Objectivism's philosophy of man begins with the fact that man is a being of volitional consciousness: man is the one animal who has to choose to be conscious, to use his mind. Man is a rational animal, and reason is his only guide to knowledge, reason being that faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses.

The Contradiction in Objectivism, Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought, (Spring 1968) Vol. IV, No. 1