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Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 3:56amSanction this postReply
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I came across this statement in Kelly's bookt TLSOO.

Kelly
"Although the structure of Objectivism is logical, it is not rationalistic."

This sounds to me like he is trying to defend against other systems that are rationalistic? Rationality is one of the virtues - how does this fit in with his statement?

When I was attemtping to explain objectivism to someone he made the claim that it sounded like foundationalism. I have not heard this term before - what is foundationalism and is objectivism a foundationalist system?

Thanks.

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Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 2:10pmSanction this postReply
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Tim

"Rationalistic" doesn't mean "rational." "Rationalistic" describes a method of thinking whereby undue emphasis is placed on deduction without reference to the real world (induction); one may deduce conclusions, in strict adherence to logical form, from specified premises, but those premises are arbitrary inventions, dreamed up inside one's own head. An example would be one I used in my dispute with a philosophy professor a few years back: "All philosophy professors are dogs. Robert Nola is a philosophy professor. Therefore Robert Nola is a dog."

The opposite of rationalism is empiricism, which emphasises induction at the expense of deduction. Empiricists downplay or outright deny the validity of abstract concepts such as necessity or causality because you can't "see" them the way you see a tree.

Objectivism is "foundationalist" in the sense that it begins, as a philosophy, with axiomatic concepts, but it's important to stress that these concepts are after-the-fact identifications, based on interaction with & reflection on the real world.

Linz

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Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 5:50pmSanction this postReply
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Perigo,
Thanks - that does clear up these definitions for me. Also thanks for explaining the opposite of rationalism. I have not studied a lot of other philosophies so this helps me be aware of the other side of the coin.

I have been spending time going over Kelly's "TLSOO" - specifically the first 2 chapters. There is a lot of info there that does clarify a number of issues that I did not see before. I understood your examples in each paragraph due to personal study - this makes my time spent really exciting! Thanks!

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