Society

Isn't capitalism, which is based on individualism, opposed to man living in society?

Capitalism is not opposed to an individual living in a society, so long as he is free from the initiation of force by others.

To what kind of society is capitalism opposed?

Capitalism is opposed to slave states. Capitalism is only opposed to man living in society as a non-individual amorphous member of a collective, i.e. as a slave. Individualism holds that it is much better for man to live on a deserted island, than to live in a society where he is nothing more than a pawn ready to be sacrificed to the altar of the "public good".

What is a proper society?

Man can gain immense values (such as knowledge and trade) by living with other men in society, if that society is a proper society. A proper society is one where each and every man holds as an absolute the fact that every man is an end to himself, and that other men are not his pawns, nor is he theirs, or in the famous words of the hero of Atlas Shrugged, John Galt,

"I swear by my life and by my love of it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

Such is the credo of the individualist -- the independent mind -- that recognizes no authority higher than its own judgment of the truth. Since capitalism is based upon the only system that leaves each and every man free to act independently -- by his own mind -- it is the only moral system.



Suggested Reading:

• The Objectivist Ethics in Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness. 
• Faith and Force: Destroyer's of The Modern World in Ayn Rand's Philosophy: Who Needs It
• What is Capitalism? by Ayn Rand, in Chapter 1 of Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.