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Objectivism has two main themes. The primary theme is a focus on the sanctity of the individual human being and his capacity to reason. In Rand's own words:
The other theme, from which we get the name "Objectivism", is Rand's trichotomy among the "intrinsic", the "subjective", and the "objective". Neither concepts nor values are "intrinsic" to external reality, but neither are they merely "subjective" (by which Rand means "arbitrary" rather than "subject-dependent"). Rather, Rand contends that properly formed concepts and values are objective in the sense that they meet the specific needs of the individual human person. This theme thus follows from the first.
The key tenets of the Objectivist metaphysics are (1) the Primacy of Existence, (2) the Law of Identity ( Aristotle's "A is A"), and (3) the Axiom of Self-Consciousness. The Primacy of Existence states that reality (the universe, that which is) is prior to awareness --- that reality exists independent of acts of human consciousness. The Law of Identity states that anything that exists is qualtatively determinate, i.e., has a fixed, finite nature. The Axiom of Self-Consciousness names the (Cartesian) fact that one is conscious. These three propositions are held to be self-evident and axiomatic.
The Primacy of Existence says that reality is objective: the universe exists independent of the particular psychological states (beliefs, desires, etc.) of individual cognizers. Objectivism holds that this fact is axiomatic, because it is self-evident and cannot be denied without self-contradiction. Objectivism distinguishes this view from an alternative view - the Primacy of Consciousness (this view was allegedly held by René Descartes, George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, and G. W. F. Hegel). The Primacy of Consciousness holds that consciousness is prior to existence, that consciousness is actually constitutive of all apparent objects of consciousness. Put differently, it is the view that one could (in principle) be conscious exclusively and merely of one's self. Objectivism denies this: it holds that objects present themselves to consciousness in such a way that they must be genuinely "other," i.e., non-identical to one's own consciousness. This axiom is the basis of the Objectivist refutation of both theism and idealism. Thought Objectivism grants that some paritcular existents are mental (e.g., minds, thoughts, desires, intentions), it holds that, if what fundamentally exists is independent of any consciousness, then the universe as a whole is neither the creation of a divine consciousness nor itself mental. (This argument is laid out in Chapter 1 of Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand).
The Law of Identity states that everything that exists has an identity. In saying this, Objectivism is asserting more than the tautology of self-identity (i.e., "everything is identical to itself"). It is asserting that everything that exists has a specific nature, consisting of various properties or characteristics (as Rand wrote, "to be is to be something in particular"). Moreover, Objectivism holds that the properties and characteristics in question must exist each in a specific measure or degree; in this respect "identity" also means finitude. According to Objectivism, then, everything that exists has a specific finite nature. To have a specific, finite nature, is incompatible with having a self-contradictory nature. Therefore, the whole of reality is noncontradictory; though contradictions might exist in thought, there are no contradictions in the real world.
Further, each thing's specific nature determines how it acts; this principle is Objectivism's formulation of the Law of Causality. Contemporary philosophers define the Law of Causality differently, e.g., as "Every event has a cause." In addition, Objectivism rejects this definition because it leads to paradoxes (i.e., Kantian "antinomies") concerning free will and cosmology. A further implication of the Objectivist account of causality concerns explanation: since genuine explanation is causal, nature can only be explained in terms of nature (i.e., without reference to the supernatural).
Objectivism rejects the mind-body dichotomy, holding that the mind and body are an integrated whole. This doctrine may amount merely to the rejection of any forced choice between Marxian materialism (which held that the material factors of production determine consciousness) and Christian views to the effect that reality is fundamentally spiritual. In any case, Objectivism does not propose or favor any particular metaphysical or scientific explanation of the relationship between mind and body in the philosophy of mind. (Though Harry Binswanger, a prominent Objectivist philosopher, argues in his lecture course, "The Metaphysics of Consciousness," in favor of substance dualism; he criticizes the property dualism of David Chalmers and the emergentism of John Searle). The rejection of the mind-body dichotomy amounts chiefly to the assertion that there are both mental existents and physical existents, and existents of both sorts have genuine causal powers (whether entities of either sort, or their causal powers, can be reductively explained is another matter).
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