WasatchMan Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 A recent post made me remember a Ayn Rand concept that I found pretty powerful in the past. This concept is called "anti-concepts", and is defined as: An anti-concept is an unnecessary and rationally unusable term designed to replace and obliterate some legitimate concept. The use of anti-concepts gives the listeners a sense of approximate understanding. But in the realm of cognition, nothing is as bad as the approximate . . . . One of today’s fashionable anti-concepts is “polarization.” Its meaning is not very clear, except that it is something bad—undesirable, socially destructive, evil—something that would split the country into irreconcilable camps and conflicts. It is used mainly in political issues and serves as a kind of “argument from intimidation”: it replaces a discussion of the merits (the truth or falsehood) of a given idea by the menacing accusation that such an idea would “polarize” the country—which is supposed to make one’s opponents retreat, protesting that they didn’t mean it. Mean—what? . . . - Credibility and Polarization, Ayn Rand Observe the technique involved . . . . It consists of creating an artificial, unnecessary, and (rationally) unusable term, designed to replace and obliterate some legitimate concepts—a term which sounds like a concept, but stands for a “package-deal” of disparate, incongruous, contradictory elements taken out of any logical conceptual order or context, a “package-deal” whose (approximately) defining characteristic is always a non-essential. This last is the essence of the trick. Let me remind you that the purpose of a definition is to distinguish the things subsumed under a single concept from all other things in existence; and, therefore, their defining characteristic must always be that essential characteristic which distinguishes them from everything else. So long as men use language, that is the way they will use it. There is no other way to communicate. And if a man accepts a term with a definition by non-essentials, his mind will substitute for it the essential characteristic of the objects he is trying to designate . . . . Thus the real meaning of the term will automatically replace the alleged meaning. - Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand Some terms that she considered anti-concepts were: consumerism, duty, ethnicity, extremism, simplistic, open and closed mind, isolationism... Are there new anti-concepts that you can think of that has have been introduced into the lexicon since Ayn Rand's days? One that immediately comes to my mind is "Islamophobia". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarstring87 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Hey bud. I hate to see a topic with no replies. Is there any particular goal in isolating more "anti-concepts"? I think the easiest way to identify and "anti-concept" would be to take any concept that is morally positive and think of what the opposite immoral instance would be. I think what Rand was trying to point out was her stance that all human interaction SHOULD either occur by a moral positive or at minimum, be morally neutral. Anything that would cause a moral negative according to her frame work would be considered an "anti-concept". So the easiest way to identify the instance would be to understand the concept.Maybe you understood that already and were just trying to kick up some conversation. In which case... carry on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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