Welcome to New Ideal

Ayn Rand’s goal as a novelist and philosopher was to “define and present the image of an ideal man—specifically, the image of what man can be and ought to be.” To do it, she needed to discover a new philosophy and define a new moral code. “My philosophy, in essence,” Rand once said, “is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

At New Ideal, we explore pressing cultural issues from the perspective of Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism.

Here you will not find the categories that define today’s intellectual world. We are neither of the right nor the left, but we reject “the center.” We are atheists, but we are for reason, not merely against religion. We champion science, but also free will. We are staunch individualists, but also moralists—embracing a new kind of morality, in which selfishness is a virtue and none of us is bound to be our brother’s keeper. We don’t just oppose “big government,” we eagerly support the right kind of government—one limited to protecting individual rights. We are for real freedom—freedom that includes a woman’s right to abortion, an individual’s right to speak his mind on any subject, and a businessman’s right to create, unencumbered by the crushing weight of our expanding regulatory state. We are neither hawks nor doves. Instead, we support a rational foreign policy, directed exclusively by America’s interests in protecting its citizens’ lives and freedom. We are unabashed laissez-faire capitalists. We champion both the true entrepreneurs who create new technology and vast wealth and the true artists who create novel ways of illuminating the human experience.

Reason. Individualism. Capitalism. Properly understood, all are new moral ideals. All are essential to human life, to the individual’s pursuit of happiness, to living the kinds of lives each of us should live—and can if we try.

—The Senior Editors

Editors

Onkar Ghate

Onkar Ghate, PhD in philosophy, is a senior fellow and chief philosophy officer at the Ayn Rand Institute. A contributing author to many books on Rand’s ideas and philosophy, he is a senior editor of New Ideal and a member of the Ayn Rand University faculty.

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Elan Journo

Elan Journo is a senior fellow and vice president of content at the Ayn Rand Institute. His recent books include Illuminating Ayn Rand (2022), Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11 (2021) and What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2018). Elan is a senior editor of New Ideal.

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Keith Lockitch

Keith Lockitch, PhD in physics, is a senior fellow and vice president of education at the Ayn Rand Institute. He focuses primarily on the intersection of science with current events and policy issues. He is a senior editor of New Ideal and a member of the Ayn Rand University faculty.

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Ben Bayer

Ben Bayer, PhD in philosophy, is a fellow and director of content at the Ayn Rand Institute and the author of Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct (2022). Ben is a managing editor of New Ideal and a member of the Ayn Rand University faculty.

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Ziemowit Gowin

Ziemowit Gowin, PhD candidate in philosophy, is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and web editor of New Ideal.

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Authors

Brandon Lisi

Brandon Lisi, MA in history, is an assistant archivist and researcher at the Ayn Rand Institute and a graduate of Ayn Rand University.

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Mike Mazza

Mike Mazza, PhD in philosophy, is an associate fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and a member of the Ayn Rand University faculty.

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Ricardo Pinto

Ricardo Pinto, BA in philosophy, is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.

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Dan Schwartz

Dan Schwartz, PhD in philosophy and formerly a professor, is a visiting fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.

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Aaron Smith

Aaron Smith, PhD in philosophy, is an instructor and fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute where he lectures and develops educational content for the Institute’s intellectual training and outreach programs. He is a member of the Ayn Rand University faculty.

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Nikos Sotirakopoulos

Nikos Sotirakopoulos, PhD in political sociology, is a visiting fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, director of Ayn Rand Institute Europe, and a member of the Ayn Rand University faculty. His latest book is Identity Politics and Tribalism: The New Culture Wars.

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