afterwards, these adjustments were made only in whole seconds to approximate UT1. This was a compromise arrangement in order to enable a publicly broadcast time scale. The less frequent whole-second adjustments meant that the time scale would be more stable and easier to synchronize internationally. The fact that it continues to approximate UT1 means that tasks such as navigation which require a source of Universal Time continue to be well served by the public broadcast of UTC. |
International Atomic Time | See also | See also
Clock synchronization
Time and frequency transfer |
International Atomic Time | Notes | Notes |
International Atomic Time | References | References
|
International Atomic Time | Footnotes | Footnotes |
International Atomic Time | Bibliography | Bibliography
|
International Atomic Time | External links | External links
BIPM technical services: Time Metrology
Time and Frequency Section - National Physical Laboratory, UK
IERS website
NIST Web Clock FAQs
History of time scales
NIST-F1 Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock
Japan Standard Time Project, NICT, Japan
Standard of time definition: UTC, GPS, LORAN and TAI
Category:Time scales |
International Atomic Time | Table of Content | Short description, Operation, History, Relation to UTC, See also, Notes, References, Footnotes, Bibliography, External links |
Altruism | Short description | thumb|Giving alms to the poor is often considered an altruistic action.
Altruism is the concern for the well-being of others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity.
The word altruism was popularised (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as , for an antonym of egoism. He derived it from the Italian , which in turn was derived from Latin , meaning "other people" or "somebody else". Altruism may be considered a synonym of selflessness, the opposite of self-centeredness.
Altruism is an important moral value in many cultures and religions. It can expand beyond care for humans to include other sentient beings and future generations.
Altruism, as observed in populations of organisms, is when an individual performs an action at a cost to itself (in terms of e.g. pleasure and quality of life, time, probability of survival or reproduction) that benefits, directly or indirectly, another individual, without the expectation of reciprocity or compensation for that action.
The theory of psychological egoism suggests that no act of sharing, helping, or sacrificing can be "truly" altruistic, as the actor may receive an intrinsic reward in the form of personal gratification. The validity of this argument depends on whether such intrinsic rewards qualify as "benefits".
The term altruism can also refer to an ethical doctrine that claims that individuals are morally obliged to benefit others. Used in this sense, it is usually contrasted with egoism, which claims individuals are morally obligated to serve themselves first.
Effective altruism is the use of evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to benefit others. |
Altruism | The notion of altruism | The notion of altruism
The concept of altruism has a history in philosophical and ethical thought. The term was coined in the 19th century by the founding sociologist and philosopher of science Auguste Comte, and has become a major topic for psychologists (especially evolutionary psychology researchers), evolutionary biologists, and ethologists. Whilst ideas about altruism from one field can affect the other fields, the different methods and focuses of these fields always lead to different perspectives on altruism. In simple terms, altruism is caring about the welfare of other people and acting to help them, above oneself. |
Altruism | Cross-cultural perspectives on altruism | Cross-cultural perspectives on altruism
Cross-cultural perspectives on altruism show that how we view and experience helping others depends heavily on where we come from. In individualistic cultures, like many Western countries, acts of altruism often bring personal joy and satisfaction, as they align with values that emphasize individual achievement and self-fulfillment. On the other hand, in collectivist cultures, common in many Eastern societies, altruism is often seen as a responsibility to the group rather than a personal choice. This difference means that people in collectivist cultures might not feel the same personal happiness from helping others, as the act is more about fulfilling social obligations. Ultimately, these variations highlight how deeply cultural norms shape the way we approach and experience altruism. |
Altruism | Scientific viewpoints<!--linked from 'Evolution of morality'--> | Scientific viewpoints |
Altruism | Anthropology | Anthropology
Marcel Mauss's essay The Gift contains a passage called "Note on alms". This note describes the evolution of the notion of alms (and by extension of altruism) from the notion of sacrifice. In it, he writes: |
Altruism | Evolutionary explanations | Evolutionary explanations
thumb|upright|Giving alms to beggar children
In ethology (the scientific study of animal behaviour), and more generally in the study of social evolution, altruism refers to behavior by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor. In evolutionary psychology this term may be applied to a wide range of human behaviors such as charity, emergency aid, help to coalition partners, tipping, courtship gifts, production of public goods, and environmentalism.
The need for an explanation of altruistic behavior that is compatible with evolutionary origins has driven the development of new theories. Two related strands of research on altruism have emerged from traditional evolutionary analyses and evolutionary game theory: a mathematical model and analysis of behavioral strategies.
Some of the proposed mechanisms are:
Kin selection. That animals and humans are more altruistic towards close kin than to distant kin and non-kin has been confirmed in numerous studies across many different cultures. Even subtle cues indicating kinship may unconsciously increase altruistic behavior. One kinship cue is facial resemblance. One study found that slightly altering photographs to resemble the faces of study participants more closely increased the trust the participants expressed regarding depicted persons. Another cue is having the same family name, especially if rare, which has been found to increase helpful behavior. Another study found more cooperative behavior, the greater the number of perceived kin in a group. Using kinship terms in political speeches increased audience agreement with the speaker in one study. This effect was powerful for firstborns, who are typically close to their families.
Vested interests. People are likely to suffer if their friends, allies and those from similar social ingroups suffer or disappear. Helping such group members may, therefore, also benefit the altruist. Making ingroup membership more noticeable increases cooperativeness. Extreme self-sacrifice towards the ingroup may be adaptive if a hostile outgroup threatens the entire ingroup.
Reciprocal altruism. See also Reciprocity (evolution).
Direct reciprocity. Research shows that it can be beneficial to help others if there is a chance that they will reciprocate the help. The effective tit for tat strategy is one game theoretic example. Many people seem to be following a similar strategy by cooperating if and only if others cooperate in return.
One consequence is that people are more cooperative with one another if they are more likely to interact again in the future. People tend to be less cooperative if they perceive that the frequency of helpers in the population is lower. They tend to help less if they see non-cooperativeness by others, and this effect tends to be stronger than the opposite effect of seeing cooperative behaviors. Simply changing the cooperative framing of a proposal may increase cooperativeness, such as calling it a "Community Game" instead of a "Wall Street Game".
A tendency towards reciprocity implies that people feel obligated to respond if someone helps them. This has been used by charities that give small gifts to potential donors hoping to induce reciprocity. Another method is to announce publicly that someone has given a large donation. The tendency to reciprocate can even generalize, so people become more helpful toward others after being helped. On the other hand, people will avoid or even retaliate against those perceived not to be cooperating. People sometimes mistakenly fail to help when they intended to, or their helping may not be noticed, which may cause unintended conflicts. As such, it may be an optimal strategy to be slightly forgiving of and have a slightly generous interpretation of non-cooperation.
People are more likely to cooperate on a task if they can communicate with one another first. This may be due to better cooperativeness assessments or promises exchange. They are more cooperative if they can gradually build trust instead of being asked to give extensive help immediately. Direct reciprocity and cooperation in a group can be increased by changing the focus and incentives from intra-group competition to larger-scale competitions, such as between groups or against the general population. Thus, giving grades and promotions based only on an individual's performance relative to a small local group, as is common, may reduce cooperative behaviors in the group.
Indirect reciprocity. Because people avoid poor reciprocators and cheaters, a person's reputation is important. A person esteemed for their reciprocity is more likely to receive assistance, even from individuals they have not directly interacted with before.
Strong reciprocity. This form of reciprocity is expressed by people who invest more resources in cooperation and punishment than what is deemed optimal based on established theories of altruism.
Pseudo-reciprocity. An organism behaves altruistically and the recipient does not reciprocate but has an increased chance of acting in a way that is selfish but also as a byproduct benefits the altruist.
Costly signaling and the handicap principle. Altruism, by diverting resources from the altruist, can act as an "honest signal" of available resources and the skills to acquire them. This may signal to others that the altruist is a valuable potential partner. It may also signal interactive and cooperative intentions, since someone who does not expect to interact further in the future gains nothing from such costly signaling. While it's uncertain if costly signaling can predict long-term cooperative traits, people tend to trust helpers more. Costly signaling loses its value when everyone shares identical traits, resources, and cooperative intentions, but it gains significance as population variability in these aspects increases.
Hunters who share meat display a costly signal of ability. The research found that good hunters have higher reproductive success and more adulterous relations even if they receive no more of the hunted meat than anyone else. Similarly, holding large feasts and giving large donations are ways of demonstrating one's resources. Heroic risk-taking has also been interpreted as a costly signal of ability.
thumb|Volunteers assist Hurricane victims at the Houston Astrodome, following Hurricane Katrina.
Both indirect reciprocity and costly signaling depend on reputation value and tend to make similar predictions. One is that people will be more helpful when they know that their helping behavior will be communicated to people they will interact with later, publicly announced, discussed, or observed by someone else. This has been documented in many studies. The effect is sensitive to subtle cues, such as people being more helpful when there were stylized eyespots instead of a logo on a computer screen. Weak reputational cues such as eyespots may become unimportant if there are stronger cues present and may lose their effect with continued exposure unless reinforced with real reputational effects. Public displays such as public weeping for dead celebrities and participation in demonstrations may be influenced by a desire to be seen as generous. People who know that they are publicly monitored sometimes even wastefully donate the money they know is not needed by the recipient because of reputational concerns.
Typically, women find altruistic men to be attractive partners. When women look for a long-term partner, altruism may be a trait they prefer as it may indicate that the prospective partner is also willing to share resources with her and her children. Men perform charitable acts in the early stages of a romantic relationship or simply when in the presence of an attractive woman. While both sexes state that kindness is the most preferable trait in a partner, there is some evidence that men place less value on this than women and that women may not be more altruistic in the presence of an attractive man. Men may even avoid altruistic women in short-term relationships, which may be because they expect less success.
People may compete for the social benefit of a burnished reputation, which may cause competitive altruism. On the other hand, in some experiments, a proportion of people do not seem to care about reputation and do not help more, even if this is conspicuous. This may be due to reasons such as psychopathy or that they are so attractive that they need not be seen as altruistic. The reputational benefits of altruism occur in the future compared to the immediate costs of altruism. While humans and other organisms generally place less value on future costs/benefits as compared to those in the present, some have shorter time horizons than others, and these people tend to be less cooperative.
Explicit extrinsic rewards and punishments have sometimes been found to have a counterintuitively inverse effect on behaviors when compared to intrinsic rewards. This may be because such extrinsic incentives may replace (partially or in whole) intrinsic and reputational incentives, motivating the person to focus on obtaining the extrinsic rewards, which may make the thus-incentivized behaviors less desirable. People prefer altruism in others when it appears to be due to a personality characteristic rather than overt reputational concerns; simply pointing out that there are reputational benefits of action may reduce them. This may be used as a derogatory tactic against altruists ("you're just virtue signalling"), especially by those who are non-cooperators. A counterargument is that doing good due to reputational concerns is better than doing no good.
Group selection. It has controversially been argued by some evolutionary scientists such as David Sloan Wilson that natural selection can act at the level of non-kin groups to produce adaptations that benefit a non-kin group, even if these adaptations are detrimental at the individual level. Thus, while altruistic persons may under some circumstances be outcompeted by less altruistic persons at the individual level, according to group selection theory, the opposite may occur at the group level where groups consisting of the more altruistic persons may outcompete groups consisting of the less altruistic persons. Such altruism may only extend to ingroup members while directing prejudice and antagonism against outgroup members (see also in-group favoritism). Many other evolutionary scientists have criticized group selection theory.
right|thumb|Helping the homeless in New York City
Such explanations do not imply that humans consciously calculate how to increase their inclusive fitness when doing altruistic acts. Instead, evolution has shaped psychological mechanisms, such as emotions, that promote certain altruistic behaviors.
The benefits for the altruist may be increased, and the costs reduced by being more altruistic towards certain groups. Research has found that people are more altruistic to kin than to no-kin, to friends than strangers, to those attractive than to those unattractive, to non-competitors than competitors, and to members in-groups than to members of out-groups.
The study of altruism was the initial impetus behind George R. Price's development of the Price equation, a mathematical equation used to study genetic evolution. An interesting example of altruism is found in the cellular slime moulds, such as Dictyostelium mucoroides. These protists live as individual amoebae until starved, at which point they aggregate and form a multicellular fruiting body in which some cells sacrifice themselves to promote the survival of other cells in the fruiting body.
Selective investment theory proposes that close social bonds, and associated emotional, cognitive, and neurohormonal mechanisms, evolved to facilitate long-term, high-cost altruism between those closely depending on one another for survival and reproductive success.
Such cooperative behaviors have sometimes been seen as arguments for left-wing politics, for example, by the Russian zoologist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution and moral philosopher Peter Singer in his book A Darwinian Left. |
Altruism | Neurobiology | Neurobiology
Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman, neuroscientists at the National Institutes of Health and LABS-D'Or Hospital Network, provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruistic giving in normal healthy volunteers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In their research, they showed that both pure monetary rewards and charitable donations activated the mesolimbic reward pathway, a primitive part of the brain that usually responds to food and sex. However, when volunteers generously placed the interests of others before their own by making charitable donations, another brain circuit was also selectively activated: the subgenual cortex/septal region. These structures are related to social attachment and bonding in other species. The experiment suggested that altruism is not a higher moral faculty overpowering innate selfish desires, but a fundamental, ingrained, and enjoyable trait in the brain. One brain region, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex/basal forebrain, contributes to learning altruistic behavior, especially in people with a propensity for empathy.
Bill Harbaugh, a University of Oregon economist, in an fMRI scanner test conducted with his psychologist colleague Dr. Ulrich Mayr, reached the same conclusions as Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman about giving to charity, although they were able to divide the study group into two groups: "egoists" and "altruists". One of their discoveries was that, though rarely, even some of the considered "egoists" sometimes gave more than expected because that would help others, leading to the conclusion that there are other factors in charity, such as a person's environment and values.
A recent meta-analysis of fMRI studies conducted by Shawn Rhoads, Jo Cutler, and Abigail Marsh analyzed the results of prior studies of generosity in which participants could freely choose to give or not give resources to someone else. The results of this study confirmed that altruism is supported by distinct mechanisms from giving motivated by reciprocity or by fairness. This study also confirmed that the right ventral striatum is recruited during altruistic giving, as well as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral anterior insula, which are regions previously implicated in empathy.
Abigail Marsh has conducted studies of real-world altruists that have also identified an important role for the amygdala in human altruism. In real-world altruists, such as people who have donated kidneys to strangers, the amygdala is larger than in typical adults. Altruists' amygdalas are also more responsive than those of typical adults to the sight of others' distress, which is thought to reflect an empathic response to distress. This structure may also be involved in altruistic choices due to its role in encoding the value of outcomes for others. This is consistent with the findings of research in non-human animals, which has identified neurons within the amygdala that specifically encode the value of others' outcomes, activity in which appears to drive altruistic choices in monkeys. |
Altruism | Psychology | Psychology
The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences defines psychological altruism as "a motivational state to increase another's welfare". Psychological altruism is contrasted with psychological egoism, which refers to the motivation to increase one's welfare. In keeping with this, research in real-world altruists, including altruistic kidney donors, bone marrow donors, humanitarian aid workers, and heroic rescuers findings that these altruists are primarily distinguished from other adults by unselfish traits and decision-making patterns. This suggests that human altruism reflects genuinely high valuation of others' outcomes.
There has been some debate on whether humans are capable of psychological altruism. Some definitions specify a self-sacrificial nature to altruism and a lack of external rewards for altruistic behaviors. However, because altruism ultimately benefits the self in many cases, the selflessness of altruistic acts is difficult to prove. The social exchange theory postulates that altruism only exists when the benefits outweigh the costs to the self.
Daniel Batson, a psychologist, examined this question and argued against the social exchange theory. He identified four significant motives: to ultimately benefit the self (egoism), to ultimately benefit the other person (altruism), to benefit a group (collectivism), or to uphold a moral principle (principlism). Altruism that ultimately serves selfish gains is thus differentiated from selfless altruism, but the general conclusion has been that empathy-induced altruism can be genuinely selfless. The empathy-altruism hypothesis states that psychological altruism exists and is evoked by the empathic desire to help someone suffering. Feelings of empathic concern are contrasted with personal distress, which compels people to reduce their unpleasant emotions and increase their positive ones by helping someone in need. Empathy is thus not selfless since altruism works either as a way to avoid those negative, unpleasant feelings and have positive, pleasant feelings when triggered by others' need for help or as a way to gain social reward or avoid social punishment by helping. People with empathic concern help others in distress even when exposure to the situation could be easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid allowing it unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to another's suffering.
Helping behavior is seen in humans from about two years old when a toddler can understand subtle emotional cues.
thumb|Peace Corps trainees swearing in as volunteers in Cambodia, 4 April 2007
In psychological research on altruism, studies often observe altruism as demonstrated through prosocial behaviors such as helping, comforting, sharing, cooperation, philanthropy, and community service. People are most likely to help if they recognize that a person is in need and feel personal responsibility for reducing the person's distress. The number of bystanders witnessing pain or suffering affects the likelihood of helping (the Bystander effect). More significant numbers of bystanders decrease individual feelings of responsibility. However, a witness with a high level of empathic concern is likely to assume personal responsibility entirely regardless of the number of bystanders.
Many studies have observed the effects of volunteerism (as a form of altruism) on happiness and health and have consistently found that those who exhibit volunteerism also have better current and future health and well-being. In a study of older adults, those who volunteered had higher life satisfaction and will to live, and less depression, anxiety, and somatization. Volunteerism and helping behavior have not only been shown to improve mental health but physical health and longevity as well, attributable to the activity and social integration it encourages. One study examined the physical health of mothers who volunteered over 30 years and found that 52% of those who did not belong to a volunteer organization experienced a major illness while only 36% of those who did volunteer experienced one. A study on adults aged 55 and older found that during the four-year study period, people who volunteered for two or more organizations had a 63% lower likelihood of dying. After controlling for prior health status, it was determined that volunteerism accounted for a 44% reduction in mortality. Merely being aware of kindness in oneself and others is also associated with greater well-being. A study that asked participants to count each act of kindness they performed for one week significantly enhanced their subjective happiness. Happier people are kinder and more grateful, kinder people are happier and more grateful and more grateful people are happier and kinder, the study suggests.
While research supports the idea that altruistic acts bring about happiness, it has also been found to work in the opposite direction—that happier people are also kinder. The relationship between altruistic behavior and happiness is bidirectional. Studies found that generosity increases linearly from sad to happy affective states.
Feeling over-taxed by the needs of others has negative effects on health and happiness. For example, one study on volunteerism found that feeling overwhelmed by others' demands had an even stronger negative effect on mental health than helping had a positive one (although positive effects were still significant).
Older humans were found to have higher altruism. |
Altruism | Genetics and environment | Genetics and environment
Both genetics and environment have been implicated in influencing pro-social or altruistic behavior. Candidate genes include OXTR (polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor), CD38, COMT, DRD4, DRD5, IGF2, AVPR1A and GABRB2. It is theorized that some of these genes influence altruistic behavior by modulating levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
According to Christopher Boehm, altruistic behaviour evolved as a way of surviving within a group. |
Altruism | Sociology | Sociology
"Sociologists have long been concerned with how to build the good society". The structure of our societies and how individuals come to exhibit charitable, philanthropic, and other pro-social, altruistic actions for the common good is a commonly researched topic within the field. The American Sociology Association (ASA) acknowledges public sociology saying, "The intrinsic scientific, policy, and public relevance of this field of investigation in helping to construct 'good societies' is unquestionable". This type of sociology seeks contributions that aid popular and theoretical understandings of what motivates altruism and how it is organized, and promotes an altruistic focus in order to benefit the world and people it studies.
How altruism is framed, organized, carried out, and what motivates it at the group level is an area of focus that sociologists investigate in order to contribute back to the groups it studies and "build the good society". The motivation of altruism is also the focus of study; for example, one study links the occurrence of moral outrage to altruistic compensation of victims. Studies show that generosity in laboratory and in online experiments is contagious – people imitate the generosity they observe in others. |
Altruism | Religious viewpoints | Religious viewpoints
Most, if not all, of the world's religions promote altruism as a very important moral value. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, and Sikhism, etc., place particular emphasis on altruistic morality. |
Altruism | Buddhism | Buddhism
thumb|Monks collecting alms
Altruism figures prominently in Buddhism. Love and compassion are components of all forms of Buddhism, and are focused on all beings equally: love is the wish that all beings be happy, and compassion is the wish that all beings be free from suffering. "Many illnesses can be cured by the one medicine of love and compassion. These qualities are the ultimate source of human happiness, and the need for them lies at the very core of our being" (Dalai Lama).The phrase "core of our being" is Freudian; see
The notion of altruism is modified in such a world-view, since the belief is that such a practice promotes the practitioner's own happiness: "The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes" (Dalai Lama).
In Buddhism, a person's actions cause karma, which consists of consequences proportional to the moral implications of their actions. Deeds considered to be bad are punished, while those considered to be good are rewarded. |
Altruism | Jainism | Jainism
thumb|Sculpture depicting the Jain concept of (non-injury)
The fundamental principles of Jainism revolve around altruism, not only for other humans but for all sentient beings. Jainism preaches – to live and let live, not harming sentient beings, i.e. uncompromising reverence for all life. The first , Rishabhdev, introduced the concept of altruism for all living beings, from extending knowledge and experience to others to donation, giving oneself up for others, non-violence, and compassion for all living things.
The principle of nonviolence seeks to minimize karmas which limit the capabilities of the soul. Jainism views every soul as worthy of respect because it has the potential to become (God in Jainism). Because all living beings possess a soul, great care and awareness is essential in one's actions. Jainism emphasizes the equality of all life, advocating harmlessness towards all, whether the creatures are great or small. This policy extends even to microscopic organisms. Jainism acknowledges that every person has different capabilities and capacities to practice and therefore accepts different levels of compliance for ascetics and householders. |
Altruism | Christianity | Christianity
Thomas Aquinas interprets the biblical phrase "You should love your neighbour as yourself" and as meaning that love for ourselves is the exemplar of love for others.Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II:II Quaestio 25, Article 4 Considering that "the love with which a man loves himself is the form and root of friendship", he quotes Aristotle that "the origin of friendly relations with others lies in our relations to ourselves",.Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics IX.4 1166a1 Aquinas concluded that though we are not bound to love others more than ourselves, we naturally seek the common good, the good of the whole, more than any private good, the good of a part. However, he thought we should love God more than ourselves and our neighbours, and more than our bodily life—since the ultimate purpose of loving our neighbour is to share in eternal beatitude: a more desirable thing than bodily well-being. In coining the word "altruism", as stated above, Comte was probably opposing this Thomistic doctrine, which is present in some theological schools within Catholicism. The aim and focus of Christian life is a life that glorifies God, while obeying Christ's command to treat others equally, caring for them and understanding that eternity in heaven is what Jesus' Resurrection at Calvary was all about.
Many biblical authors draw a strong connection between love of others and love of God. John 1:4 states that for one to love God one must love his fellow man, and that hatred of one's fellow man is the same as hatred of God. Thomas Jay Oord has argued in several books that altruism is but one possible form of love. An altruistic action is not always a loving action. Oord defines altruism as acting for the other's good, and he agrees with feminists who note that sometimes love requires acting for one's own good when the other's demands undermine overall well-being.
German philosopher Max Scheler distinguishes two ways in which the strong can help the weak. One way is a sincere expression of Christian love, "motivated by a powerful feeling of security, strength, and inner salvation, of the invincible fullness of one's own life and existence". Another way is merely "one of the many modern substitutes for love,... nothing but the urge to turn away from oneself and to lose oneself in other people's business". At its worst, Scheler says, "love for the small, the poor, the weak, and the oppressed is really disguised hatred, repressed envy, an impulse to detract, etc., directed against the opposite phenomena: wealth, strength, power, largesse." |
Altruism | Islam | Islam
In the Arabic language, "" (إيثار) means "preferring others to oneself".'iythar Google Translate
On the topic of donating blood to non-Muslims (a controversial topic within the faith), the Shia religious professor, Fadhil al-Milani has provided theological evidence that makes it positively justifiable. In fact, he considers it a form of religious sacrifice and ithar (altruism).
For Sufis, 'iythar means devotion to others through complete forgetfulness of one's own concerns, where concern for others is deemed as a demand made by God on the human body, considered to be property of God alone. The importance of 'iythar (also known as ) lies in sacrifice for the sake of the greater good; Islam considers those practicing as abiding by the highest degree of nobility.
This is similar to the notion of chivalry. A constant concern for God results in a careful attitude towards people, animals, and other things in this world. |
Altruism | Judaism | Judaism
Judaism defines altruism as the desired goal of creation. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook stated that love is the most important attribute in humanity. Love is defined as bestowal, or giving, which is the intention of altruism. This can be altruism towards humanity that leads to altruism towards the creator or God. Kabbalah defines God as the force of giving in existence. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto focused on the "purpose of creation" and how the will of God was to bring creation into perfection and adhesion with this force of giving.
Modern Kabbalah developed by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, in his writings about the future generation, focuses on how society could achieve an altruistic social framework. Ashlag proposed that such a framework is the purpose of creation, and everything that happens is to raise humanity to the level of altruism, love for one another. Ashlag focused on society and its relation to divinity. |
Altruism | Sikhism | Sikhism
Altruism is essential to the Sikh religion. The central faith in Sikhism is that the greatest deed anyone can do is to imbibe and live the godly qualities such as love, affection, sacrifice, patience, harmony, and truthfulness. , or selfless service to the community for its own sake, is an important concept in Sikhism.
The fifth Guru, Guru Arjun, sacrificed his life to uphold "22 carats of pure truth, the greatest gift to humanity", according to the Guru Granth Sahib. The ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, sacrificed his life to protect weak and defenseless people against atrocity.
In the late seventeenth century, Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Guru in Sikhism), was at war with the Mughal rulers to protect the people of different faiths when a fellow Sikh, Bhai Kanhaiya, attended the troops of the enemy. He gave water to both friends and foes who were wounded on the battlefield. Some of the enemy began to fight again and some Sikh warriors were annoyed by Bhai Kanhaiya as he was helping their enemy. Sikh soldiers brought Bhai Kanhaiya before Guru Gobind Singh, and complained of his action that they considered counterproductive to their struggle on the battlefield. "What were you doing, and why?" asked the Guru. "I was giving water to the wounded because I saw your face in all of them", replied Bhai Kanhaiya. The Guru responded, "Then you should also give them ointment to heal their wounds. You were practicing what you were coached in the house of the Guru."
Under the tutelage of the Guru, Bhai Kanhaiya subsequently founded a volunteer corps for altruism, which is still engaged today in doing good to others and in training new recruits for this service. |
Altruism | Hinduism | Hinduism
In Hinduism, selflessness (), love (), kindness (), and forgiveness () are considered as the highest acts of humanity or "". Giving alms to the beggars or poor people is considered as a divine act or "" and Hindus believe it will free their souls from guilt or "" and will led them to heaven or "" in afterlife. Altruism is also the central act of various Hindu mythology and religious poems and songs. Mass donation of clothes to poor people (), or blood donation camp or mass food donation () for poor people is common in various Hindu religious ceremonies.
The Bhagavad Gita supports the doctrine of karma yoga (achieving oneness with God through action) and Nishkama Karma or action without expectation or desire for personal gain which can be said to encompass altruism. Altruistic acts are generally celebrated and well received in Hindu literature and are central to Hindu morality.Sivananda, Swami. Phaladhikaranam, Topic 8, Sutras 38–41. |
Altruism | Philosophy | Philosophy
There is a wide range of philosophical views on humans' obligations or motivations to act altruistically. Proponents of ethical altruism maintain that individuals are morally obligated to act altruistically. The opposing view is ethical egoism, which maintains that moral agents should always act in their own self-interest. Both ethical altruism and ethical egoism contrast with utilitarianism, which maintains that each agent should act in order to maximise the efficacy of their function and the benefit to both themselves and their co-inhabitants.
A related concept in descriptive ethics is psychological egoism, the thesis that humans always act in their own self-interest and that true altruism is impossible. Rational egoism is the view that rationality consists in acting in one's self-interest (without specifying how this affects one's moral obligations).
In his book I am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, Daniel Kolak argues that open individualism provides a rational basis for altruism. According to Kolak, egoism is incoherent because the concept of a future self is incoherent, similar to the idea of anattā in Buddhist philosophy, and everyone is in reality the same being. Derek Parfit made similar arguments in the book Reasons and Persons, using thought experiments such as the teletransportation paradox to illustrate the philosophical problems with personal identity. |
Altruism | Effective altruism | Effective altruism
Effective altruism is a philosophy and social movement that uses evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others. Effective altruism encourages individuals to consider all causes and actions and to act in the way that brings about the greatest positive impact, based upon their values. It is the broad, evidence-based, and cause-neutral approach that distinguishes effective altruism from traditional altruism or charity. Effective altruism is part of the larger movement towards evidence-based practices.
While a substantial proportion of effective altruists have focused on the nonprofit sector, the philosophy of effective altruism applies more broadly to prioritizing the scientific projects, companies, and policy initiatives which can be estimated to save lives, help people, or otherwise have the biggest benefit. People associated with the movement include philosopher Peter Singer, Facebook co founder Dustin Moskovitz, Cari Tuna, Oxford-based researchers William MacAskill and Toby Ord, and professional poker player Liv Boeree. |
Altruism | Extreme altruism | Extreme altruism |
Altruism | Pathological altruism | Pathological altruism
Pathological altruism is altruism taken to an unhealthy extreme, such that it either harms the altruistic person or the person's well-intentioned actions cause more harm than good.
The term "pathological altruism" was popularised by the book Pathological Altruism.
Examples include depression and burnout seen in healthcare professionals, an unhealthy focus on others to the detriment of one's own needs, animal hoarding, and ineffective philanthropic and social programs that ultimately worsen the situations they are meant to aid.
Extreme altruism also known as costly altruism, extraordinary altruism, or heroic behaviours (shall be distinguished from heroism), refers to selfless acts directed to a stranger which significantly exceed the normal altruistic behaviours, often involving risks or great cost to the altruists themselves. Since acts of extreme altruism are often directed towards strangers, many commonly accepted models of simple altruism appear inadequate in explaining this phenomenon.
One of the initial concepts was introduced by Wilson in 1976, which he referred to as "hard-core" altruism. This form is characterised by impulsive actions directed towards others, typically a stranger and lacking incentives for reward. Since then, several papers have mentioned the possibility of such altruism.
In 21st century the progress in the field slowed down due to adopting ethical guidelines that restrict exposing research participants to costly or risky decisions (see Declaration of Helsinki). Consequently, much research has based their studies on living organ donations and the actions of Carnegie Hero medal Recipients, actions which involve high risk, high cost, and are of infrequent occurrences. A typical example of extreme altruism would be non-directed kidney donation—a living person donating one of their kidneys to a stranger without any benefits or knowing the recipient.
However, current research can only be carried out on a small population that meets the requirements of extreme altruism. Most of the time the research is also via the form of self-report which could lead to self-report biases. Due to the limitations, the current gap between high stakes and normal altruism remains unknown. |
Altruism | Characteristics of extreme altruists | Characteristics of extreme altruists
Norms
In 1970, Schwartz hypothesised that extreme altruism is positively related to a person's moral norms and is not influenced by the cost associated with the action. This hypothesis was supported in the same study examining bone marrow donors. Schwartz discovered that individuals with strong personal norms and those who attribute more responsibility to themselves are more inclined to participate in bone marrow donation. Similar findings were observed in a 1986 study by Piliavin and Libby focusing on blood donors. These studies suggest that personal norms lead to the activation of moral norms, leading individuals to feel compelled to help others.
Enhanced Fear Recognition
Abigail Marsh has described psychopaths as the "opposite" group of people to extreme altruists and has conducted a few research, comparing these two groups of individuals. Utilising techniques such as brain imaging and behavioural experiments, Marsh's team observed that kidney donors tend to have larger amygdala sizes and exhibit better abilities in recognizing fearful expressions compared to psychopathic individuals. Furthermore, an improved ability to recognize fear has been associated with an increase in prosocial behaviours, including greater charity contribution.
Fast Decisions when Perform Acts of Extreme Altruism
Rand and Epstein explored the behaviours of 51 Carnegie Hero Medal Recipients, demonstrating how extreme altruistic behaviours often stem from system I of the Dual Process Theory, which leads to rapid and intuitive behaviours. Additionally, a separate by Carlson et al. indicated that such prosocial behaviours are prevalent in emergencies where immediate actions are required.
This discovery has led to ethical debates, particularly in the context of living organ donation, where laws regarding this issue differ by country. As observed in extreme altruists, these decisions are made intuitively, which may reflect insufficient consideration. Critics are concerned about whether this rapid decision encompasses a thorough cost-benefit analysis and question the appropriateness of exposing donors to such risk.
Social discounting
One finding suggests how extreme altruists exhibit lower levels of social discounting as compared to others. With that meaning extreme altruists place a higher value on the welfare of strangers than a typical person does.
Low Social-Economic Status
Analysis of 676 Carnegie Hero Award Recipients and another study on 243 rescuing acts reveal that a significant proportion of rescuers come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Johnson attributes the distribution to the high-risk occupations that are more prevalent between lower socioeconomic groups. Another hypothesis proposed by Lyons is that individuals from these groups may perceive they have less to lose when engaging in high-risk extreme altruistic behaviours. |
Altruism | Possible explanations | Possible explanations
Evolutionary theories such as the kin-selection, reciprocity, vested interest and punishment either contradict or do not fully explain the concept of extreme altruism. As a result, considerable research has attempted for a separate explanation for this behaviour.
Costly Signalling Theory for Extreme Behaviours
Research suggests that males are more likely to engage in heroic and risk-taking behaviours due to a preference among females for such traits. These extreme altruistic behaviours could serve to act as an unconscious "signal" to showcase superior power and ability compared to ordinary individuals. When an extreme altruist survives a high-risk situation, they send an "honest signal" of quality. Three qualities hypothesized to be exhibited by extreme altruists, which could be interpreted as "signals", are: (1) traits that are difficult to fake, (2) a willingness to help, and (3) generous behaviours.
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
The empathy altruism hypothesis appears to align with the concept of extreme altruism without contradiction. The hypothesis was supported with further brain scanning research, which indicates how this group of people demonstrate a higher level of empathy concern. The level of empathy concern then triggers activation in specific brain regions, urging the individual to engage in heroic behaviours.
Mistakes and Outliers
While most altruistic behaviours offer some form of benefit, extreme altruism may sometimes result from a mistake where the victim does not reciprocate. Considering the impulsive characteristic of extreme altruists, some researchers suggest that these individuals have made a wrong judgement during the cost-benefit analysis. Furthermore, extreme altruism might be a rare variation of altruism where they lie towards to ends of a normal distribution. In the US, the annual prevalence rate per capita is less than 0.00005%, this shows the rarity of such behaviours. |
Altruism | Digital altruism | Digital altruism
Digital altruism is the notion that some are willing to freely share information based on the principle of reciprocity and in the belief that in the end, everyone benefits from sharing information via the Internet.
There are three types of digital altruism: (1) "everyday digital altruism", involving expedience, ease, moral engagement, and conformity; (2) "creative digital altruism", involving creativity, heightened moral engagement, and cooperation; and (3) "co-creative digital altruism" involving creativity, moral engagement, and meta cooperative efforts. |
Altruism | See also | See also
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Altruism | Further reading | Further reading
Cappelen, Alexander W.; Enke, Benjamin; Tungodden, Bertil (2025). "Universalism: Global Evidence". American Economic Review. 115 (1): 43–76. |
Altruism | Notes | Notes |
Altruism | References | References
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Altruism | External links | External links
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Altruism | Table of Content | Short description, The notion of altruism, Cross-cultural perspectives on altruism, Scientific viewpoints<!--linked from 'Evolution of morality'-->, Anthropology, Evolutionary explanations, Neurobiology, Psychology, Genetics and environment, Sociology, Religious viewpoints, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Philosophy, Effective altruism, Extreme altruism, Pathological altruism, Characteristics of extreme altruists, Possible explanations, Digital altruism, See also, Further reading, Notes, References, External links |
Ayn Rand | Short description | Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.
Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism as opposed to altruism and hedonism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and supported laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights, including private property rights. Although she opposed libertarianism, which she viewed as anarchism, Rand is often associated with the modern libertarian movement in the United States. In art, she promoted romantic realism. She was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her, with a few exceptions.
Rand's books have sold over 37 million copies. Her fiction received mixed reviews from literary critics, with reviews becoming more negative for her later work. Although academic interest in her ideas has grown since her death, academic philosophers have generally ignored or rejected Rand's philosophy, arguing that she has a polemical approach and that her work lacks methodological rigor. Her writings have politically influenced some right-libertarians and conservatives. The Objectivist movement circulates her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings. |
Ayn Rand | Life and career | Life and career |
Ayn Rand | Early life | Early life
Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum on February2, 1905, into a Jewish bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg, which was then the capital of the Russian Empire. She was the eldest of three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum, a pharmacist, and Anna Borisovna (). She was 12 when the October Revolution and the rule of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin disrupted her family's lives. Her father's pharmacy was nationalized, and the family fled to Yevpatoria in Crimea, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. After graduating high school there in June 1921, she returned with her family to Petrograd, as Saint Petersburg was then named, where they faced desperate conditions, occasionally nearly starving.
thumb|upright|alt=Book cover with black-and-white drawings and text in Russian|Rand's first published work was a monograph in Russian about actress Pola Negri.
After the Russian Revolution opened up Russian universities to women, Rand was among the first to enroll at Petrograd State University, now Saint Petersburg State University. At 16, she began her studies in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history. She was one of many bourgeois students purged from the university shortly before graduating. After complaints from a group of visiting foreign scientists, many purged students, including Rand, were reinstated.
In October 1924, she graduated from the renamed Leningrad State University. She then studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad. For an assignment, Rand wrote an essay about the Polish actress Pola Negri. It became her first published work. She decided her professional surname for writing would be Rand, and she adopted the first name Ayn (pronounced ).
In late 1925, Rand was granted a visa to visit relatives in Chicago. She arrived in New York City on February19, 1926. Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with her relatives learning English before moving to Hollywood, California.
In Hollywood a chance meeting with director Cecil B. DeMille led to work as an extra in his film The King of Kings and a subsequent job as a junior screenwriter. While working on The King of Kings, she met the aspiring actor Frank O'Connor. They married on April15, 1929. She became a permanent American resident in July 1929 and an American citizen on March3, 1931. She tried to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they could not obtain permission to emigrate. Rand's father died of a heart attack in 1939. One of her sisters and their mother died during the siege of Leningrad. |
Ayn Rand | Early fiction | Early fiction
thumb|upright|alt=Poster for the play Night of January 16th|Rand's play Night of January 16th opened on Broadway in 1935.
In 1932, Rand's first literary success was the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn to Universal Studios, although it was never produced. Her courtroom drama Night of January 16th, first staged in Hollywood in 1934, reopened successfully on Broadway in 1935. Each night, a jury was selected from members of the audience. Based on its vote, one of two different endings would be performed. In December 1934, Rand and O'Connor moved to New York City so she could handle revisions for the Broadway production.
In 1936, her first novel was published, the semi-autobiographical We the Living. Set in Soviet Russia, it focuses on the struggle between the individual and the state. Initial sales were slow, and the American publisher let it go out of print; however, European editions continued to sell.Ralston, Richard E. "Publishing We the Living". In . She adapted the story as a stage play, but the Broadway production closed in less than a week.Britting, Jeff. "Adapting We the Living". In . After the success of her later novels, Rand released a revised version in 1959 that has sold over three million copies.Ralston, Richard E. "Publishing We the Living". In .
In December 1935, Rand started her next major novel, The Fountainhead, but took a break from it in 1937 to write her novella Anthem. The novella presents a dystopian future world in which totalitarian collectivism has triumphed to such an extent that the word I has been forgotten and replaced with we. Protagonists Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 eventually escape the collectivistic society and rediscover the word I. It was published in England in 1938, but Rand could not find an American publisher at that time. As with We the Living, Rand's later success allowed her to get a revised version published in 1946, and this sold over 3.5million copies.Ralston, Richard E. "Publishing Anthem". In . |
Ayn Rand | ''The Fountainhead'' and political activism | The Fountainhead and political activism
In the 1940s, Rand became politically active. She and her husband were full-time volunteers for Republican Wendell Willkie's 1940 presidential campaign. This work put her in contact with other intellectuals sympathetic to free-market capitalism. She became friends with journalist Henry Hazlitt, who introduced her to the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Despite philosophical differences with them, Rand strongly endorsed the writings of both men, and they expressed admiration for her. Mises once called her "the most courageous man in America", a compliment that particularly pleased her because he said "man" instead of "woman". Rand became friends with libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Rand questioned her about American history and politics during their many meetings, and gave Paterson ideas for her only non-fiction book, The God of the Machine.
thumb|upright|alt=Front cover of The Fountainhead|The Fountainhead was Rand's first bestseller.
In 1943, Rand's first major success as a writer came with The Fountainhead, a novel about an uncompromising architect named Howard Roark and his struggle against what Rand described as "second-handers" who attempt to live through others, placing others above themselves. Twelve publishers rejected it before Bobbs-Merrill Company accepted it at the insistence of editor Archibald Ogden, who threatened to quit if his employer did not publish it.
While completing the novel, Rand was prescribed Benzedrine, an amphetamine, to fight fatigue. The drug helped her to work long hours to meet her deadline for delivering the novel, but afterwards she was so exhausted that her doctor ordered two weeks' rest. Her use of the drug for approximately three decades may have contributed to mood swings and outbursts described by some of her later associates.
The success of The Fountainhead brought Rand fame and financial security. In 1943, she sold the film rights to Warner Bros. and returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay. Producer Hal B. Wallis then hired her as a screenwriter and script-doctor for screenplays including Love Letters and You Came Along. Rand became involved with the anti-Communist Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and American Writers Association.
In 1947, during the Second Red Scare, she testified as a "friendly witness" before the United States House Un-American Activities Committee that the 1944 film Song of Russia grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union, portraying life there as much better and happier than it was. She also wanted to criticize the lauded 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives for what she interpreted as its negative presentation of the business world but was not allowed to do so. When asked after the hearings about her feelings on the investigations' effectiveness, Rand described the process as "futile".
In 1949, after several delays, the film version of The Fountainhead was released. Although it used Rand's screenplay with minimal alterations, she "disliked the movie from beginning to end" and complained about its editing, the acting and other elements. |
Ayn Rand | ''Atlas Shrugged'' and Objectivism | Atlas Shrugged and Objectivism
thumb|upright|alt=Magazine cover with a man holding lightning bolts|Rand's novella Anthem was reprinted in the June 1953 issue of the pulp magazine Famous Fantastic Mysteries.Ralston, Richard E. "Publishing Anthem". In .
Following the publication of The Fountainhead, Rand received many letters from readers, some of whom the book had influenced profoundly. In 1951, Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where she gathered a group of these admirers who met at Rand's apartment on weekends to discuss philosophy. The group included future chair of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, a young psychology student named Nathan Blumenthal (later Nathaniel Branden) and his wife Barbara, and Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff. Later, Rand began allowing them to read the manuscript drafts of her new novel, Atlas Shrugged.
In 1954, her close relationship with Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair. They informed both their spouses, who briefly objected, until Rand "sp[u]n out a deductive chain from which you just couldn't escape", in Barbara Branden's words, resulting in her and O'Connor's assent. Historian Jennifer Burns concludes that O'Connor was likely "the hardest hit" emotionally by the affair.
Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged is considered Rand's magnum opus. She described the novel's theme as "the role of the mind in man's existence—and, as a corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest".Salmieri, Gregory. "Atlas Shrugged on the Role of the Mind in Man's Existence". In . It advocates the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement. The plot involves a dystopian United States in which the most creative industrialists, scientists, and artists respond to a welfare state government by going on strike and retreating to a hidden valley where they build an independent free economy. The novel's hero and leader of the strike, John Galt, describes it as stopping "the motor of the world" by withdrawing the minds of individuals contributing most to the nation's wealth and achievements. The novel contains an exposition of Objectivism in a lengthy monologue delivered by Galt.Stolyarov II, G. "The Role and Essence of John Galt's Speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged". In .
Despite many negative reviews, Atlas Shrugged became an international bestseller, but the reaction of intellectuals to the novel discouraged and depressed Rand. Atlas Shrugged was her last completed work of fiction, marking the end of her career as a novelist and the beginning of her role as a popular philosopher.
In 1958, Nathaniel Branden established the Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later incorporated as the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Rand's philosophy through public lectures. In 1962, he and Rand co-founded The Objectivist Newsletter (later renamed The Objectivist) to circulate articles about her ideas. She later republished some of these articles in book form. Rand was unimpressed by many of the NBI students and held them to strict standards, sometimes reacting coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her.
Critics, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, later said the NBI culture was one of intellectual conformity and excessive reverence for Rand. Some described the NBI or the Objectivist movement as a cult or religion. Rand expressed opinions on a wide range of topics, from literature and music to sexuality and facial hair. Some of her followers mimicked her preferences, wearing clothes to match characters from her novels and buying furniture like hers. Some former NBI students believed the extent of these behaviors was exaggerated, and the problem was concentrated among Rand's closest followers in New York. |
Ayn Rand | Later years | Later years
In the 1960s and 1970s, Rand developed and promoted her Objectivist philosophy through nonfiction and speeches, including annual lectures at the Ford Hall Forum. In answers to audience questions, she took controversial stances on political and social issues. These included supporting abortion rights, opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft (but condemning many draft dodgers as "bums"), supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 against a coalition of Arab nations as "civilized men fighting savages", claiming European colonists had the right to invade and take land inhabited by American Indians,Thompson, Stephen. "Topographies of Liberal Thought: Rand and Arendt and Race". In . and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting", despite advocating the repeal of all laws concerning it. She endorsed several Republican candidates for president of the United States, most strongly Barry Goldwater in 1964.
thumb|alt=Twin gravestone for Frank O'Connor and Ayn Rand O'Connor|Grave marker for Rand and her husband at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York
In 1964, Nathaniel Branden began an affair with the young actress Patrecia Scott, whom he later married. Nathaniel and Barbara Branden kept the affair hidden from Rand. As her relationship with Nathaniel Branden deteriorated, Rand had her husband be present for difficult conversations between her and Branden. In 1968, Rand learned about Branden's relationship with Scott. Though her romantic involvement with Nathaniel Branden was already over, Rand ended her relationship with both Brandens, and the NBI closed. She published an article in The Objectivist repudiating Nathaniel Branden for dishonesty and "irrational behavior in his private life". In subsequent years, Rand and several more of her closest associates parted company.
In 1973, Rand's younger sister Eleonora Drobisheva (née Rosenbaum, 1910–1999) visited her in the US at Rand's invitation, but did not accept her lifestyle and views, as well as finding little literary merit in her works. She returned to the Soviet Union and spent the rest of her life in Leningrad, later Saint Petersburg.
In 1974, Rand had surgery for lung cancer after decades of heavy smoking. In 1976, she retired from her newsletter and, despite her lifelong objections to any government-run program, was enrolled in and claimed Social Security and Medicare with the aid of a social worker. Her activities in the Objectivist movement declined, especially after her husband died on November9, 1979. One of her final projects was a never-completed television adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.
On March6, 1982, Rand died of heart failure at her home in New York City. Her funeral included a floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign. In her will, Rand named Peikoff as her heir. |
Ayn Rand | Literary approach, influences and reception | Literary approach, influences and reception
Rand described her approach to literature as "romantic realism". She wanted her fiction to present the world "as it could be and should be", rather than as it was.Britting, Jeff. "Adapting The Fountainhead to Film". In . This approach led her to create highly stylized situations and characters. Her fiction typically has protagonists who are heroic individualists, depicted as fit and attractive. Her villains support duty and collectivist moral ideals. Rand often describes them as unattractive, and some have names that suggest negative traits, such as Wesley Mouch in Atlas Shrugged.
Rand considered plot a critical element of literature, and her stories typically have what biographer Anne Heller described as "tight, elaborate, fast-paced plotting". Romantic triangles are a common plot element in Rand's fiction; in most of her novels and plays, the main female character is romantically involved with at least two men.Wilt, Judith. "The Romances of Ayn Rand". In . |
Ayn Rand | Influences | Influences
thumb|upright|alt=Photo of Victor Hugo|Rand admired the novels of Victor Hugo.
In school, Rand read works by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, and Friedrich Schiller, who became her favorites. She considered them to be among the "top rank" of Romantic writers because of their focus on moral themes and their skill at constructing plots. Hugo was an important influence on her writing, especially her approach to plotting. In the introduction she wrote for an English-language edition of his novel Ninety-Three, Rand called him "the greatest novelist in world literature".
Although Rand disliked most Russian literature, her depictions of her heroes show the influence of the Russian Symbolists and other nineteenth-century Russian writing, most notably the 1863 novel What Is to Be Done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky. Scholars of Russian literature see in Chernyshevsky's character Rakhmetov, an "ascetic revolutionist", the template for Rand's literary heroes and heroines.
Rand's experience of the Russian Revolution and early Communist Russia influenced the portrayal of her villains. Beyond We the Living, which is set in Russia, this influence can be seen in the ideas and rhetoric of Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead, and in the destruction of the economy in Atlas Shrugged.
Rand's descriptive style echoes her early career writing scenarios and scripts for movies; her novels have many narrative descriptions that resemble early Hollywood movie scenarios. They often follow common film editing conventions, such as having a broad establishing shot description of a scene followed by close-up details, and her descriptions of women characters often take a "male gaze" perspective.Gladstein, Mimi Reisel. "Ayn Rand's Cinematic Eye". In . |
Ayn Rand | Contemporary reviews | Contemporary reviews
thumb|right|upright|alt=Photo of Rand|Rand in 1957
The first reviews Rand received were for Night of January 16th. Reviews of the Broadway production were largely positive, but Rand considered even positive reviews to be embarrassing because of significant changes made to her script by the producer. Although Rand believed that We the Living was not widely reviewed, over 200 publications published approximately 125 different reviews. Overall, they were more positive than those she received for her later work.Berliner, Michael S. "Reviews of We the Living". In . Anthem received little review attention, both for its first publication in England and for subsequent re-issues.Berliner, Michael S. "Reviews of Anthem". In .
Rand's first bestseller, The Fountainhead, received far fewer reviews than We the Living, and reviewers' opinions were mixed.Berliner, Michael S. "The Fountainhead Reviews". In . Lorine Pruette's positive review in The New York Times, which called the author "a writer of great power" who wrote "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly", was one that Rand greatly appreciated. There were other positive reviews, but Rand dismissed most of them for either misunderstanding her message or for being in unimportant publications. Some negative reviews said the novel was too long; others called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian".
Atlas Shrugged was widely reviewed, and many of the reviews were strongly negative.Berliner, Michael S. "The Atlas Shrugged Reviews". In . Atlas Shrugged received positive reviews from a few publications; however, Rand scholar Mimi Reisel Gladstein later wrote that "reviewers seemed to vie with each other in a contest to devise the cleverest put-downs", with reviews including comments that it was "written out of hate" and showed "remorseless hectoring and prolixity". Whittaker Chambers wrote what was later called the novel's most "notorious" review for the conservative magazine National Review. He accused Rand of supporting a godless system (which he related to that of the Soviets), claiming, "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard ... commanding: 'To a gas chamber—go!.
Rand's nonfiction received far fewer reviews than her novels. The tenor of the criticism for her first nonfiction book, For the New Intellectual, was similar to that for Atlas Shrugged. Philosopher Sidney Hook likened her certainty to "the way philosophy is written in the Soviet Union", and author Gore Vidal called her viewpoint "nearly perfect in its immorality". These reviews set the pattern for reaction to her ideas among liberal critics. Her subsequent books got progressively less review attention. |
Ayn Rand | Academic assessments of Rand's fiction | Academic assessments of Rand's fiction
Academic consideration of Rand as a literary figure during her life was limited. Mimi Reisel Gladstein could not find any scholarly articles about Rand's novels when she began researching her in 1973, and only three such articles appeared during the rest of the 1970s. Since her death, scholars of English and American literature have continued largely to ignore her work, although attention to her literary work has increased since the 1990s. Several academic book series about important authors cover Rand and her works, as do popular study guides like CliffsNotes and SparkNotes. In The Literary Encyclopedia entry for Rand written in 2001, John David Lewis declared that "Rand wrote the most intellectually challenging fiction of her generation." In 2019, Lisa Duggan described Rand's fiction as popular and influential on many readers, despite being easy to criticize for "her cartoonish characters and melodramatic plots, her rigid moralizing, her middle- to lowbrow aesthetic preferences... and philosophical strivings". |
Ayn Rand | Philosophy | Philosophy
Rand called her philosophy "Objectivism", describing its essence 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". She considered Objectivism a systematic philosophy and laid out positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy. |
Ayn Rand | Metaphysics and epistemology | Metaphysics and epistemology
In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion.Den Uyl, Douglas J. & Rasmussen, Douglas B. "Ayn Rand's Realism". In . Rand believed in free will as a form of agent causation and rejected determinism.Rheins, Jason G. "Objectivist Metaphysics: The Primacy of Existence". In .
Rand also related her aesthetics to metaphysics by defining art as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments". According to her, art allows philosophical concepts to be presented in a concrete form that can be grasped easily, thereby fulfilling a need of human consciousness. As a writer, the art form Rand focused on most closely was literature. In works such as The Romantic Manifesto and The Art of Fiction, she described Romanticism as the approach that most accurately reflects the existence of human free will.
In epistemology, Rand considered all knowledge to be based on forming higher levels of understanding from sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic. She described reason as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses".Salmieri, Gregory. "The Objectivist Epistemology". In . Rand rejected all claims of non-perceptual knowledge, including instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing. In her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Rand presented a theory of concept formation and rejected the analytic–synthetic dichotomy. She believed epistemology was a foundational branch of philosophy and considered the advocacy of reason to be the single most significant aspect of her philosophy.Salmieri, Gregory. "The Objectivist Epistemology". In .
Commentators, including Hazel Barnes, Nathaniel Branden, and Albert Ellis, have criticized Rand's focus on the importance of reason. Barnes and Ellis said Rand was too dismissive of emotion and failed to recognize its importance in human life. Branden said Rand's emphasis on reason led her to denigrate emotions and create unrealistic expectations of how consistently rational human beings should be. |
Ayn Rand | Ethics and politics | Ethics and politics
In ethics, Rand argued for rational and ethical egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should "exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself".Wright, Darryl. A Human Society': Rand's Social Philosophy". In . Rand referred to egoism as "the virtue of selfishness" in her book of that title. In it, she presented her solution to the is–ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of "man's survival qua man", which requires the use of a rational mind. She condemned ethical altruism as incompatible with the requirements of human life and happiness, and held the initiation of force was evil and irrational, writing in Atlas Shrugged that "Force and mind are opposites".
Rand's ethics and politics are the most criticized areas of her philosophy. Several authors, including Robert Nozick and William F. O'Neill in two of the earliest academic critiques of her ideas, said she failed in her attempt to solve the is–ought problem. Critics have called her definitions of egoism and altruism biased and inconsistent with normal usage. Critics from religious traditions oppose her atheism and her rejection of altruism.
Rand's political philosophy emphasized individual rights, including property rights. She considered laissez-faire capitalism the only moral social system because in her view it was the only system based on protecting those rights. Rand opposed collectivism and statism,Lewis, John David & Salmieri, Gregory. "A Philosopher on Her Times: Ayn Rand's Political and Cultural Commentary". In . which she considered to include many specific forms of government, such as communism, fascism, socialism, theocracy, and the welfare state.Ghate, Onkar. A Free Mind and a Free Market Are Corollaries': Rand's Philosophical Perspective on Capitalism". In . Her preferred form of government was a constitutional republic that is limited to the protection of individual rights. Although her political views are often classified as conservative or libertarian, Rand preferred the term "radical for capitalism". She worked with conservatives on political projects but disagreed with them over issues such as religion and ethics. Rand rejected anarchism as a naive theory based in subjectivism that would lead to collectivism in practice, and denounced libertarianism, which she associated with anarchism.
Several critics, including Nozick, have said her attempt to justify individual rights based on egoism fails.Miller, Fred D., Jr. & Mossoff, Adam. "Ayn Rand's Theory of Rights: An Exposition and Response to Critics". In Others, like libertarian philosopher Michael Huemer, have gone further, saying that her support of egoism and her support of individual rights are inconsistent positions.Miller, Fred D., Jr. & Mossoff, Adam. "Ayn Rand's Theory of Rights: An Exposition and Response to Critics". In Some critics, like Roy Childs, have said that her opposition to the initiation of force should lead to support of anarchism, rather than limited government. |
Ayn Rand | Relationship to other philosophers | Relationship to other philosophers
Except for Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and classical liberals, Rand was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her. Acknowledging Aristotle as her greatest influence, Rand remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's"—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand. In a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace, when asked where her philosophy came from, she responded: "Out of my own mind, with the sole acknowledgement of a debt to Aristotle, the only philosopher who ever influenced me."
In an article for the Claremont Review of Books, political scientist Charles Murray criticized Rand's claim that her only "philosophical debt" was to Aristotle. He asserted her ideas were derivative of previous thinkers such as John Locke and Friedrich Nietzsche. Rand took early inspiration from Nietzsche, and scholars have found indications of this in Rand's private journals. In 1928, she alluded to his idea of the "superman" in notes for an unwritten novel whose protagonist was inspired by the murderer William Edward Hickman.
There are other indications of Nietzsche's influence in passages from the first edition of We the Living, which Rand later revised,Loiret-Prunet, Valerie. "Ayn Rand and Feminist Synthesis: Rereading We the Living". In . and in her overall writing style.Sheaffer, Robert. "Rereading Rand on Gender in the Light of Paglia". In . By the time she wrote The Fountainhead, Rand had turned against Nietzsche's ideas, and the extent of his influence on her even during her early years is disputed. Rand's views also may have been influenced by the promotion of egoism among the Russian nihilists, including Chernyshevsky and Dmitry Pisarev, although there is no direct evidence that she read them.
Rand considered Immanuel Kant her philosophical opposite and "the most evil man in mankind's history". She believed his epistemology undermined reason and his ethics opposed self-interest.Salmieri, Gregory. "An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand". In . Philosophers George Walsh and Fred Seddon have argued she misinterpreted Kant and exaggerated their differences. She was critical of Plato and viewed his differences with Aristotle on questions of metaphysics and epistemology as the primary conflict in the history of philosophy.Lennox, James G. Who Sets the Tone for a Culture?' Ayn Rand's Approach to the History of Philosophy". In .
Rand's relationship with contemporary philosophers was mostly antagonistic. She was not an academic and did not participate in academic discourse. She was dismissive of critics and wrote about ideas she disagreed with in a polemical manner without in-depth analysis. Academic philosophers viewed her negatively and dismissed her as an unimportant figure who should not be considered a philosopher, or given any serious response. |
Ayn Rand | Early academic reaction | Early academic reaction
During Rand's lifetime, her work received little attention from academic scholars. In 1967, John Hospers discussed Rand's ethical ideas in the second edition of his textbook, An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis. In 1967, Hazel Barnes included a chapter critiquing Objectivism in her book An Existentialist Ethics. When the first full-length academic book about Rand's philosophy appeared in 1971, its author declared writing about Rand "a treacherous undertaking" that could lead to "guilt by association" for taking her seriously.
A few articles about Rand's ideas appeared in academic journals before her death in 1982, many of them in The Personalist. One of these was "On the Randian Argument" by libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick, who criticized her meta-ethical arguments. In the same journal, other philosophers argued that Nozick misstated Rand's case. In an 1978 article responding to Nozick, Douglas Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen defended her positions, but described her style as "literary, hyperbolic and emotional".
After her death, interest in Rand's ideas increased gradually. The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand, a 1984 collection of essays about Objectivism edited by Den Uyl and Rasmussen, was the first academic book about Rand's ideas published after her death. In one essay, political writer Jack Wheeler wrote that despite "the incessant bombast and continuous venting of Randian rage", Rand's ethics are "a most immense achievement, the study of which is vastly more fruitful than any other in contemporary thought".Wheeler, Jack. "Rand and Aristotle". In . In 1987, the Ayn Rand Society was founded as an affiliate of the American Philosophical Association.
In a 1995 entry about Rand in Contemporary Women Philosophers, Jenny A. Heyl described a divergence in how different academic specialties viewed Rand. She said that Rand's philosophy "is regularly omitted from academic philosophy. Yet, throughout literary academia, Ayn Rand is considered a philosopher." Writing in the 1998 edition of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, political theorist Chandran Kukathas summarized the mainstream philosophical reception of her work in two parts. He said most commentators view her ethical argument as an unconvincing variant of Aristotle's ethics, and her political theory "is of little interest" because it is marred by an "ill-thought out and unsystematic" effort to reconcile her hostility to the state with her rejection of anarchism. In 1999, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary academic journal devoted to the study of Rand and her ideas, was established. |
Ayn Rand | 21st-century academic reaction | 21st-century academic reaction
In 2009, historian Jennifer Burns identified "an explosion of scholarship" about Rand since 2000; however, as of that year, few universities included Rand or Objectivism as a philosophical specialty or research area. From 2002 to 2012, over 60 colleges and universities accepted grants from the charitable foundation of BB&T that required teaching Rand's ideas or works. In some cases, the grants were controversial or even rejected because of the requirement to teach about Rand.
In a 2010 essay for the Cato Institute, Huemer argued very few people find Rand's ideas convincing, especially her ethics. He attributed the attention she receives to her being a "compelling writer", especially as a novelist. In 2012, the Pennsylvania State University Press agreed to take over publication of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, and the University of Pittsburgh Press launched an "Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies" series based on the Society's proceedings. The Fall 2012 update to the entry about Rand in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy said that "only a few professional philosophers have taken her work seriously".
In 2012, political scientist Alan Wolfe dismissed Rand as a "nonperson" among academics, an attitude that writer Ben Murnane later described as "the traditional academic view" of Rand. In a 2018 article for Aeon, philosopher Skye C. Cleary wrote: "Philosophers love to hate Ayn Rand. It's trendy to scoff at any mention of her." However, Cleary said that because many people take Rand's ideas seriously, philosophers "need to treat the Ayn Rand phenomenon seriously" and provide refutations rather than ignoring her.
in 2020, Media critic Eric Burns said that "Rand is surely the most engaging philosopher of my lifetime", but "nobody in the academe pays any attention to her, neither as an author nor a philosopher". In 2020, the editor of a collection of critical essays about Rand said academics who disapproved of her ideas had long held "a stubborn resolve to ignore or ridicule" her work but that more were engaging with her work in recent years. In 2023, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies ceased publication. |
Ayn Rand | Legacy | Legacy |
Ayn Rand | Popular interest | Popular interest
thumb|upright|alt=Dust jacket from Atlas Shrugged depicting railroad tracks|Atlas Shrugged has sold more than 10 million copies.
With over 37million copies sold , Rand's books continue to be read widely. In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club asked club members to name the most influential book in their lives. Rand's Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice, after the Bible. Although Rand's influence has been greatest in the United States, there has been international interest in her work.
Rand's contemporary admirers included fellow novelists, like Ira Levin, Kay Nolte Smith and L. Neil Smith. She influenced later writers like Erika Holzer, Terry Goodkind, and comic book artist Steve Ditko. Rand provided a positive view of business and subsequently many business executives and entrepreneurs have admired and promoted her work. Businessmen such as John Allison of BB&T and Ed Snider of Comcast Spectacor have funded the promotion of Rand's ideas.
Television shows, movies, songs, and video games have referred to Rand and her works. Throughout her life she was the subject of many articles in popular magazines, as well as book-length critiques by authors such as the psychologist Albert Ellis and Trinity Foundation president John W. Robbins. Rand or characters based on her figure prominently in novels by American authors, including Kay Nolte Smith, Mary Gaitskill, Matt Ruff, and Tobias Wolff. Nick Gillespie, former editor-in-chief of Reason, remarked: "Rand's is a tortured immortality, one in which she's as likely to be a punch line as a protagonist. Jibes at Rand as cold and inhuman run through the popular culture."
Two movies have been made about Rand's life. A 1997 documentary film, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The Passion of Ayn Rand, a 1999 television adaptation of the book of the same name, won several awards. Rand's image appears on a 1999 U.S. postage stamp illustrated by artist Nick Gaetano.
Rand's works, most commonly Anthem or The Fountainhead, are sometimes assigned as secondary school reading.Salmieri, Gregory. "An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand". In . Since 2002, the Ayn Rand Institute has provided free copies of Rand's novels to teachers who promise to include the books in their curriculum. The Institute had distributed 4.5million copies in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2020. In 2017, Rand was added to the required reading list for the A Level Politics exam in the United Kingdom. |
Ayn Rand | Political influence | Political influence
Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian", Rand has had a continuing influence on right-wing politics and libertarianism. Rand is often considered one of the three most important women, along with Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson, in the early development of modern American libertarianism. David Nolan, one founder of the Libertarian Party, said that "without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist". In his history of libertarianism, journalist Brian Doherty described her as "the most influential libertarian of the twentieth century to the public at large". Political scientist Andrew Koppelman called her "the most widely read libertarian". Historian Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right".
The political figures who cite Rand as an influence are usually conservatives, often members of the Republican Party, despite Rand taking some atypical positions for a conservative, like being pro-choice and an atheist. She faced intense opposition from William F. Buckley Jr. and other contributors to the conservative National Review magazine, which published numerous criticisms of her writings and ideas. Nevertheless, a 1987 article in The New York Times called her the Reagan administration's "novelist laureate". Republican congressmen and conservative pundits have acknowledged her influence on their lives and have recommended her novels. She has influenced some conservative politicians outside the U.S., such as Sajid Javid in the United Kingdom, Siv Jensen in Norway, and Ayelet Shaked in Israel.
thumb|alt=Man holding a poster that says "I am John Galt"|A protester's sign at a 2009 Tea Party rally refers to John Galt, the hero of Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
The 2008 financial crisis renewed interest in her works, especially Atlas Shrugged, which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis. Opinion articles compared real-world events with the novel's plot. Signs mentioning Rand and her fictional hero John Galt appeared at Tea Party protests. There was increased criticism of her ideas, especially from the political left. Critics blamed the Great Recession on her support of selfishness and free markets, particularly through her influence on Alan Greenspan.
In 2015, Adam Weiner said that through Greenspan, "Rand had effectively chucked a ticking time bomb into the boiler room of the US economy". In 2019, Lisa Duggan said that Rand's novels had "incalculable impact" in encouraging the spread of neoliberal political ideas. In 2021, Cass Sunstein said Rand's ideas could be seen in the tax and regulatory policies of the Trump administration, which he attributed to the "enduring influence" of Rand's fiction. |
Ayn Rand | Objectivist movement | Objectivist movement
thumb|right|upright|alt=Photo of Leonard Peikoff|Rand's heir Leonard Peikoff co-founded the Ayn Rand Institute.
After the closure of the Nathaniel Branden Institute, the Objectivist movement continued in other forms. In the 1970s, Peikoff began delivering courses on Objectivism. In 1979, Peter Schwartz started a newsletter called The Intellectual Activist, which Rand endorsed. She also endorsed The Objectivist Forum, a bimonthly magazine founded by Objectivist philosopher Harry Binswanger, which ran from 1980 to 1987.
In 1985, Peikoff worked with businessman Ed Snider to establish the Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas and works. In 1990, after an ideological disagreement with Peikoff, David Kelley founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies, now known as The Atlas Society. In 2001, historian John P. McCaskey organized the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, which provides grants for scholarly work on Objectivism in academia. |
Ayn Rand | Selected works | Selected works
Fiction and drama
Night of January 16th (performed 1934, published 1968)
We the Living (1936, revised 1959)
Anthem (1938, revised 1946)
The Unconquered (performed 1940, published 2014)
The Fountainhead (1943)
Atlas Shrugged (1957)
The Early Ayn Rand (1984)
Ideal (1936, performed 1989)
Think Twice (1939)
Ideal (based on the eponymous play, 2015)
Non-fiction
Pola Negri (1925)
For the New Intellectual (1961)
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966, expanded 1967)
The Romantic Manifesto (1969, expanded 1975)
The New Left (1971, expanded 1975)
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1979, expanded 1990)
Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982)
Letters of Ayn Rand (1995)
Journals of Ayn Rand (1997) |
Ayn Rand | Notes | Notes |
Ayn Rand | References | References |
Ayn Rand | Works cited | Works cited
Reprinted from Esquire, July 1961.
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Ayn Rand | Further reading | Further reading
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