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Stephen Boydstun

boydstun@rcn.com
Send me a RoR MailAtlas Count 459Atlas Count 459Atlas Count 459459 Atlas Points

Author Info

View all articles by Stephen Boydstun

Number of Posts: 217
View all posts by this user: here

Num Gallery items: 13
View all Galleries by this user: here

Description

Premium Articles

"Vegetative Robots and Value"
"The 'With-Measurement' Program"

"Rights, Games, and Self-Realization"

  Intro, Part I, Part II, Part III


Premium Posts
Foundations of Ethics #15, #17, #20

Implied Axioms #207, #230
Who Needs Philosophy #14
Locke and Essence #3
Evolution of the Objective #39
Objectivism and the Correspondence Theory #0
Mind and Representation #4, #6
Concepts #1, #11
Concept Formation #0
Corruption of Measurement #11
Physics and Philosophy #54
Scope of Volition #31, #38
Objectivism and Existentialism #7, #11
Self-Interest #13
Objectivist and Libertarian Politics #36
Definition of Objectivism #12, #24
Whether Objectivist #17

 

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My current intellectual project consists of various integrations of Objectivist theoretical philosophy with science and mathematics. My most recent accomplishment in that vein is the essay "Universals and Measurement" in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (Spring 2004).

In that essay, I argue that Rand's measurement-omission analysis of concepts implies a distinctive magnitude structure for metaphysics. This is structure beyond logical structure, constraint on possibility beyond logical constraint. Yet, it is structure ranging as widely as logical structure through all the sciences and common experience. I uncover this distinctive magnitude structure, characterizing it by its automorphisms, by its location among the mathematical categories, and by the types of measurement it affords. I uncover a structure to universals implicit in Rand's theory that is additional to recurrence structure.

My academic backgrounds are in physics, philosophy, and engineering. My engineering work was building locomotives, then I switched to nuclear power electrical generation. Engineering rounded out the understanding of the physical world I had from physics. Now all those backgrounds, and long study of philosophy, too, are put into my project of extending Ayn Rand's metaphysics.

I created, financed, and edited Objectivity, a hardcopy "journal of metaphysics, epistemology, and theory of value informed by modern science" (1990-98). All issues of Objectivity are now freely available online for readers and researchers.


Visit www.objectivity-archive.com

On the romantic side, my partner's name is Walter. We have been together twelve years. He has two sons and one grandson, now age seven. It is wonderful to have a family.











Recent Gallery Items

(Books) A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism
(Articles) Rights, Games, and Self-Realization – Part II
(Articles) Rights, Games, and Self-Realization – Part III
(Books) European Political Thought
(Books) The Emergence of a Scientific Culture

RecentPosts

News Discussions - CEOs Pushing Ayn Rand Studies Use Money to Overcome Resistan... - 9
   Thursday, May 8, 2008 - 5:32am -- Jeff and All, I think this sort of effort can have a very good effect on ...
Objectivism Q&A - Virtues? - 5
   Saturday, May 3, 2008 - 4:40am --   For more thoughts on the relations between Rand’s cardinal virtues...and th...
Article Discussions - Should We Elect a Problem Solver? - 8
   Friday, May 2, 2008 - 9:51am --  Thanks, Summer and Tibor!
Article Discussions - Should We Elect a Problem Solver? - 5
   Thursday, May 1, 2008 - 10:40pm -- ...This pertains to just one little nook of Tibor's remarks. I agree that the on...
Article Discussions - Randula, the Altruist Slayer - 7
   Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 4:56am --  This looks like a good book on the topic:   The Morality of War Brian ...
Article Discussions - Rand and Ethical Objectivity - 21
   Monday, April 21, 2008 - 6:11am -- Robert,... ...“The Errors of Egalitarianism” was the title of Tibor Machan’s pap...
Art - The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her Last Berth to be broken... - 2
   Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 3:54pm --  Thanks for the notice, Hong, and for the link.   I got to see this stunni...
Article Discussions - Rand and Ethical Objectivity - 16
   Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 11:56am -- On 17 April 2008, at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical ...
Poetry Discussions - "Hope's Hose" - 0
   Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - 10:38am -- ..."A brave army is a convincing argument for the cause for which it fights." ...
News Discussions - New Li-Ion Battery with 10x Energy Density - 7
   Friday, March 28, 2008 - 1:01pm -- Addendum to Post #1......Replacing petroleum with sugars as source for 5-hydroxy...


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