Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Rand, Ayn

  • John Hospers and the Unteachability of Ayn Rand

    An extremely bright autodidact who is also supremely self-confident will often prove to be unteachable.  If such a person should then acquire a worshipful cult-like following, and if she never exposes her work to professional scrutiny, and excommunicates even those well disposed to her when they dare criticize, John Hospers being one example, the result…

  • Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life

    Three YouTube excerpts from the movie, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life. One. Two. Three.  Footage from interviews with Rand, and commentary by Leonard Peikoff and Harry Binswanger. 

  • Can Existence Be Ostensively Defined?

    Here is a remarkable passage from Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, expanded 2nd ed., p. 41: Ostensive definitions are usually regarded as applicable only to conceptualized sensations. But they are applicable to axioms as well.  Since axiomatic concepts are identifications of irreducible primaries, the only way to define one is by means of an…

  • Volition and Modality (Peter Lupu)

     This is a guest post by Peter Lupu. Minor editing by BV. 1) In One Fallacy of Objectivism (henceforth, OFO) I gave an argument that a distinction Objectivists insist upon between “metaphysical” or natural-facts vs. volitional-facts logically presupposes the traditional modal distinction between contingent vs. necessary – a logical presupposition they vehemently deny. Three kinds of objections…

  • Consciousness and Existence: Is Every Consciousness a Consciousness of What Exists?

    What follows in purple are two quotations (from separate works) from the Ayn Rand Lexicon.  If nothing exists, there can be no consciousness: a consciousness with nothing to be conscious of is a contradiction in terms. A consciousness conscious of nothing but itself is a contradiction in terms: before it could identify itself as consciousness,…

  • Validity as a Modal Concept and a Modal Argument for the Nonexistence of God

    'Modally Challenged' comments: I've run into this argument on several occasions and while the author(s) insist theists will accept the premises, it's more the validity I'd appreciate your take on. 1) If God is possible, then God is a necessary being. 2) If God is a necessary being, then unjustified evil is impossible.3) Unjustified evil…

  • Necessity and Contingency Within the Sphere Not Affected by Human Volition

    Harry Binswanger asks: ". . . within the sphere not affected by human volition (the "metaphysically given") what are the grounds for asserting a difference between necessity and contingency? Aren't all the events that proceed in accordance with physical law in the same boat?" This is large topic with several aspects.  This post concentrates just one…

  • Peikoff on the Supernatural

    Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Meridian 1993, p. 31: "Supernatural," etymologically, means that which is above or beyond nature.  "Nature," in turn denotes existence viewed friom a certain perspective. Nature is existence regarded as a system of interconnected entities governed by law; it is the universe of entities acting and interacting in…

  • One Fallacy of Objectivism

    The following comment is by Peter Lupu. It deserves to be brought up from the nether reaches of the ComBox to the top of the page. Minor editing and highlighting in red by BV. One Fallacy of Objectivism 1) Objectivists seem to hold two theses: Thesis A: There is a fundamental conceptual distinction everyone does…

  • Feser on Vallicella on Rand

    I just discovered this post at Edward Feser's weblog.  Excerpt: Bill also evaluates Rand’s argument to the effect that “to grasp the axiom that existence exists, means to grasp the fact that nature, i.e., the universe as a whole, cannot be created or annihilated, that it cannot come into or go out of existence.” He…

  • Back to Parmenides: Binswanger’s Defense of Rand’s Block Universe

    In response to Harry Binswanger, I wrote: My diagnosis of our disagreement is as follows. You think that what is causally necessitated (e.g. the lunar craters) is broadly-logically necessary (BL-necessary) whereas I think that what is causally necessitated is broadly-logically contingent. Because you think that what is causally necessitated is BL-necessary, you naturally think that…

  • Is the Existence of God Entailed by Alternative Ways Natural Things Might Have Been?

    This post is a sequel to Ayn Rand on Necessity, Contingency, and Dispositions.  There we were examining this quotation: What do you mean by "necessity"? By "necessity," we mean that things are a certain way and had to be.  I would maintain that the statement "Things are," when referring to non-man-made occurrences, is the synonym…

  • Harry Binswanger Defends Rand

    I thank Dr. Binswanger for commenting on the post, Modal Confusion in Rand/Peikoff.  His  stimulating comments deserve to be brought to the top of the page.  I have reproduced them verbatim below.  I have intercalated my responses  in blue.  The ComBox is open, but the usual rules apply: be civil, address what is actually said, argue your points,…

  • Why God Cannot be the Creator of the Universe

    Leonard Peikoff writes, "Is God the creator of the universe? There can be no creation of something out of nothing. There is no nothing." Peikoff is arguing that God cannot be the creator of the universe because creation is creation of something out of nothing, and there is no nothing.  Is this a good argument…

  • Rand Entry in the Philosophical Lexicon

    Here we find: rand, n. An angry tirade occasioned by mistaking philosophical disagreement for a personal attack and/or evidence of unspeakable moral corruption. "When I questioned his second premise, he flew into a rand." Also, to attack or stigmatise through a rand. "When I defended socialised medicine, I was randed as a communist."