Ayn Rand’s Ethics of Rational Selfishness

Abstract

Postmodernism could be described as the period that human thought entered after the Second World War; it embodied a set of attitudes, values, beliefs and theories about what it meant to be living in the late 20th century.¹ Lyotard,² a leading figure in the postmodernist movement appealed that the “grand narratives” (Universal theories) of Western culture should be rejected because they had lost all credibility, regardless of what mode of unification they use, whether a speculative narrative or a narrative of emancipation.³ Traditionally, grand narratives have helped to direct cultural practices, thereby standing as authorities in guiding human thought.