A short guide to Objectivist metaphysics

[GYre0ePJhZ]

What better to do on New Year's Eve than to philosophize, am I right?

 

So I am reading "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand" by Leonard Peikoff and I want to share with you how I came to accept the axioms of Objectivism because this was a big struggle for me. Maybe this can be of help to others and perhaps I can have any potential mistakes corrected.

 

My understanding is that there are no contradictions between the metaphysics of Objectivism and UPB. However, the approaches are distinct in that Objectivism has a focus on establishing its theoretical framework in a more formal way as can normally be found in philosophical works while UPB focuses on establishing its tenets through looking at what people do in conversation. In other words, UPB does not really contain axioms in the traditional sense other than what is self-evident when people argue. I.e., UPB takes a shortcut and I assume this is done due to it being more effective and practical in everyday life. Objectivist metaphysics, on the other hand, goes deeper in that it uses axioms that refer to our first sensation of the world.

 

The three Objectivist axioms are Existence, Consciousness, and Identity. My error in grasping them was that I am used to evaluating concepts through the method of how one establishes arguments: Through evidence plus deductive or inductive reasoning. The challenge here is that the validation of the Objectivist axioms require no deductive or inductive reason. It is not something that is grasped through analysis. Rather, what I needed to do was to dilute my focus on the abstractions and simply look at the world around me with its various objects, actions and properties.

 

When I focus on just looking around I have to accept that something (identity) exists (existence) of which I am aware (consciousness). This is self-evident just by perceiving the world. I am not sure whether identity are a function of existence, of consciousness, or of both, but I think that it does not fundamentally matter because without accepting this axiom I contradict myself. This because I have to implicitly rely on identity when I use concepts which I evidently do since I am writing this forum post.

 

Another interesting thing about Objectivist metaphysics is that identity is an implicit of existence rather than something that refers to an essence that are in the things. The latter is what Aristotle stated in one of his principal works: "Metaphysics." In other words, in Objectivism existents do not have identity. They are identity. I am not sure what to make of that but I really find that fascinating.

 

Hope that helps and please point out any errors.

 

Happy 2015!

[Pepin]

I really like a lot of Objectivism. It really helped my thinking out, and it seems to have got you thinking too.

 

To clarify one point though, Objectivism breaks philosophy into four components.

 

 

Metaphysics: Man's relationship with the universe

Epistemology: Man's relationship with his mind

Ethics: Man's relationship with himself

Politics: Man's relationship among each other

Aesthetics: Man's relationship with beauty

 

They are intended to build upon each other in a dependent manner, with metaphysics being the base. FDR tends to agree with the metaphysics and epistemology, but differ in the ethics and politics.

 

Objectivism bases ethics on being rationally self interested, while UPB bases it on the validity of univeriversal claims. Though many of their conclusions are the same, the method is completely different.

 

UPB also is not a theory which covers metaphysics and epistemology, but rather assumes them. It could be said to be based on the first two stones of Objectivism, but it could also be said to be based on many other theories which have the same conclusion.

 

Anyway, I hope you continue your reading as the subject is very interesting. Happy new  year.

[shirgall]

To clarify one point though, Objectivism breaks philosophy into four components.

 

I think you are testing us, because there are five components in your quote.