Do Not Let It Go

In his lecture “How to Study Ayn Rand’s Writings” (available on tape), Harry Binswanger sited how important it is to consider the word choice and order in Rand’s writing as such selections are purposeful for communicating the ideas fully.

With the phrase “reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement” there are four elements that I notice:  (1) it is a list, (2) there is no conjunction, (3) the order of words seems important, and (4) in Objectivist epistemology, there concepts omit specific measures so they could exist in varying degrees.  In total, I see a continuum with each subsequent concept depending on the preceding concept; further, the degree or measure of the subsequent concept is dependent on the preceding concept.

Without Reason, there is no Justice; without Justice, there is no Freedom; without Freedom, there is no Production; without Production, there is no Achievement.

Further, as Reason increases, Justice can increase; as Justice increases, Freedom can increase; as Freedom increase, Production can increase; as Production increases, Achievement can increase.

However, as Reason decreases Justice, Freedom, Production, and Achievement will all decrease.

In American politics today, the liberals and conservative both start with Justice but ignore Reason as it would invalidate their revealed truth standard of Justice.  Libertarians begin with Freedom and ignore not only Reason but also Justice.  Orthodox Marxists began with Production and fudged the rest by working backwards from the consequences.

This hierarchy reminds me of a stepped pyramid, like those at Tulum.  Further, it is reminiscent of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need in structure; however, it offers a view of man which is very different from Maslow.  If it is a competing hierarchy, is it of values, of virtues, of what?

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