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What is Objectivism?
My philosophy...is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
— Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Objectivism is the philosophy of rational individualism founded by Ayn Rand (1905-1982). Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Rand witnessed the Bolshevik revolution. She emigrated to America where she worked in Hollywood and became a best-selling author of novels, most famously, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving one’s happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. It requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. It requires living by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism.
Objectivism is optimistic, holding that the universe is open to human achievement and happiness and that each person has within him the ability live a rich, fulfilling, independent life.
What is Philosophy?
In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is—i.e., he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts—i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy.
— Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto
If Objectivism is a philosophy, the first question to ask is “What is philosophy?”
A philosophy is a comprehensive system of ideas about the world and our place in it, about human nature, about the validity of our knowledge, about the values we should pursue, for ourselves and in our relationships to others. It is a guide for living, because it addresses the course we take in life.
Philosophy has distinct branches that address fundamental questions:
• Metaphysics (What is reality?).
• Epistemology (How do I know?)
• Ethics (What is important for life as a human being?)
• Politics (What is the purpose of government?)
• Aesthetics (What is the role of art?)
The most widespread philosophical systems are religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism. Each religion is a philosophy with its own specific views on issues in each branch. The belief in God, or gods, or a realm beyond the natural world is a metaphysical belief. Many religions call for faith in a higher power vs. a reliance on reason to acquire knowledge. That’s epistemology. And religions have a lot to say about ethics, values, and moral principles.
But religions are only one type of philosophy. In ancient Greece, for example, Plato and Aristotle developed distinctive philosophical systems to address all the major issues, from metaphysics to aesthetics, but did not include the idea of a personal god. Objectivism is similar in this respect.
In politics, philosophical views are often known as ideologies, such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and libertarianism. Political philosophies like these offer systematic views on issues such as the proper functions of government, the rights of individuals, and the role of democracy.
What is the Objectivist View of Reality (Metaphysics)?
Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
— Ayn Rand,
“Introducing Objectivism”
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of existence, including human nature and our place in the world. In this area, Objectivism holds that:
1. There’s an objective reality, independent of our minds, in which things exist, have definite identities, and interact causally.
2. Reality consists in the natural world we perceive and live in; there is no supernatural realm.
3. There’s no dichotomy between mind and body, matter and spirit.
4. We have free will.
1. Objective Reality
Objectivism gets its name as a philosophy from its fundamental commitment to objectivity. The concept of objectivity has different (but related) meanings in each branch of philosophy. In metaphysics, to say that something is objective means that it exists in the world independent of our minds. It doesn’t depend on what we think or feel about it, or whether we know about it in the first place. This is what we mean
when we say that there’s an objective reality, or that something is an objective fact. We are contrasting what’s objective with what is subjective, with what is in our minds—thoughts, feelings, desires, etc.
The vast terrain of existence—from deserts to swamps, from atoms to galaxies, from primitive life-forms to human beings, from cells to societies—includes things that differ in every way. But there are two things we can say about each and every one of them:
– It exists.
– It has some identity.
“Existence” and “identity” are two fundamental concepts that apply to everything. Objectivism holds that these are fundamental facts, or axioms, that lie at the base of all knowledge. The axiom of existence doesn’t tell us what things exist; it says only that things do exist. The axiom of identity doesn’t tell us what properties a given thing has; it says only that whatever properties it has, it has those and not others. A is A; nothing can be both A and not–A.
These axioms cannot be proven but they are not arbitrary. They are self-evident, revealed in every form of awareness— from the simplest sensation to the most advanced scientific theory, there is always something we are aware of, something that exists. And that something is something in particular—it has some identity.
The law of identity has an important implication about action: A thing cannot act in contradiction to its nature. A rock can roll downhill but not uphill. Actions do not happen randomly. Actions have causes—gravity, force, reaction, etc. They are caused by the nature of the entities that act (and the circumstances in which they act, which consist of other entities). As a consequence, the same thing in the same circumstances will act the same way. This is the law of causality, and it underlies our everyday knowledge of how things behave as well as scientific theories about atoms, genes, disease, and on and on.
2. Natural vs. Supernatural
The term “nature,” in the broadest sense, refers to the world of physical objects that exist in space and time. It’s the world we perceive and can study by rational methods. In this widest sense, the term does not mean just the nature we enjoy in a park. It doesn’t mean natural as opposed to human or artificial. The term means the world, reality, existence. But it highlights the fact that things have natures—identities— and interact in accordance with causal law.
Many philosophies propose a realm of existence beyond nature—a supernatural realm. Most major religions posit a personal god (or gods), along with angels and other spirits, and a heaven where we have some kind of life after death. Objectivism disagrees with any notion of the supernatural as incompatible with the objectivity and regularity of na-
ture. For example, the miracles related in Greek myths and the Bible and Qur’an, like the sun standing still for Joshua, would contradict the idea of cause and effect, and imply that objects in nature (like the sun) do not necessarily act in accordance with their natures. Objectivism holds that things in nature are created and destroyed through natural processes, but the existence of this world itself is self-evident; it does not require an explanation by anything outside itself.
In short, there is no rational basis for believing in a world beyond nature, nor a life beyond this one. But in contrast to the view of nature as a cold and meaningless realm, Objectivism holds that we live in a “benevolent universe.” We are beings well-adapted to the real world in which we live, with the freedom to carve our own path and the ability to achieve happiness.
3. Mind and Body
Philosophers and cognitive scientists today are exploring the connection between mind and body, in particular the relation between consciousness and the brain. But the distinction between mind and body has a larger cultural significance. Philosophies that subscribe to a higher realm beyond nature often hold that human nature is likewise bifurcated into a lower self and a higher one. According to this school of thought, the mind (or soul) is an entity in its own right, distinct from the body it inhabits, as a driver is different from his car. Our senses and worldly desires arise from the
body and are oriented toward the lower realm of nature, while our reason and spirit aspire to the higher realm to which the soul returns after death, like a driver leaving his car when he gets home.
This bifurcation gives rise in turn to the belief in an inherent conflict between mind and body, and between material and spiritual activities, as in St. Paul’s “Letter to the Galatians”: “For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are contrary to each other….”
The conflict takes many forms, in secular as well as religious views. One common form is the belief that morality is not practical. The idea presumes that moral ideals are spiritual whereas practicality is a matter of material affairs. For example, many defenders of capitalism cite its practical benefits in economic results but are reluctant to defend the morality of a system based on self-interest. Objectivism rejects this dichotomy by questioning the moral assumptions.
But the two main areas of life to which the premise of a mind-body opposition applies are love and work. In these areas, the premise implies that sex is a purely physical desire while love is spiritual and, in its purest (Platonic) form, is chaste. And that profit-seeking business is materialist but creating art is a higher, spiritual profession.
A major theme in Atlas Shrugged is that such dichotomies are groundless. In the case of love and sex, the point is dramatized in the character arc of Hank Rearden, who loves Dagny Taggart for her spirit and shared values but feels that his desire for her is degrading, a low animal impulse. Over the course of the novel, he comes to see the error of that assumption. In the case of business production, virtually every scene shows the intelligence, courage, imagination, and integrity of work at all levels. As the composer Richard Halley says,
Whether it’s a symphony or a coal mine, all work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one’s own eyes…. That shining vision which they talk about as belonging to the authors of symphonies and novels—what do they think is the driving faculty of men who discovered how to use oil, how to run a mine, how to build an electric motor?
In short, there is a difference between the mind and body, but no dichotomy or conflict. They are both aspects of human nature. We are living organisms, and all our faculties, mental as well as physical, work together to keep us alive.
4. Free Will vs. Determinism
The issue of free will vs. determinism is one of the fundamental, enduring issues in philosophy. Do we have genuine choice among alternative actions? Are we in genuine control of our choices? Or do we act from necessity?
Objectivism holds that we have free will. We choose our actions through the direct control we have over the inner actions of our mind, especially the role of attention. Thinking about a promise, you can focus on the value of keeping your word or on a short-term gain from breaking the promise, and you will act accordingly. The fact of free will is self-evident: we can observe directly that we have the ability to control our own minds, to focus our thoughts on one consideration or another, and thus to direct our own actions.
Determinists claim that free will is not compatible with science, that believing in free will means denying causality. Objectivists disagree. The law of causality says that things act in accordance with their natures. Billiard balls react mechanically; they don’t strive to go in the pocket. Living organisms do strive—to live. Their goal-directed action is a higher, more inwardly directed form of causality. The human power of choice is a further step in inward control in which we cause our actions through voluntary attention.
In this respect, free will highlights an essential aspect of the Objectivist view of mind and body. Though we deny the existence of a supernatural realm and an eternal soul divorced from the body, Objectivists do not accept a materialist or reductionist view of mind. Consciousness is a real part of nature, and the human form of consciousness, with our distinctive faculty of reason and freedom, is what it is. Scientific advances will help explain how the nervous system gives
rise to these capacities, but explanation is not reduction.
Our freedom to choose our actions is of the essence of what it means to be human. It underlies our need for moral guidance and moral ideals to live by. What we call our spiritual needs are not in conflict with our physical or biological needs. Objectivism holds that “spiritual values” are of vital importance to fulfillment and happiness. Spiritual values are those pertaining to the needs of human consciousness, arising from the human capacity for reason, creativity, free will, and self-awareness. These needs include self-esteem, love, art, and philosophy, among others. Achieving these values in one’s life is no less important than providing for one’s material needs and achieving worldly success.
What is the Objectivist Theory of Knowledge (Epistemology)?
Reason integrates man’s perceptions by means of forming abstractions or conceptions, thus raising man’s knowledge from the perceptual level, which he shares with animals, to the conceptual level, which he alone can reach. The method which reason employs in this process is logic—and logic is the art of non-contradictory identification.
— Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It
Objectivism holds that the basis of all knowledge is perception, the evidence of the senses. We perceive reality through vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. In this respect, Objectivism is an empiricist philosophy, in agreement with Aristotle and many other philosophers, as opposed to the rationalism of thinkers like Rene Descartes, who hold that perception is unreliable and that knowledge is based on abstract truths like the axioms of geometry.
Reason is the conceptual faculty. We perceive individual things, but we have the capacity to grasp common features among them. Horses are similar to each other, for example, and different from dogs. We integrate the perceptions of the horses into a single mental unit, expressed in a word. When you say or think “horse,” your mind is using a concept you formed that refers to all the horses that ever have been or
will be. Concepts are abstractions that identify an unlimited number of things at once. Concepts allow us to formulate causal laws, moral principles, and other generalizations.
The method of conceptual knowledge is logic. Because there are no contradictions in reality (law of identity), two ideas that contradict each other cannot both be true; and any idea that contradicts the facts we can observe through our senses must be false. Logic gives us standards we can use to guide thinking. The scientific method is an advanced form of logical reasoning. Through it, reason has unlocked the secrets of nature and made our industrial civilization possible, with all its wealth and comforts!
Conceptual thought is fallible. Since we have free will, we can evade unpleasant facts, let bias distort our thinking, and jump to conclusions without evidence. Since reasoning is a complex process, we can also make innocent mistakes despite our best efforts. Objectivity is therefore a necessary practice. In epistemology, being objective means setting truth as your ultimate goal and your only consideration. Objectivity is a voluntary commitment to accept facts as facts, rely on observation and logic, and exclude distorting influences like bias, prejudice, and wishful thinking.
Objectivity is not always easy, but it’s possible. That confidence rests on the principle of “the primacy of existence,” which Ayn Rand described as the principle
that the universe exists independent of consciousness, that things are what they are, that they possess a specific nature, an identity. The epistemological corollary is the axiom that consciousness is the faculty of perceiving that which exists—and that man gains knowledge by looking outward.
The opposing position is the primacy of consciousness: that the objects of our knowledge are not independent but are created or constructed by our minds. It is the view that, ultimately, nothing is real except in relation to our perceiving it or thinking of it. This relativist view takes many forms. There is cultural relativism, the idea that different cultures live in different realities shaped by their own assumptions. There’s the postmodern claim that language shapes the categories we use to interpret the world.
But that is putting the cart before the horse. Reality is not a function of our words or ideas. Without an objective reality, there could be no ideas or words; there would be nothing for them to refer to. To be conscious—in any form, at any level—is to be conscious of something that exists and is what it is. The primacy of existence is a self-evident truth. Denying it is the intellectual equivalent of closing one’s eyes while driving and hoping the road will conform to your steering.
In holding that reason is an absolute, Objectivism rejects the claims of faith as a source of knowledge. Understood as “the
conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1), faith consists in belief not based on evidence, or based on such spurious forms of “evidence” as revelation and authority, and is not compatible with objectivity. Faith cannot substitute for reason as a means of knowledge, nor can it supplement reason.
What about emotions? In Atlas Shrugged, when the heroine Dagny Taggart faces a difficult choice, the man she loves says, “If any of your uncertainty is a conflict between your heart and your mind, follow your mind.” That expresses another aspect of reason as an absolute: Reason is a cognitive capacity. Its function is to acquire knowledge about the world, including knowledge about ourselves, our goals, and the best ways to achieve them. Emotions, along with feelings and desires, are affective modes of consciousness. Cognition identifies things and facts; affect reacts to them as good or bad for us, and motivates action accordingly.
Emotional reactions rest on cognition; they result from the way we interpret the thing we react to. Fear, for example, is a reaction to what we perceive as a threat. Suppose a shy person fears going to a party because he has the implicit belief that he has nothing interesting to say. That belief is the result of past experience. It may or not be true, but the feeling of fear is not itself proof that it’s true. The introvert can re-examine that belief—perhaps by going to the party and focusing on what people say instead of his fears—but that is an exercise of reason. His feeling of fear is not itself evidence that his belief is correct.
Does that mean Objectivists look down on emotion? Far from it! Objectivism holds that we need joy, pride, love, and passion to achieve our values, under the guidance of reason. There’s no inherent conflict between reason and emotion. But they play different roles, working together in support of our lives.