 Emotional Responses and Selecting Values
by Joseph Rowlands
In the last lecture, I talked about how intrinsic values can't be rationally compared, so you're left with just feeling your way to a solution. This is a pretty serious problem, and what we're going to focus on in this thread. (Read more...)
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Objective, Subjective, Intrinsic
by Joseph Rowlands
There are three major views of the nature of values. The first two, subjective and intrinsic, are often seen as a dichotomy. Objectivism accepts an objective view of values. (Read more...)
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Values
by Joseph Rowlands
Value is the central concept in ethics. Everything else revolves around it. Ethics is a person's means of choosing between actions. Actions, on the other hand, are aimed at accomplishing something. That something is called a value. Rand defined a value as "that which you act to gain and/or keep". It's what you're trying to accomplish when you do something. That can be acquiring some physical good, like a steak or a new car. It can also mean something like pleasure or improved physical fitness. It can be a friendship, or romantic interest. It can be the development of a new skill. And to give an example of keeping something, putting out a fire to protect your house is an example of acting in order to keep it. Anything you act to gain and/or keep is a value, in the widest sense of the term.
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 Themes of Ethics
by Joseph Rowlands
The first question of ethics, which is the starting point of it all, is why do we need ethics in the first place? Can we live without it? The answer Objectivism gives is that we need a code of values in order to make our decisions. Since we're beings of volitional consciousness, we don't have an automatic means of knowledge. We don't have an automatic way of deciding what to do. We have to figure out a way of making choices. And that's the role ethics fills. (Read more...)
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Certainty
by Joseph Rowlands
Certainty is a topic that confuses a lot of people because they use an unrealistic standard. The typical problem is that they mean certain in a way that doesn't allow for any possibility of being wrong. The typical line is that if you can't know everything, you can't know anything. So as long as you don't know everything, you can't really be certain, can you? Obviously that kind of standard would be impossible to meet unless you were omniscient. And we're not. (Read more...)
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Volition, Focus and Evasion
by Joseph Rowlands
I mentioned that Objectivism supports the position of Free Will. There is still a question of how this is manifested. Yes, we can choose between different actions, or different ideas, etc., but how? Is there a basic kind of choice?
The answer is volition. According to Objectivism, volition is the choice to focus or not to focus, and it is the fundamental choice. It amounts to choosing to think or not to think. To examine, or to not examine. Since consciousness is awareness, it's really a choice to be aware or not. That's as fundamental as you get. (Read more...)
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Free Will and Volition
by Joseph Rowlands
The debate between Free Will and Determinism has been raging forever. It's one of the trickier issues, and there's little agreement on terms. You'll even find arguments about it on Objectivist forums, although the official Objectivist position sides with Free Will. Let me do a little introduction to the topic (Read more...)
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Axiomatic Concepts
by Joseph Rowlands
Going back to Epistemology now, I'm going to discuss a greatly misunderstood topic. Axiomatic concepts, commonly referred to as the axioms. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 5, 2007 |
 Foreign Policy with Limited Means
by Joseph Rowlands
Life is full of possible values to pursue, always restricted by a limitation on means. We always have to search for ways to take those limited means and get as much value with them as we can. The same is true in foreign policy. While it would be nice to have unlimited ability to pursue your goals, we have to live with real constraints. (Read more...)
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Objective Reality
by Joseph Rowlands
The phrase "objective reality" means that reality exists independent of our minds. The description "objective" doesn't make a lot of sense on its own, but it does in comparison to the competing theory of the relationship between consciousness and existence. (Read more...)
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Towards an Integrated Moral Standard
by Joseph Rowlands
The critical function of ethics is to provide a means of choosing between various choices. Morality is essentially a method of decision making. Morality is inescapable. Everyone must have some means of making choices. But not everyone identifies their method explicitly. They may end up with a hodgepodge of differe... (Read more...)
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 Always Irrational
by Joseph Rowlands
Emotionalism is a policy of making decisions based on your feelings, and not on your rational judgment. Some people may choose it intentionally, thinking their emotions are some secret insight to the truth. Others may do it because they just don't want to resist their emotional responses. Like all irrational moral p... (Read more...)
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 Event-based Morality
by Joseph Rowlands
How do you judge a person's moral commitment? How do you tell whether someone is virtuous or not? The answer to these questions can change the way you see morality.
... (Read more...)
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Altruism Corrupts Foreign Policy
by Joseph Rowlands
There's plenty of criticism of the US foreign policy. It doesn't seem to have any coherent principles guiding it. We need a foreign policy based on rational principles. One characteristic of a rational foreign policy would be the need to have clear goals and the need to stick with them. The choices would be guided ... (Read more...)
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Time and Value
by Joseph Rowlands
This was a speech given in 2003. (Read more...)
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Thursday
September 13, 2007 |
The Omnipotence Premise
by Joseph Rowlands
Philosophy is a powerful tool for developing an integrated understanding of the world. It sheds an enormous amount of light on most topics. You learn to see connections, to think in fundamentals, and to recognize principles. Philosophy enables you to see past the specifics of a single situation in order to see the b... (Read more...)
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 Burdens of Proof
by Joseph Rowlands
A lot of debates revolve around where the burden of proof lies. Which side needs to prove their point, and does the other side simply get to argue against that point, or do they have to prove their own position? (Read more...)
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Is Altruism Really About Self-Sacrifice?
by Joseph Rowlands
Sometimes it's difficult to communicate radical ideas to people unfamiliar with them. An excellent example of this is the Objectivist view that altruism is at its essence a morality of self-sacrifice. If you were to describe altruism as aiming at self-sacrifice, or suggest it is a morality aimed at death, you'd proba... (Read more...)
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Rejection is Not The Answer
by Joseph Rowlands
One day I'm arguing with a scientist. She informs me that she's an agnostic when it comes to religion. I ask if she actually believes there's a god, and she says no. But she won't rule out the possibility that there is one. In fact, she offers, she won't rule out anything. She believes that a scientist's job requi... (Read more...)
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Thoughts on Free Will and Determinism
by Joseph Rowlands
The debate on Free Will vs. Determinism rages on over the years, even the centuries, without an end in sight. Objectivists are not immune to the topic. And surprisingly, even with a philosophy aimed at clarity and objectivity, it seems to be one giant muddled mess with people talking past one another. (Read more...)
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 Balance vs. Integration
by Joseph Rowlands
Years ago I attended an Objectivist meeting where the participants discussed short-term vs. long-term interests. What struck me at the time was that neither standard made sense as a complete moral standard. (Read more...)
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Consciousness
by Joseph Rowlands
One of the big metaphysical concepts is consciousness. It's something we experience and are aware of directly. You know your own mind. You think, you feel, you focus, you remember, and you perceive. It's so immediate that some philosophers started with an awareness of their minds, and posited it as being primary. Reality you only know through your senses, but your mind! You know that first hand! (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 21, 2007 |
Sanctity of Reason
by Joseph Rowlands
It's one thing to reject reason in favor of the mystical. People do that all the time. But they do more than simply reject reason. They pervert it. (Read more...)
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Causality and Change
by Joseph Rowlands
We discussed the Law of Identity, but there are two related issues that have confused people in the past. First, it's fine to say that something exists in a particular way, but what happens when it changes. For instance, your own mind has a particular identity, but as you learn new things or direct your attention to something else, it's not the same anymore? Is it no longer the same entity? Are you no longer who you were yesterday? And the other question is how do things act and react? If I put a piece of paper into a fire, it act different from how an ice cube acts. Why? What's the nature of cause and effect? (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 17, 2007 |
Law of Identity
by Joseph Rowlands
The Law of Identify is one of those very simple ideas that is so universal, it's difficult to describe it in words. It is simply the fact that whatever exists, exists in a particular way. Everything that exists has identity. (Read more...)
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