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Question: Is Objectivism bound to what Ayn Rand said, or can certain parts of it be further developed by other philosophers?

Answer: This is an issue that has divided the Objectivist movement.

The Atlas Society is founded on the principle that Objectivism is an open system of ideas, founded by Ayn Rand but open to further development, revision, and extension by rational thinkers with a solid understanding of her ideas. In The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand (available to students for free), TAS founder and executive director David Kelley outlines the key ideas that make Objectivism distinctive as a system, and discusses the reasons for regarding Objectivism as an open system. Those remarks were composed in response to an attack on Kelley by Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand's heir, in which Peikoff attempted to defend the principle that Objectivism is simply the brand name for whatever philosophical thought of Ayn Rand's that has been recorded.

Objectivism is an open system on three crucial grounds. First, and least important, is history. There is no philosophical system in existence that was laid down in stone for all time by its founder. There are too many issues for one thinker to exhaustively treat in his lifetime, error is probable in any detailed, extensive piece of work, and new issues and facts get called to our attention as time goes on.

Second, and more important, Rand's own writings in philosophy are rather sketchy. Relatively little of what she wrote expounded her theory (as in Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, for example). She wrote a great deal of striking cultural criticism and life-changing fiction instead. There were few major issues in philosophy that she covered in any depth. She left us with the outline of a system, full of revolutionary insights and brilliant in the integration of its ideas, but one for which much filling-in, extension, and application remains to be done.

And doing that filling-in reveals the third, and most crucial point. If Objectivism has worth, it is as a true system of ideas. Delving into the fundamentals of the system to explicate and elaborate on them, one can find places where some emendation is needed, or additional points need to be made. You can see The Logical Structure of Objectivism draft, by myself and David Kelley, for some instances. Ultimately, Objectivism is either a living, growing, true philosophy for living on earth, or it is a moribund dogma better suited to a history of Rand's life than to any history being lived today.

Objectivism is an open system, but that does not make Objectivism simply whatever any self-described "Objectivist" says it is. Objectivism is the logical outgrowth of Ayn Rand's philosophic ideas as applied to new questions, new examinations, and new facts and issues. Any idea in Objectivism is integrated logically with the other ideas in Objectivism and with the facts. And Objectivism is formulated in accordance with a distinctive method, the method of systematic thinking and reasoning in essentials.

Who decides what is the authorized doctrine of Objectivism? It's like every other truth: Each of us must decide for himself, based on the arguments he knows and the facts he integrates. Who decides? You do, for you. If there are authorities in Objectivism, they will be authorities to you respected by you for your reasons, by your rational judgment, in accordance with objective standards of evaluation.

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