Do Not Let It Go

We Are Moving to ThinkerToThinker.com

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:26:37 GMT

In an effort to focus my blogging efforts, I am eliminating multiple blogs in favor of a single one on the ThinkerToThinker platform. Therefore, I am moving this blog as part of the consolidation.

The new platform is superior in features to the AOL Journals platform.

So, please go to Words by Woods and see what is available.

Hierarchy

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 23:53:58 GMT

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?

Follow the Money

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 20:10:16 GMT

For many years now I have been fascinated by the implication of the list: reason, justice, freedom, production, and achievement. Not because they contain some revealed truth, but just the opposite. They simply organize a natural relationship of concepts that are essential to not only revitalizing what America’s Founders had started, but in surpassing them in the realization of the promise in those words.

Where did this list come from? It was articulated in Francisco’s Money Speech in Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. The speech was a response to the false assertion that money is the root of all evil. Relevant to the purpose of this blog and this list of words, Francisco responds:

To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money—and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. [Ayn Rand, “Francisco’s Money Speech,” Atlas Shrugged; via AltasShrugged.tv]

Image Source: AtlasShrugged.tv

Don't Let It Go

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 04:09:29 GMT

One of the last things Ayn Rand worked on before her death was planning a collection of essays that would be published as Philosophy: Who Needs It. The collection begins with her address to the graduating class at West Point in 1974, and ends with her 1971 essay “Don’t Let It Go.” This final essay attempted to predict Americas future based upon an assessment of its present course of action, conscious convictions, and sense of life. This essay concludes:

they turned

Is there enough of the American sense of life left in people under the constant pressure of the cultural-political efforts to obliterate it? It is impossible to tell. But those of us who hold it, must fight for it. We have no alternative: we cannot surrender this country to a zero—to men whose battle cry is mindlessness.

We cannot fight against collectivism, unless we fight against its moral base: altruism. We cannot fight against altruism, unless we fight against its epistemological base: irrationalism. We cannot fight against anything, unless we fight for something—and what we must fight for is the supremacy of reason, and a view of man as a rational being.

These are philosophical issues. The philosophy we need is a conceptual equivalent of America’s sense of life. To propagate it, would require the hardest intellectual battle. But isn’t that a magnificent goal to fight for? [A. Rand, “Don’t Let It Go,” Philosophy: Who Needs It (New York: New American Library, 1982), p. 214-215.]

The blog will engage that fight.

Image Source: Ayn Rand Bookstore