All the main positive characters in Atlas Shrugged are great minds. Dagny Taggart is a brilliant businesswoman/engineer who runs a transcontinental railroad superbly. Hank Rearden is a productive genius of the steel industry and an extraordinary metallurgist who invents a new material that's vastly superior to steel. Francisco d'Anconia is a prodigy who masters every task as quickly as it's presented to him, independently develops a crude version of differential equations at age 12, and invents a new kind of copper smelter. Ellis Wyatt is an innovator of the oil industry who creates an advanced method of extracting oil from shale rock. Ragnar Danneskjöld is a brilliant philosopher, and Hugh Akston, his teacher, is the last great advocate of reason. Above all towers John Galt, a philosopher, scientist, inventor, statesman, and man of superlative genius and accomplishment who, in real life, can be compared only to the greatest minds of human history. The heroes in Atlas Shrugged all dramatize the novel's theme: The mind is mankind's tool of survival.
In Atlas Shrugged, every advance that makes human life on earth possible is a product of the reasoning mind. The creation of the John Galt Line requires Dagny's engineering knowledge, the creation of Rearden Metal requires Rearden's understanding of metallurgy, and the invention of Galt's motor requires his command of physics. All inventions, breakthroughs, and innovations are creations of the mind, including the production of items that human beings require for day-to-day survival. Atlas Shrugged reminds us that the ability to successfully grow food involves knowledge of agricultural science; building houses relies on comprehension of architecture, engineering, and mathematics; and curing diseases requires knowledge of medicine. If man is to resolve various forms of mental illness, he must know psychology. If he is to establish a free society, he must understand the principles of political philosophy. If man is to avert war, or even personal conflict, he must be able to negotiate his differences, which requires reason. Every value that human life depends on is a product of the reasoning mind. This idea is Ayn Rand's thesis in Atlas Shrugged.
