Friday, January 17, 2003

Larry's Response to My Post about Ayn Rand John Crane: > I like [Ayn Rand's] philosophy and generally agree > with it, but she's leaving some vital elements out > of the mix, or perhaps I am missing something. Well, I would guess you probably have not read too much of her works just yet. :) One of her more well known non-fiction works is "The Virtue of Selfishness" which actually is a good book to read if one can get past the title. The following quote is from www.aynrand.org. I remember reading it in one of her works, but don't recollect which one at the moment: "My philosohpy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." - Ayn Rand She wrote several novels. Two of them (The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) sell large numbers of copies every year and have done so for well over a quarter of a century although almost completely unadvertised - selling mostly I would guess by "word of mouth."). Mainstream critics and philosophers have pretty much unanimously ridiculed her and her works. However as novels they are very, very good if you like large "romantic" novels in the style of Victor Hugo (one of her heroes). It also helps to be young, rational, and not much into any religious sort of views. :) She wrote a small novelette called "Anthem" which I especially recommend. It is a very short read and quite inspiring in several respects. You also have to understand that she was a rabid atheist and would consider our views and opinions as the most ludicrous mysticism imaginable. :) She had absolutely no patience with, or acceptance of any religious or non-rational views whatsoever and considered people who held them as suffering from self-induced mental illness. In retrospect, and having had the opportunity to study her views, and then to discover other views, including those of J.J. Dewey, I see her role in history (and it is a very significant role in the "battle of ideas" in my opinion) was to teach attitudes that would allow many to make the first step in removing the mark of the beast from their forehead. For many it is necessary to reject all authority, and especially the authority of worldy and beastly authorities, before they can find the only one justifiable authority. While Ayn Rand's work doesn't help much with the last point, it has been very instrumentable (in my opinion) in helping many people learn to question beastly authorities - an important first step. The resemblance of some of Ayn Rand's philosophy to that of J.J. Dewey's is primarily in some basic points of metaphysics, and in reality those points are really points made by Aristotle, and which she elaborated on. Other than that they bear little resemblance. :) best regards, lk www.theNewAgeSite.com 3:54:20 PM    comment []

Is objectivism compatible with the teachings of JJ Dewey? The following was posted on the Keys of Knowledge List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Keysters/message/4292 "To exist is to be something, as distinguished from the nothing of non-existence, it is to be an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes. Centuries ago, the man who was - no matter what his errors - the greatest of your philosophers, has stated the formula defining the concept of existence and the rule of all knowledge: A is A. A thing is itself. You have never grasped the meaning of his statement. I am here to complete it. Existence is Identity. Consciousness is Identification. "For The New Intellectual", Ayn Rand (1961) "The ability to regard entities as units is man's distinctive method of cognition, which other living species are unable to follow. ... A unit is an existent regarded as a separate member of a group of two or more similiar members." "Introduction To Objectivist Epistemology", Ayn Rand (1977) There are times when you sound amazingly like the late Ayn Rand. :) lk www.theNewAgeSite.com But, I found the following quotations from the Ayn Rand website. How can you reconcile the two philosophies? http://www.aynrand.org/objectivism/io.html My philosophy, Objectivism, holds that: 1. Reality exists as an objective absolute. Facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears. 2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival. 3. Man - every man - is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life. "Introducing Objectivism", Ayn Rand JJ teaches that the highest authority one can have for perceiving reality is the Soul, the "god within", the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. He also teaches that the highest moral purpose in life is to discover the Will of God and to align oneself with that Will. Man's reason is fully competent to know the facts of reality. Reason, the conceptual faculty, is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses. Reason is man's only means of acquiring knowledge.  Thus Objectivism rejects mysticism (any acceptance of faith or feeling as a means of knowledge), and it rejects skepticism (the claim that certainty or knowledge is impossible). "Essentials of Objectivism" JJ teaches that higher knowledge may be obtained meditation and contemplation, through the Soul, through intuition, and through the Oneness Principle. "The mystic seeks supernatural knowledge; the skeptic denies the possibility of any knowledge. The mystic claims that man's means of cognition are inadequate and that true knowledge requires illumination from God; the skeptic agrees, then throws out God. The mystic upholds absolutes, which he defends by an appeal to faith; the skeptic answers that he has no faith. The mystic's faith, ultimately, is in his feelings, which he regards as a pipeline to the beyond; the skeptic drops the beyond, then follows his feelings, which, he says, are the only basis of action in an unknowable world. "Feelings are products of men's ideas and value-judgments, held consciously or subconsciously. Feelings are not tools of cognition or a guide to action." "The philosophic source of this viewpoint and its major advocate in the history of philosophy is Aristotle. Its opponents are all the other major traditions, including Platonism, Christianity, and German idealism. Directly or indirectly, these traditions uphold the notion that consciousness is the creator of reality. The essence of this notion is the denial of the axiom that existence exists." JJ teaches that the Christ is the head of the hierarchy of divine masters and is the World Teacher. While his teachings do not embrace any particular branch of organized Christianity, he does teach the divine nature of Christ based on teachings from the Bible and elsewhere. "The mind at birth (as Aristotle first stated) is tabula rasa; there are no innate ideas. The senses are man's primary means of contact with reality; they give him the precondition of all subsequent knowledge, the evidence that something is. What the something is he discovers on the conceptual level of awareness." "The Philosophy of Objectivism: A Brief Summary", Dr. Leonard Peikoff JJ teaches the concept of multiple lifetimes, and that while one enters reincarnation with a loss of memory, the abilities gained and the knowledge learned in prior lifetimes, gives the individual so much the advantage in regaining the same knowledge in the current lifetime.         9:15:43 AM    comment []

For truth is true, and nothing else is true Consider this quote from A Course in Miracles: "For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known." ACIM Workbook Page 257 8:25:12 AM    comment []