[dk]

I don't recall how she treated the fundamental questions of ethics in Atlas Shrugged but you might find her 'The Objectivist Ethics' interesting (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand...). Here she presents her ideas on ethics fairly systematically, starting with questions like why man needs a code of ethics, what are values, and why does man need them.