David Kelley (Born 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American philosopher and writer. He is best known for his advocacy on behalf of Objectivism, a philosophical system pioneered by philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand.

Kelley was trained as a philosopher: he received his BA and MA in philosophy from Brown University, where he studied with the American rationalist, Roderick Chisholm. He received his PhD. from Princeton University, where his advisor was the American postmodernist, Richard Rorty. He taught philosophy and cognitive science for 10 years at Vassar College before embarking on a career as a writer for Barron's Magazine. In 1990, he left writing to start The Institute for Objectivist Studies (later renamed The Objectivist Center), a non-profit dedicated to cultural advocacy on behalf of "reason, individualism, achievement, and capitalism." Kelley now writes mostly on politics and current events.

Kelley's books include works in politics (A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State), ethics (Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence), epistemology (The Evidence of the Senses), and informal logic (The Art of Reasoning). With Roger Donway, he co-authored "Laissez Parler: Freedom in the Electronic Media," a critique of government regulation.

The "Schism"

Kelley is known, in particular, for his critique of the orthodox Objectivist movement, which was set out in a pamphlet, "Truth and Toleration" (later republished as the book The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand). This critique subsequently split the movement into two factions.

One faction (led by Kelley, himself) declared Objectivism to be an "open system" amenable to revision and addition. Simultaneously, this faction held that cognitive error can result from many factors and need not involve moral culpability.

The other faction (led by Leonard Peikoff) declared Objectivism to be a "closed system" containing only the works written or sanctioned by Rand during her lifetime

This "schism" has persisted to the present day. Some who subscribe to Kelley's brand of open-system Objectivism call themselves "Neo-objectivists" (though Kelley does not use this term). This split also led to Kelley founding The Objectivist Center, a rival to Peikoff's Ayn Rand Institute.