If I were asked to summarize the philosophy of Objectivism in a single sentence, I would say that Objectivism holds:
a) that existence, reality, the external world, is what it is, independent of man's consciousness, independent of anyone's knowledge, judgment, beliefs, hopes, wishes or fears - that facts are facts, that A is A, that things are what they are;
b) that reason, the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses...