I found Rand to be somewhat of a reductivist also, which obviously accounts for her labeling Nietzsche an "irrationalist." The issue of objectivity and reality (mentioned in some of the above posts) is simplistic and that's what is so important about it. Actually this is one of the points where I saw Nietzsche and Rand converge. Rand refers to A is A in an attempt to anchor humanity in the present world. Nietzsche does the same thing in Twilight of the Idols, in the section "How the 'real world' at last became a myth." He rejects Plato's forms and being, and the dualism of the 'apparent' vs. 'real' worlds. It has nothing to do with the physical/metaphysical 'flux' and mutability of the world, but rather with the idea that THIS is the only world. Obviously the two are very different in other respects, but I see so much similarity in this area. ~Erinn