| | In response to my question, Mike wrote:
The writings of Ayn Rand resonate VERY strongly with a percentage of people, numbering in the millions, on the first read. While not being able to explicitly state their philosophy before reading AR, these people are already objectivists, don't you think? How does one account for human progress up to the twentieth century without attributing it to an undercurrent of belief, in certain people, in the very principles explicated by Ayn Rand and objectivism?
I think that one could make an argument, as Ayn Rand did, that there was an implicit Aristotelianism in that progress, and on this, I would agree wholeheartedly. But it's quite a different proposition to claim that those who participated in human progress were Objectivists. Objectivism, as such, didn't exist prior to Rand's explication of it, even if certain ideas connected to Objectivism (realism, egoism, individualism, capitalism) existed in some form as part of other systems of thought. One can argue that many people, prior to Rand's explication of the philosophy, had a certain tacit adherence to some "Objectivist" principles. And, in the 20th century, those who had that tacit adherence may have been predisposed toward her work.
But all of this is fundamentally different from saying that people were "Objectivists" in the specific way that Rand meant it. If anything, I'd say most people---prior to 1957 and even today---are people of mixed premises. The only difference is that now, we have the benefit of having in Rand a philosopher who checked those premises fundamentally and who pointed to a thoroughly integrated and radical alternative.
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