Rand's philosophy has been the object of criticism by prominent intellectuals. In the essay "On the Randian Argument,"[115] philosopher Robert Nozick is sympathetic to Rand's political conclusions, but does not think her arguments justify them. In particular, his essay criticizes her foundational argument in ethics, which states that one's own life is, for each individual, the ultimate value because it makes all other values possible. He argues that to make her argument sound, one needs to explain why someone could not rationally prefer dying and having no values. Thus, her attempt to defend the morality of selfishness is, in his view, essentially an instance of begging the question. Nozick also argues that Rand's solution to David Hume's famous is-ought problem is unsatisfactory; an academic debate has developed around this issue, with scholars coming down on both sides.[116][117]
William F. Buckley, Jr. called her philosophy "stillborn."[118] Psychologist Albert Ellis has argued that adherence to Objectivism can result in hazardous psychological effects.[119] After his expulsion from Rand's circle, Nathaniel Branden accused Rand and her followers of "destructive moralism," something he reports having engaged in himself when he was associated with Rand, but which he now claims "subtly encourages repression, self-alienation, and guilt."[120]
Commentators have noted that the Objectivist epistemology is incomplete.[121] The notion of proof for propositions remains sketchy.[122] Rand did not work out a philosophy of science, as she herself acknowledged.[123] The relationship between Objectivist epistemology and cognitive science remains unclear; Rand, Peikoff, and Kelley have all made extensive claims about human cognition and its development which appear to belong to psychology, yet Rand asserted that philosophy is logically prior to psychology and in no way dependent on it.[124][125]
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