Chapter 7 - 1

Chapter 7

Inference Questions

01 Philosophy

listen to a lecture in a philosophy class. Fill in the diagram with the information that you hear.

M: Yesterday we left off talking some about Ayn Rand’s Objectivism. You’ll remember that Rand’s philosophy is ultimately about the quest for happiness, but what we’re going to focus on today is the Objectivism view of reality.

That would be considered the metaphysical aspect, meaning that it deals with issues of the nature of reality aside from customary scientific explorations.

Are you all clear with that? Just keep in mind that “metaphysics” literally means “after the physics,” so I guess you can see it as the philosophy of things beyond the physical world.

Anyway, the Objectivist view of reality is based on three axioms set out by Rand. The three axioms are the Primacy of Existence, the Law of Identity, and the Axiom of Consciousness.

So, on with the Primacy of Existence. The basic idea is that there is a reality that exists with or without people being conscious of it.

Another way to put it is that aside from people knowing and sensing things in the world−which is what we’re calling consciousness−there is a greater reality.

The Primacy of Existence is in direct opposition to philosophies of Relativism that claim that instead of there being an objective reality, that people create their own, unique realities.

So, for example, a Relativist would say that a car crash occurs because a person believes it does, whereas the Objectivist maintains the self-evident truth that a car crash occurs regardless of whether or not we want it to.

This is actually how the axiom is dependent−see, the existence of a greater reality is why people have something to be conscious of in the first place.

OK, I’m assuming there are no questions so I’ll move on to the second axiom: the Law of Identity.

So keeping the Primacy of Existence in mind, now consider that everything that exists in this objective reality has an identity.

What does she mean by Identity?

Identity refers to the different attributes, or characteristics, that set something apart from other things. Quite simply, a chair as a chair, and not a desk.

That simple example shows that something can only have one identity, but that’s not to say that something has to only have one characteristic.

Half of the chair might be made of wood, the other for metal. Those two characteristics are part of the identity.

But these characteristics occur in specific amounts, and characteristics are definite. This is why this axiom is important−it basically proves that reality has definite identities that can be learned.

The idea that something can be learned makes up a part of the Axiom of Consciousness.

See, once we acknowledge the identity of things, that something exists, people are conscious and able to learn.

All knowledge is based on the fact that we are conscious, or aware, of the objective reality and the different identities that reside there.

So anyway, Rand also says that since one can’t be conscious without there being something to be conscious of, it follows that the mind does not create reality, but instead, through consciousness, discovers it.

1) What can be inferred from the lecture about the previous class?

2) What does the professor imply about the Relativist view of reality?

3) What does the professor imply when he says this: quite simply a chair as a chair and not a desk.