One
Let us all nod our heads sagely . . .
The Axiom of Existence: “Existence exists.”
The first axiom states that something other than one’s own consciousness exists. If it did not, according to Rand, consciousness itself would be an impossibility. Rand believes that this principle is self-evident (its truth is given in perceptual experience) and such that any attempt to refute it implicitly assumes it. This axiom entails metaphysical realism, the view that things are what they are independently of the mental states (beliefs, desires, etc.) of individual cognizers.
— exposition of Ayn Rand
Now . . . you tell me. I think I’ve just been told that a tautology entails “metaphysical realism”. In other words, if you’ve ever scratched your head wondering if maybe you haven’t lived your life in a dream, or in the Matrix, you can rest assured you have not, because, well, “existence exists” and whatnot. This is heady stuff! Ice cream headspike heady.
Moving on . . .
That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call ‘free will’ is your mind’s freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom. This is the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and character.
— Ayn Rand herself
I enjoy being told that my character is “determined” by my “only freedom” (drum roll please): the freedom to not think. Self-improvement with a good mallet. Well, it worked for Harrison Ford in “Regarding Henry”, though he needed a bullet.
On the list of sentences I get a real kick out of, the first was pointed out by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison: the Frugal Gourmet reminding us that “Irish immigrants came to this country wishing to maintain their love for the potato.” But, “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,” is a close second, for sheer moxie. Objectivists do like their “reason”, dontcha know.
One would have thought that a person willing to trumpet her view as “Objectivism” would have the decency never, ever, to say that “reason” is the “only source of knowledge”. The world can go take a hike, apparently — a hike in an objective park, I hope. Love dem objective boids.
(Continued . . .)