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FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957
mingled together, as when she wondered, if perhaps, “the rational faculty
is the dominant characteristic of the better species, the Superman.” 36
The way Rand integrated reason into her earlier ideas demonstrated
her strong drive for consistency. She labored to defi ne reason as inextricably
linked to individuality, asserting, “The rational faculty is an attribute
of the individual.” Men could share the result of their thinking but
not the process of thought itself, she argued. And since man’s survival
depended on his own thought, individuals must be left free. Rationality
thus connected to laissez-faire capitalism, the only economic system
that sought to maximize individual freedom.
Placing rationality at the heart of her philosophy also began to shift
the grounding of Rand’s ethics. In her early work independence had
been the basic criterion of value. Now she wrote, “All the actions based
on, proceeding from, in accordance with man’s nature as a rational
being are good. All the actions that contradict it are evil.” Rand was feeling
her way toward a connection she would make explicit in later years,
the equation of the moral and the rational. “In other words,” she wrote,
“the intelligent man is the moral man if he acts as an intelligent man,
i.e., in accordance with the nature of his rational faculty.” Even selfi shness,
once her primary standard of morality, was beginning to recede
behind rationality. 37
After several months of intense work on “The Moral Basis of
Individualism” Ayn and Frank made their fi rst trip back to New York.
She was eager to visit Paterson and immerse herself once more in the
world of East Coast libertarianism. Rand’s pilgrimage was part of a
steady stream of traffi c between conservative nodes on the East and
West Coasts. Rand had fi nally met Henry Hazlitt, the husband of her
former Paramount supervisor, Frances Hazlitt, when he paid a visit
to California. Now that she was in New York Henry introduced her to
Ludwig von Mises, who had recently arrived in the United States. Mises,
a gentleman of the old school who did not expect women to be intellectuals,
was particularly impressed by Rand’s interest in economics. He
considered The Fountainhead an important contribution to their cause,
telling Henry Hazlitt she was the most courageous man in America.” 38
Unfazed by Mises’s sexism, Rand delighted in the compliment.
On their way back from New York Rand fulfi lled a long held
dream and paid a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s compound Taliesin in
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