Love as a Business Deal - The Philosophy of Ayn Rand

"Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency. And in love, the currency is virtue. You love people not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for the values, the virtues, which they have achieved in their own character.” 

- Ayn Rand

The Philosophy of Objectivism was initially developed by the writer-philosopher Ayn Rand notably in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

It would be contriving if not difficult to explain the whole philosophical system in an article (which would mean condensing most of Rand's body of work in a 1,000 word essay) but I will try my best to give what I understand of Objectivism on the context of love and happiness.

Objectivism as a philosophical system has been ignored if not totally rejected by academic scholars and philosophers but it has gained popularity among people who fight for freedom and liberty because it supports free minds and a free society.

It is often compared to the virtue of selflessness (altruism) which has been the central virtue by most religions, notably that of the Christian World. In fact, objectivism sees altruism as evil.

The principal tenets of this philosophy is that:

1. Reality is objective - it is what it is and we can't will it to be something else.

2. Reason - is the absolute. It  is all we have and need. Being the constant, for anything to be logical there should be no contradictions

3. Morality in objectivism is the  pursuit of selfish happiness.

Objectivism captures attention in its definition of morality as the pursuit of selfish happiness. This is against everything that we have believed and have taught by most great and influential thinkers in history that selflessness is good.

In an interview with Mike Wallace on February 25, 1959, Rand explains her philosophy in the context of love and happiness.

"You don‘t love causes. You don’t love everybody indiscriminately. You love only those who deserve it."