| | Joe,
You wrote, Axioms are undeniable, which is very different from "self-evident". Objectivism rejects the idea of something being "self-evident", which means "requiring no proof or explanation". Joe, this is incorrect. Objectivism does not reject the idea of something's being self-evident. The Glossary of Objectivist Definitions defines the term "self-evident" as follows: "To be self-evident means to be available to direct observation, without the need of inference."
In her essay, "Philosophical Detection" (Philosophy: Who Needs It, Rand writes, "Nothing is self-evident except the material of sensory perception." (Emphasis added).
In her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, she writes: "When we speak of 'direct perception' or 'direct awareness,' we mean the perceptual level. Percepts, not sensations, are the given, the self-evident." (p. 5)
In her chapter on "Axiomatic Concepts" in ITOE, she writes: "Axioms are usually considered to be propositions identifying a fundamental, self-evident truth. (Emphasis added) But explicit propositions as such are not primaries; they are made of concepts. The base of man's knowledge -- of all other concepts, all axioms, propositions and thought -- consists of axiomatic concepts. (Emphasis added)
"An axiomatic concept is the identification of a primary fact of reality, which cannot be analyzed, i.e., reduced to other facts or broken into component parts. It is implicit in all facts and in all knowledge. It is the fundamentally given and directly perceived or experienced, which requires no proof or explanation, but on which all proofs and explanations rest." (p. 55) Recall Rand's statement, "When we speak of 'direct perception' or 'direct awareness,' we mean the perceptual level. Percepts, not sensations, are the given, the self-evident."
In short, the primary fact of reality referred to by an axiomatic concept is the fundamentally given and directly perceived or experienced -- i.e., the self-evident.
Note that Objectivism distinguishes between axiomatic concepts and axioms, the latter term referring to statements or propositions. "An axiom is a statement that identifies the base of knowledge and of any further statement pertaining to that knowledge, a statement necessarily contained in all others, whether any particular speaker chooses to identify it or not. An axiom is a proposition that defeats its opponents by the fact that they have to accept it and use it in the process of any attempt to deny it." (Atlas Shrugged, p. 1040.)
- Bill
(Edited by William Dwyer on 12/11, 12:57am)
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