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Ayn Rand was a Russian conservative philosopher, considered by her followers to be the greatest philosopher of all time, and by ignorant [[Marxist]]s to be a fool. Other contenders for the title of greatest conservative philosopher are [[Kant]] and [[Aristotle]].  Rand believed she had rediscovered Aristotle after centuries of neglect (she was apparently ignorant of the whole of [[mediaeval]] scholastic philosophy), and conservative [[science fiction]] author [[Norman Spinrad]] wrote ''The World of Null-A'', imagining a nightmare scenario in which Rand had not rediscovered Aristotle.  Rand's nickname was "Avida Dollars", because (contrary to [[Christian]] morality) she believed that making money for yourself was the supreme good. This led her to reject Kant's [[categorical imperative]], opposing it on the grounds that Aristotelian logic made [[synthetic a priori]] statements meaningless.  Rand called her philosophy "[[objectivism]]", because she didn't know the name was already taken for another philosophical concept.

'''Ayn Rand''' (1905-1982) was an American philosopher and novelist, who used her novels to promote her philosophy, known as [[Objectivism]]. Her best-known novels are ''Atlas Shrugged'' and '"The Fountainhead.''