Humans existed for an inordinately long time before they discovered there was such a thing as mind/body integration, ie, that there exist a way to relate abstractions to concretes. It is a category difference similar to the difference between ethics and meta-ethics, one studies the thing while the other studies the idea about the thing. Before ( Read more... )

The simple difference between induction and deduction is that one argues from the parts to the whole while the other argues from the whole to its parts. It is the same process viewed from two perspectives, they both perform the same integration with only the direction changed. Consistent with Rand's view that existence is prior to consciousness, ( Read more... )

When I first posted an argument on the net, I had in my mind that while the world's idea of philosophy is explicitly against me, implicitly the world is on my side, its just a small matter of showing the entire world that they are smart when they think I am saying they are stupid ( Read more... )

This is an argument to establish the relation between what is commonly called the real and the ideal ( Read more... )

This is directed to those Objectivists who have an integrated view of Rand's theory of concepts. Because of Rand we can know that a concept denotes exactly in a universe where consciousness perceives relationally, ie, inexactly. We generalize from the particulars we see. The explanation as to how these opposites relate explains certainty from ( Read more... )

My argument goes something like this: Reason is necessary for survival. If you had to list the order the things necessary for survival, reason has to be number one. Has that always been the case? Well, no, there was a time before we developed abstract thinking. Reason itself is an abstract thought. There was also a time between when we first ( Read more... )

I have read somewhere that Rand preferred existentialism as a name for her philosophy. Given that she argues for a primacy of existence position I can see her point, yet look at all of her opposition, it is all subjective. My arguments are aimed at the professed subjectivist, the mystics won't admit they are subjectivists. A professed ( Read more... )

When we contemplate about the way we think (introspect), we can discover that there basically are two ways to do it. The first way describes how we develop thought from infancy, the second describes a way to prove the first. A baby has no grasp of 'the whole' and is a little empiricist fire ball. As we mature we gradually begin to draw ( Read more... )

I just read a post where the poster identified himself as a tenured philosopher who didn't know what philosophy was. This person is no absolutist. I did see a post by an absolutist, but his absolute requires you transcend this world to find it. Neither can define a 'this world' context for certainty. An absolute is a defined context. As ( Read more... )

It is obvious to most Americans that we, as a nation, are becoming divided in a way that is trending towards disaster. This divide is fundamental in that it goes to the very core of two radically different ways of justifying life as a subjectivist. This translates immediately into a disagreement as to the meaning of war from two subjective ( Read more... )