What is Capitalism? Summary and Analysis

Rand begins this selection by discussing the disintegration of philosophy. The disintegration begins in the nineteenth century and leads to a collapse in the twentieth century. Science, according to Rand, is collapsing. Scientists who cannot interpret their own data are leading to the renewal of a period of primitive mysticism. To Rand this is evident in psychology and political economy. Psychologists do not consider man conscious when they study his behavior. In political economy, the experts do not pay any attention to man when they study social systems.

The criteria for studying various areas of knowledge come from philosophy. The study of political economy is defined as a study of how scarce resources are used. It does not seek to define who owns these resources and they are more or less treated as communal. From that point...