Howard Roark, Ego, and the Moral Basis of Value Creation

Introduction: Ego as Moral Foundation

Howard Roark believes that value creation — and what it demands of those who create — is crucially important from a moral perspective because of the value of the Ego. The Ego is the reason for Rand's hero, the very reason for being. It is a value grounded in self-actualization, and it is ultimately the same concept that animates the composer Richard Halley's sense of why he creates music: he composes because he wants to exercise his mind and encounter another individual who appreciates his creation in the same cerebral way. He produces the music and exchanges it for the mental appreciation that the discerning listener gives in return.

The reason Howard Roark considers value creation morally crucial is that he places the Ego front and center as the moral purpose of life. One's Ego is the driving force of reality, and to betray the Ego is to betray the moral order of the universe — it is a moral crime. Thus, when Roark dynamites his building rather than allow his vision to be tainted by a lesser artist's alterations, his actions are, in his own judgment, morally correct. He judges them from the standpoint of the Ego, which serves as his moral arbiter, and he acts out of a militant adherence to the moral law that the Ego represents.

Roark's Artistic Vision and Moral Commitment

The Ego is the force that provides the vision — the artistic sight from which Roark's architecture emerges. Changing the original vision, distorting the image, altering the architectural plans, as happens with Roark's design at the novel's climax, is, in his eyes, equivalent to aborting a half-formed child: it is murder. To prevent that murder, he sabotages those he sees as its perpetrators and dynamites the structure. Prior to this act, Rand describes Roark standing across the street, watching the architectural adulterers destroy his design. She portrays him as though he stands before a firing squad — as if witnessing his plan dismantled before his eyes were tantamount to facing death itself.

For Roark, value creation is an act of life — a moral act that constitutes life-giving. If it is immoral to take a life, then it is equally immoral for the architects to destroy the life of his artistic vision, and it is moral for him to fight back. What this process demands of the artist is total commitment. Just as a child must be born, the artist must undergo the full labor of creation before ultimately giving birth to the concept in reality.

The way Halley articulates this in Atlas Shrugged, in "The Nature of the Artist" speech, echoes the same principle. Halley asserts that the "shining vision" of value creation belongs not only to artists and authors but also to "men who discover how to use oil, how to run a mine, how to build an electric motor" — in other words, all men of industry who create something anew, who add value to the world through their Ego's impulse to pursue a vision that presents itself to their minds (Rand). In this way, Rand extends her philosophy beyond the arts, encompassing every domain in which a human being transforms an inner vision into an outer reality.

Value Creation as a Life-Giving Act

There is no difference, according to Rand, between the way a conductor approaches a symphony and the way an architect approaches a building: both proceed from the standpoint of the Ego, which exercises a moral claim on the universe by the sheer fact of its existence. The moral duty of the person who holds a vision is to follow it, to adhere to it, and to bring it to fruition without compromise — and then to offer that value to the world in exchange for the cerebral acknowledgment of the consumer.

Conclusion: The Exchange of Value

Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. NY: Penguin, 2005. Print.

Rand, Ayn. "The Nature of an Artist." ARI. Web. 9 Sep 2016.