A GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF OBJECTIVISM David King 58 Spring Valley Drive Milford WY 82520 It is my intention to present an introduction, from the perspective of a scientist, to the ideas of this philosophy, a guide to other sources of these ideas, and some applications of the ideas to important problems. In order to promote the maximum dissemination of these ideas, I have decided to place all my writings into the Public Domain. I grant permission to anyone to use my writings, or any parts of them, in any way that may help to further the spread of reason in our society. All my essays can be obtained from me on computer disk. Send me a 3 1/2 inch floppy, IBM/MS-DOS format, and I will load it up for you. The files are all in straight ASCII text. Please copy this floppy. This guide consists of these five files, and several essays which are titled CHAPTRnn. Throughout these works I use *'s in a careful way so that computer searches can easily be run. INTRODUCTION AN OBJECTIVIST DICTIONARY A HANDBOOK OF LOGICAL FALLACIES BOOKLIST A KEYWORD INDEX OF: The Objectivst Newsletter Basic Principles of Objectivism The Objectivist Principles of Efficient Thinking The Ayn Rand Letter The Psychology of Romantic Love The Objectivist Forum Atlas Shrugged The Virtue of Selfishness The Fountainhead Chapter 1 AYN RAND AND OBJECTIVISM - PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE Starting with a critique of Rand, I move into a presentation of Objectivism, then to a consideration of the connection between Science and Philosophy, with some additional comments in which I try to make the scientific mentality a little less mysterious to people who have not been explicitly schooled in a scientific field. * Randism vs Objectivism * Rand's incorrect definition of selfish * Rand's personal statist views * Rand's failure to distinguish between politics and economics * What is Objectivism? * The Relationship Between Philosophy and Science * How Scientists Can Build Bombs * The Scientific Attitude of Mind * Some History of Science * Miscellaneous Comments on the Nature of Science * Examples of the Scientific Attitude applied * Some Critiques of Science Chapter 2 THINKING * Tools of Thought * Language * Strength And Leverage * IQ As A Potential * The Major High-IQ Societies * Useful Thinking Techniques * Procedures for Carrying on a Discussion * Criticism * The Scientific Method * The Military Staff Study * Notes on the Significance of Intellectual Context * Faulty Thought Processes * Piagetian Operational Stages * The Use Of Emotions As Tools Of Cognition * Orwell - Newspeak - Brainwashing - Prolefeed Chapter 3 THE IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT DEFINITIONS * On the Importance of Correct Definitions * How to Make a Definition Some approaches to defining a few interesting concepts * Definition * Certainty * Probability * Expense * To Be * References * Envy * Instinct * Luck * Standard vs Purpose * Anarchy * Nonsense Chapter 4 ECONOMICS FROM AN OBJECTIVIST VIEWPOINT Part One: History - Property - Capitalism - Money * Objective vs Subjective Economic Value * History * The Corporate Enterprise * Political Power vs Economic Power * John Locke on Property * Some Questions about Property * Information as Property * Capitalism * Wealth * The Need For Money * The Evolution of Money and the Nature of inflation * The Effects of Inflation Chapter 5 ECONOMICS FROM AN OBJECTIVIST VIEWPOINT Part Two: Several miscellaneous issues * Foundations * Bootstrap Economics * Economic Calculations * The Tragedy of the Commons * The Public Goods Problem * Fascism-Communism * Marx * The Luddite Phenomenon * Liability * Productivity * Trade vs Theft Chapter 6 RIGHTS AND FREEDOM * Natural Rights * There is no such Thing as Freedom Chapter 7 THE ETHICS UNDERLYING SOCIAL STRUCTURE * Some Ethical Concepts Defined * Philosophy Underlies Society * Foundation of Law * Voting * Majority Rule * Stateolatry * Miscellaneous Ethical Topics * Abortion * Honesty vs Dishonesty * Link Between the Individual and the Group * What is a slave? * Profound Ethical Concerns * Coerced Compassion * Effect of Social Complexity on Statism * Dual Ideologies * Hallmark of a Conservative * Compromise * Libertarian Foreign Policy Chapter 8 GOVERNMENT * Government defined * Descriptions of Government * Corruption in Government * The Real Function of Government * What Government Responds to * Political Intentions are Irrelevant * Failures and Contradictions of Government * The War On Drugs * Self-Defense Chapter 9 BEYOND GOVERNMENT * Limited Government * Jury * Government is a Mistake * Arguments Against Anarchism * A Covenant for a Union of Sovereign Americans Chapter 10 RELIGION * Christianity vs Objectivism * Christianity vs the Lightning Rod * Christianity vs Women and Sex * Interview with God * Robert Ingersoll on Religion * Religious Roots of Evil * Attila and the Witch Doctor * Basic Principles of Objectivism - Nathaniel Branden - from Lecture #4 * The Case of God vs the Case of Reality * God as Big Daddy * Religion and Insanity Chapter 11 SPIRITUALITY, ART, AND BEAUTY * The Spirituality of a Scientist * The Credo of a Rational Man * Oath * Love * Marriage * Table Blessing * Art * Beauty * The Need for and Function of Art and Beauty * The Nature of Fiction * Music * Dancing * Some Writing Techniques * The Destruction of Art under Statism * Miscellaneous Comments on Art Chapter 12 THE DISASTROUS STATE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION * SAT score decline * High School dropout rate * Quality of Education * Quality of the Teachers * Futility of Reform * Principles underlying government schooling * Tragic consequences Chapter 13 THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION * Alienation * Principles have Consequences * Freedom/Slavery schizophrenia * Financial Manipulation * Standard of Living * Dependency * Dictatorship American Style * Inheritance Chapter 14 LIBERTARIAN GUERILLA WARFARE * Rebellion against Government * The Peaceful Means Argument * Injustice is Everyone's Fight * The Problem of the Innocents * Questions to Determine Philosophical Orientation * Prerequisites of a revolution * Thoughts on Terrorism and Guerrilla Warfare * Strategy * Tactics * Morale Chapter 15 TO SHRUG - AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE FOR AN INDIVIDUALIST * Underlying Philosophy * Historical Precedent * Implementation of Shrugging * A Different World-View * Escape from the moneylenders * A suitable dwelling * Lifetime supplies * Income reduction * Occupation * Security * The Moral is the Practical * Recommendations * Bibliography __ AN OBJECTIVIST DICTIONARY compiled by David King 58 Spring Valley Drive Milford WY 82520 Many of the items here are not, strictly speaking, definitions - but they do provide some useful insight to the meanings of the concepts. To find each word, search: * word REFERENCES AS :Atlas Shrugged (hardback). Basic :Basic Principles of Objectivism lectures DK :The cogitations of David King. DS :The Disowned Self (hardback). FNI :For the New Intellectual (paperback). HPD :How You Can Profit From the Coming Devaluation (hardback - index) IOE :Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (the original green book). PRL :The Psychology of Romantic Love (hardback). PSE :The Psychology of Self-Esteem (hardback - index) SEM :Recordings of seminars held by Nathaniel Branden about l970 Think :Principles of Efficient Thinking lectures VOS :The Virtue of Selfishness (hardback - index) WAR :Who Is Ayn Rand (paperback). YY/Mmm/pp (e.g.: 67/May/11) :The Objectivist Newsletter or The Objectivist MmmYY-pp (e.g.: Apr87-10) :The Objectivist Forum ------------------------------------------- * ABSURD That which denies the axiom of Identity. That which contradicts itself. That which contravenes an ostensive concept. * ACHIEVEMENT Journal of the Institute for Objectivist Studies May93 The creation of values. * ADMIRATION PSE-129 The pleasure a man takes in the character and achievements of another human being. * ALIENATION Avoid unpleasantness and then avoid the fact that you are avoiding. AS-833 They pretend to themselves that they are not pretending. * ALTRUISM 62/Jul/27 Man must make the welfare of others his primary concern and must place their interests above his own; he has no right to exist for his own sake. * ANXIETY 67/Jan/12 Response to the threatened loss of a value. 66/Nov/7 A state of dread experienced in the absence of any actual threat. What you experience when your body prepares for a challenge that is not here in reality. If the challenge actually exists your excitement and energy can flow into the activity of coping with the challenge. Since the challenge only exists in fantasy there is nothing you can actually do and all your energy and excitement gushes out in trembling and other symptoms of anxiety. This also happens if the challenge is present in reality but you don't dare attempt it yet. * ART 63/Oct/37 65/Apr/16 A selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgements. Metaphysical values are those which reflect an artist's fundamental view of the nature of man and the nature of the universe in which he lives. * ASTROLOGY See Chapter 3 * ATTRIBUTE Basic2 An aspect or characteristic of an object which can be isolated and identified conceptually but which in fact cannot be separated from an object and cannot exist by itself. * AUTHORITARIANISM is the tiny, unnatural wire that reaches out to connect one person's brain with another person's muscles. * AXIOM FNI-155 A statement that identifies the base of knowledge. * BEAUTY DK A concept of consciousness. It is the integration of one or more experiences of pleasure along with one or more observations of a manifestation of one's values. * BLASPHEMY is what an old mistake says of a newly discovered truth. What last year's leaf says to this year's bud. * CAPITAL Accumulated stock of value in excess of immediate consumptive requirements. * CAPITALISM 63/Nov/44 65/Oct/47 65/Nov/54 A social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, and in which all property is privately owned. The process of using wealth not for immediate consumption but for the creation of more wealth. See Chapter 4 * CAUSALITY 66/Mar/9 AS-1037 The law of identity applied to action. All actions are caused by entities. The nature of an action is caused and determined by the nature of the entity that acts; a thing cannot act in contradiction to its nature. * CELEBRATION Basic16 An action undertaken not as a means to an end but as an end in itself, for the purpose of giving an objective expression to the enjoyment of a value achieved in the past. It objectifies the pleasure of consumption after the successful production of a value. * CENSORSHIP 62/Mar/9 A government edict that forbids the discussion of some specific subjects or ideas. * CERTAINTY DK A state of mind in which a person perceives a correlation between his mental images and Reality. See Chapter 3 * CONFIDENCE AS-1019 Basic10 The knowledge that the judgement of one's mind is valid. * CHAOS * RANDOM Compare the behavior of commuters dashing through a train station at rush hour with the behavior of a large, terrified crowd. The activity of the commuters resembles chaos in that although an observer unfamiliar with train stations might think people were running every which way without reason, order does underlie the surface complexity: eveyone is hurrying to catch a specific train. The traffic flow could rapidly be changed simply by announcing a track change. In contrast, mass hysteria is random. No simple announcement would make a large mob become cooperative. * CHARACTER 67/Mar/4 The sum of the principles and values that guide a man's actions in the face of moral choices. * PERSONALITY PRL-75 The externally perceivable sum of all the psychological traits and characteristics that distinguish a human being from all other human beings. 67/Mar/4 The superficial mannerisms by which his principles are acted out. * COGNITIVE * NORMATIVE 65/Mar/10 65/Apr/15 Cognitive abstractions identify the facts of reality. Normative abstractions evaluate the facts, thus prescribing a choice of values and a course of action. Cognitive abstractions deal with that which IS; normative abstractions deal with that which OUGHT TO BE (in the realms open to man's choice). Cognitive abstractions form the epistemological foundation of science; Normative abstractions, of morality and of art. * COINS HPD-178 Real money transformed into a recognizable shape and weight in order to facilitate exchange. * TOKEN HPD-180 A money substitute in metallic form rather than paper. * COMMON GOOD 65/Dec/55 An undefinable concept. "Good" and "Value" pertain only to a living organism - to an individual living organism - not to a disembodied aggregate of relationships. If taken literally its only possible meaning is: the sum of the good of all the individual men involved. But in that case the concept is meaningless as an ethical criterion: it leaves open the question of what is the good of individual men and how does one determine it? The concept becomes an ethical blank check for those who use it. It means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others. * COMMUNICATION DK Transfer of information from one mind to another such that both minds recognize the meaning of the information. * COMPLEX A complex system is one comprised of many agents, each of which interacts with its neighbors and can adapt to change. * COMPROMISE 62/Jul/29 64/Jan/1 An adjustment of conflicting claims by mutual concessions. This means that both parties have some valid claim and some value to offer each other. And this means that both parties agree upon some fundamental principle which serves as a base for their deal. It is only in regard to concretes or particulars implementing a mutually accepted basic principle that compromise can occur. * CONCEPT IOE-17 A mental integration of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristic(s) with their particular measurements omitted. 65/Apr/15 A mental integration of two or more perceptual concretes which are isolated by a process of abstraction and united by means of a specific definition. 67/Jun/7 The meaning of a concept consists of the units - the existents - which it integrates, including all the characteristics of these units. * ANTI-CONCEPT The Ayn Rand Letter pg 1 An unnecessary and rationally unusable term designed to replace and obliterate some legitimate concept. The use of anti-concepts gives the listener a sense of approximate understanding. * CONCEPT OF CONSCIOUSNESS IOE-33 A mental integration of two or more instances of a psychological process possessing the same distinguishing characteristics with the particular contents and the measurements of the action's intensity omitted. * CONCEPTUALIZE 66/Dec/13 To organize an indiscriminate perceptual chaos in terms of essential characteristics. * CONSCIOUSNESS PSE-3 5 The faculty and state of awareness. The condition of an organism in cognizing, perceiving, or sensing. WAR-63 The function of consciousness is perception, cognition and the initiation and direction of action. * COURAGE - BASIC10 The knowledge that to act on the judgment of one's mind is practical. AS-1019 The practical form of being true to existence. * CURRENCY HPD-178 Money substitutes in paper form. * DECIDOPHOBIA The fear of making the decisions that give shape to one's life. * DEDUCTION IOE-30 The process of subsuming new instances under a known concept. * DEFLATION HPD-178 A decrease in the amount of money substitutes that are in excess of the stored stock of real money. * DEFINITION 63/Jan/3: Identify the specific meaning of a concept by isolating the facts of reality to which the concept refers and of which the concept is a mental integration. The purpose of defining one's terms is to afford oneself the inestimable benefit of knowing what one is talking about. 67/Jul/9: To keep a concept distinct from all others, to keep it connected to a specific group of existents. HPD-29: To draw a sharp line between what IS a certain thing and what isn't. BASIC6: A statement that identifies the essential characteristics of the aspect of reality which a concept denotes. IOE-76: A statement that identifies the nature of a concept's units. See Chapter 3 * DEMAND DEPOSIT HPD-178 the storing of your money in a bank but still available on demand, for which you usually pay a fee. * DEPRESSION HPD-178 62/Aug/33 The liquidation period following a prolonged inflationary cycle and/or a liquidation period in which governmental restraint of trade prevents orderly liquidation thereby prolonging a recession. * DEPRESSION 67/Jan/12 Response to the accomplished loss of a value. Dec85- 9 "I want something that I value very highly, something that I believe is crucial to my happiness, and I don't think I can ever have it." Included in the evaluation is a strong element of hopelessness about the future. If the conclusion applied only to the present - only to not achieving some value for the time being - the resulting emotion would be sadness, hurt, and disappointment, but not depression. * SUFFERING 62/Jan/3 The emotion that results from the frustration of one's desire or the destruction of one's values. * DESPAIR Gandalf: Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. * DETERMINISM 63/May/17 Denies the existence of any element of freedom or volition in man's consciousness. It holds that every action, desire and thought of man is determined by forces beyond his control. But if man believes what he HAS to believe; if he is not free to test his beliefs against reality and to validate or reject them; if the actions and content of his mind are determined by factors that may or may not have anything to do with reason logic and reality; then he can never know if his conclusions are true or false. If his capacity to judge is not free there is no way for a man to discriminate between his beliefs and those of a raving lunatic. (Or to assert as truth the postulate of determinism.) * DEVALUATION HPD-178 Repudiation of the government's promise to honor its money substitutes at the stated rate of exchange. * DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM WAR-16 AS-320,952 Man's mind and its content are determined by the material factors of production existing at a given time. Discovery of Freedom by R. W. Lane: The communist is looking for the Authority that controls men and taking it for granted that since the man does not control himself then the Authority that controls him must be his situation. * DISSOCIATION The failure of the power to recall things which normally should be remembered; an interruption or repression of memory. * DOGMA A set of beliefs accepted on faith. * DUTY 70/Jul/3 The distinction is between realistic necessity (obligation) and human whims (duty). A debt you owe to yourself to fulfill. Obligations you have assumed voluntarily. See Integrity, * ECONOMICS is the production, transportation, exchange and consumption of wealth. It is also the study of these activities. There are two broad divisions of economics: Personal (in which a person produces wealth and then consumes that wealth himself) and Social (in which more than one person is involved in the production or consumption of wealth). Macroeconomics: the study of the money supply, the GNP, and the regulation of credit on a nationwide scale. (A lecture on mass transit systems.) Microeconomics: the study of the aggregate of individual market transactions. (A study of the average gas mileage of the local buses.) Picoeconomics (Browneian economics): the study of the relationship of individual human beings to the economic world each lives in. (Directions to the nearest bus stop.) * EGO - PSE-148 161 A man's ego is his mind - his faculty of awareness - the faculty that preserves the inner continuity of his own existence and generates his sense of personal identity. Ego and mind denote the same fact of reality: that which knows, judges and feels. * EGOISM 62/Sep/39 Holds that man is an end in himself; that ethically the beneficiary of an action should be the person who acts. WAR-31 Holds that self interest is man's proper moral goal. * EMERGENCY * CRISIS 63/Feb/6 An unchosen unexpected event, limited in time, that creates conditions under which human survival is impossible. In an emergency situation man's primary goal is to combat the disaster, escape the danger and restore normal conditions. Man cannot live his life by the guidance of rules applicable only to conditions under which human survival is impossible. * EMOTION 62/Jan/3 The psychosomatic form in which man experiences his estimate of the relationship of things to himself. The psycho-somatic embodiment of a value judgement. VOS-27 Estimates of that which furthers man's values or threatens them. 66/Jan/14 Reactions to the appraisal of perceptions, as opposed to feelings which are reactions to the appraisal of sensations. DK States of consciousness produced by actual or anticipated change in the relationship between a person and his values. * EMOTIONAL OPENNESS - SEM 13 Communication of the value-significance of things and events. * ENVY The motive of a man who is willing to make himself worse off in order to bring another down to his level. See Chapter 3 * EPISTEMOLOGY 64/Oct/41 The science that studies the nature and means of human knowledge. Its primary purpose is to establish the criteria of knowledge and thus enable man to distinguish between that which he may and may not regard as knowledge. * ESSENCE IOE-49 The essence of a concept is that fundamental characteristic of its units on which the greatest number of other characteristics depend and which distinguishes these units from all other existents. * ESTEEM Dec86-5 The recognition of character traits or qualities which you judge to be of significant (moral) value. * ETHICS 65/Apr/15 70/Jun/4 VOS-15 The study of the proper values to guide man's choices and actions. * MORALITY 64/Jun/21 64/Nov/48 65/Mar/10 That branch of philosophy that studies values. An abstract conceptual code of values and principles. WAR-24 A code of values accepted by choice. (Morality in children: 65/Mar/9) Moral principles are requirements of man's survival proved by reference to the most fundamental aspects of his existence and to the deepest premises of philosophy. They are life-or-death absolutes. DK Morality describes intra-personal actions whereas Ethics describes inter-personal actions. * EUPHEMISM an inoffensive way of identifying an offensive fact. Or, more likely, a way of avoiding the necessity of identification. * EVALUATION PSE-91 The process of identifying the beneficial or harmful relationship of some aspect of reality to oneself. * EVIDENCE is suggestive or indicative information, frequently based on observations or oral statements. * DATA, on the other hand, usually take the form of numerical information, suitable for processing and analysis. * EXPENSE See Chapter 3 * EXPERIENCE 70/Mar/2 The evidence of man's senses. * EXPLANATION 68/Feb/9 To account for some aspect of reality which you do not understand on the basis of concepts which have already been validated. * EXPLOITATION DK involves the making of two judgements of a situation from two different perspectives. The person being exploited judges his situation and concludes that he is choosing a desirable alternative. The person who sees the situation as exploitative is judging that there are more preferable alternatives available. * FAIR - what informed people freely agree to. * FAITH 62/Mar/11 The acceptance of an idea without evidence or proof or in spite of evidence to the contrary. * FASCISM 65/May/19 A governmental system with strong centralized power permitting no opposition or criticism and controlling all affairs of the nation (industrial, commercial, etc.) * FAVOR 65/OCT/48 A favor means the unearned since the earned is a right not a favor. * FEAR 62/Jan/3 Your response to that which threatens your values. Fear is how you feel when you wait for something bad to happen, and fun is what you have when you figure out a way to make something good happen. * FEELING 66/Jan/14 A positive or negative internal state which is a direct and immediate effect of sensory stimulation. * FORCE The separation of a person from his rightfully achieved values without his voluntary consent. * FRAUD 63/Dec/46 Obtaining material values without their owner's consent under false pretenses or false promises. Receiving values then refusing to pay for them and thus keeping them by force (by mere physical possession) not by right, and without the consent of their owner. * FREE WILL 64/Jan/3 64/Apr/15 holds that man is capable of performing actions that are not determined by forces outside his control; that man has the power of making choices which are causal primaries. Objectivism locates man's free will in a single action of his consciousness: to focus his mind or to suspend it. Man has the power to regulate the action of his own consciousness. * FREEDOM WAR-43 See Chapter 5 In a political-economic context it means only the absence of physical compulsion. A free society is that state of affairs where there are no man-made restraints on the release of creative human energy. * GENERAL PRICE LEVEL HPD-178 the available money supply divided by the goods and services available for sale. * GOOD 64/Nov/47 65/Dec/55 An evaluation of the facts of reality by man's consciousness according to a rational standard of value. The good is an aspect of reality in relation to man. It must be discovered, not invented, by man. Dec83-7 That which a man finds of value through the independent judgment of his rational mind. * GREATNESS AS-1145 To be master of reality in a manner no other has equaled. * HAPPINESS 62/Jan/3 AS-1014 the consequence of fulfilled desire. The emotion that results from the achievement of one's values. * HATRED 62/Jan/3 The consequence of fear. The wish for the destruction of that which endangers my values. * HONESTY PSE-219 AS-859,1019 The refusal to seek values by faking reality - by evading the distinction between the real and the unreal. * HUMANITIES - the study and/or evaluation of man and his actions. * HYPOCRISY - to assert the falsity of that which is real while asserting the reality of that which is false. * IDEA - A light turned on in a man's soul. * IDEALISM 66/Sep/10 Aspiration to any values above the level of the commonplace. * IMPLICIT knowledge is that which is available to your consciousness but which you have not conceptualized. Implicit knowledge is not a substitute for explicit knowledge. Values which you cannot identify, but merely sense implicitly, are not in your control. You cannot tell what they depend on or require, what course of action is needed to gain and/or keep them. And you cannot teach them to your children! Implicit knowledge, since it has not been identified, cannot be challenged. * INDEPENDENCE AS-1019 PSE-219 A commitment to one's own perception of reality as an absolute standard of thought and action. The acceptance of intellectual responsibility for one's own existence. * INDIVIDUALISM 62/Apr/13 As an ethical-political concept it upholds the supremacy of individual rights. The principle that man is an end in himself not a means to the ends of others. As an ethical-psychological concept it holds that man should think and judge independently, valuing nothing higher than the sovereignty of his intellect. Feb86-9 * INDUCTION IOE-30 The process of observing the facts of reality and of integrating them into concepts. * INFATUATION 68/Jan/3 Selectively focusing on one or two aspects of a total personality while ignoring or being oblivious to the rest and responding as though the person were only those particular aspects. * INFLATION HPD-29 An increase in money substitutes above the stock of real money in storage. The counterfeiting of paper money. * INSANITY AS-567 A state where a person can't tell what's real. * INSIGHT like something beautiful boiling up inside me. * INSTINCT See Chapter 3 * INTEGRITY AS-1019 63/Feb/6 is the policy of acting in accordance with one's values - of expressing, upholding and translating them into practical reality. PSE-219 Loyalty in action to the judgement of one's consciousness. Heinlein: Your agreement with yourself to abide by your own rules. * INTELLECTUAL AMMUNITION Verbal bullets for Objectivists who want to shoot their mouths off. * INTELLIGENCE 70/Aug/6 The ability to deal with a broad range of abstractions. IOE-27 33 The standard of measurement that differentiates one type of consciousness from another is its range. It is a measurement of the range of their consciousness: the extent to which they are able to be conscious of the facts of reality, and able to form and manipulate concepts. * IRRATIONALISM 69/Oct/2 The doctrine that reason is not a valid means of knowledge nor a proper guide to action. * IRRATIONALITY 62/Jan/3 The relationship of cognition and evaluation - of reason and emotion - is that of cause and effect. Irrationality consists of the attempt to reverse this relationship: to let one's emotions - one's wishes or fears - determine one's thinking. To judge what is true or false by the standard of what is "pleasant" or "unpleasant." Philosophically this attempt is the cause of mysticism; psychologically it is the cause of neurosis. * IRRELEVANCY A topic not subsumed by the principle that underlies (explicitly or implicitly) the discussion. * JOLLY DK How you feel when you have just spent half an hour listening to the music of Scott Joplin. * JUDGE 62/Apr/15 To evaluate a given concrete by reference to an abstract principle or standard. * JUSTICE PSE-219 IOE-49 AS-737,1019 The practice of identifying men for what they are and treating them accordingly. The practice of recognizing causality and individual responsibility in social behavior. The law of causality and/or the law of Identity applied to human behavior. Maximizing virtue within the limits of human judgement. Notions of justice or injustice don't apply to the results of an impersonal process, only to the general rules that are enforced. * KNOWLEDGE 67/Aug/11 Correct identification of the facts of reality. Acquired not by logic apart from experience or by experience apart from logic but by the application of logic to experience. All truths are the product of a logical identification of the facts of experience. DK The content of a mind which corresponds to truth. * TRUTH IOE-46 The product of the recognition (i.e. identification) of the facts of reality. Basic1 The recognition of reality. An aspect of reality as perceived by a mind. * LANGUAGE 65/Apr/15 A code of visual-auditory symbols that serves the psycho-epistemological function of converting abstractions into concretes, or more precisely into the psycho-epistemological equivalent of concretes: to a manageable number of specific units. (Can be either a tool for identifying and understanding reality or a tool for manipulating one's social environment.) * LAW Basic13 A rule of action pertaining to the relationships of men inhabiting the same country. Tonie Nathan: Enunciations of principles of justice. An operative definition: Law is what government builds to assure its perpetuity. * LAW OF IDENTITY Basic3 Law of Identity: A is A. Law of Contradiction: a thing cannot be A and notA. Law of Excluded Middle: a thing is either A or notA. * LEADER * RULER There is a distinction to be made between a leader and a ruler. A leader is the lady who goes ahead with a torch, lighting the way for those who follow. A ruler is the man who comes behind with a whip, driving them onward. * LIBERTARIANISM is the statement of a political principle. As John Hospers described it: "a philosophy of personal liberty - the liberty of each person to live according to his own choices, provided that he does not attempt to coerce others and thus prevent them from living according to their choices. Libertarians hold this to be an inalienable right of man; thus, libertarianism represents a total commitment to the concept of individual rights." It is a political philosophy, concerned with the appropriate use of force. It asks one question: Under what conditions is the use of force justified? And it gives one answer: only in response to the prior use of force. This political principle is implemented through the social institution of * ANARCHY. See Chapter 3 and Chapter 7 * STATISM 65/May/19 The opposite of libertarianism is statism, the principle that it is proper for the community (or a selected subgroup thereof) to compel the behavior of its individual members. This political principle is implemented through the social institution of government. * STATEOLATRY The stateolatrist is a devout statist who views (usually implicitly) government as an object of religious worship. He regards government as being the ultimate foundation of morality and ethics, and as an absolute prerequisite to civilized human existence. * GOVERNMENT 63/Dec/45 Capitalism The Unknown Ideal pg 46 An institution that holds the exclusive power to enforce certain rules of social conduct in a given geographical area. Think8 A social agency that performs the task of formulating and enforcing the laws of a country. DK The strongest gang of agressors in a particular area at a particular time. Government should be defined as an institution that SEEKS exclusive power, not as one that HOLDS exclusive power. Just as a business is a profit-seeking firm, not necessarily a profit-making firm. * LIFE 63/Apr/13 The process of achieving values. Isaac Asimov: The ability to effect a temporary and local decrease in entropy by means of chemical reactions which are controlled by nucleic acid molecules. * LIQUIDATION HPD-179 Normally, the sale of a property. With regard to recessions and depressions it refers to the acceptance of losses and the closing of businesses that existed only because of the miscalculations caused by inflation. * LOGIC The art of non-contradictory identification of the facts of reality. * LOVE 62/Jan/3 65/Aug/37 Man's emotional response to that which he values. Desire is the consequence of love. PSE-129 Romantic Love is the highest expression of the most intense union of pride and admiration. Its celebration is sex. The psycho-somatic response to the integral of the behaviors that make the shared ecstasy of sex possible. * LUCK See Chapter 3 * MATURITY 65/Nov/53 Psychological maturity pertains to the successful development of man's consciousness; the ability to conceptualize. * MEASUREMENT IOE-13 The identification of a quantitative relationship by means of a standard that serves as a unit. * MEDIATION involves impartial third persons who help the parties in dispute reach agreement. * ARBITRATION involves impartial persons who are given authority to determine the outcome of the dispute. Mediators generally work toward a compromise, but arbitrators reach decisions based on the merits of the case. * ADJUDICATION is the clarification of existing property rights. * MEDIOCRITY WAR-67 85 AS-358 70/Oct/2 An average intelligence that resents and envies its betters. See THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, 773. * MENTAL HEALTH 64/May/20 No clash between perception of reality and peservation of self-esteem. 67/Feb/11 PSE-94 The capacity for unobstructed cognitive functioning and the exercise of this capacity. Mental illness is the impairment of this capacity. * METAPHYSICS 65/Apr/16 The science that deals with the fundamental nature of reality. DK The study of the fundamental nature of the universe as epistemologically inferred rather than as existentially deduced. Metaphyscs is not the science of any particular thing; it is the science of everything. As such, it can have only very minimal principles because all the details have to be discovered on their own, each being a matter of scientific specialization. * MIGHT MAKES RIGHT 63/Jun/21 When "might" is opposed to right the concept of "might" can have only one meaning: the power of brute physical force which in fact is not a "power" but the most hopeless state of impotence; it is merely the "power" to destroy; it is the "power" of a stampede of animals running amok. * MINE is to extract a resource that is not replenished. To * HARVEST is to extract a resource that you then replenish. * MONEY HPD-10,12,15 A commodity accepted in exchange by an individual who intends to trade it for something else. The final argument is that you can always use the nails SOMETIME in the future; they won't lose their value. And if YOU don't use them SOMEONE will. If the money commodity didn't have a separate value you couldn't confidently accept it in trade for what you have produced for you wouldn't know the worth of what you received. Heinlein: The universal symbol for value received. DK: A medium for the measured exchange of wealth. * MONEY SUBSTITUTES Money receipts and demand deposits that are used in exchanges in place of real money. * MONOPOLY 62/Jun/23 COERCIVE: A grant of special privilege by the State reserving a certain area of production to one particular individual or group. The exclusive control of a given field of production so that those in control are able to set arbitrary production policies and charge arbitrary prices, immune from the law of supply and demand. Such a monopoly entails more than the absence of competition; it entails the impossibility of competition. Every coercive monopoly that has ever existed anywhere was created and made possible only by an act of government. NON-COERCIVE: May exist on the free market but is bound by the law of supply and demand (such as a small town with one drug store which is barely able to survive). No commodity can be indispensable to an economy regardless of price. It can be only relatively preferable to other commodities. * MYSTICISM A system of belief which attempts to show that a Supreme Deity is revealed through quiet contemplation and not through an attempt to understand philosophy and theology. The true mystic rejects reason and authority as a basis of the search for truth, employing only tuition and emotion. Basic3 The claim to a non-sensory non-rational form of knowledge. * NATIONALISM A devotion to the social institutions of some particular nation, often coupled with a desire that the favored nation should conquer all other nations militarily, and always coupled with a degree of indifference or even hostility to the social institutions of other nations. * CITIZENSHIP An attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part... and that the part should be willing to sacrifice itself that the whole may live. * NEED PSE-18 62/Mar/11 In order to maintain that something is a physical or psychological need one must demonstrate that it is a causal condition of the organism's survival and wellbeing. * NEUROSIS DS 90 An attempt to protect one's self-esteem and preserve one's survival by self-destructive means. * PSYCHOSIS Basic5 Loss of volitional control over one's rational judgement. * NONSENSE See Chapter 3 * NUMBER IOE-58 A mental symbol that integrates units into a single larger unit (or subdivides a unit into fractions) with reference to the basic number of "one" which is the basic mental symbol of "unit." * OBJECTIVE Basic1 Independent of consciousness. Reality is the OBJECT of consciousness. * OBJECTIVITY 65/Feb/7 Metaphysically it is the recognition of the fact that reality exists independent of any perceiver's consciousness. Epistemologically it is the recognition of the fact that a perceiver's consciousness must acquire knowledge of reality by certain means (reason) in accordance with certain rules (logic). * OBSCENITY 65/Oct/47 AS-901 A peculiar kind of embarrassment when witnessing a grossly inappropriate human performance, such as the antics of an unfunny comedian. It is a depersonalized, almost metaphysical embarrassment at having to witness so undignified a behavior on the part of a member of the human species. * ORIGINAL SIN AS-1025 To hold as man's sin a fact not open to his choice is a mockery of morality. To hold man's nature as his sin is a mockery of nature. To punish him for a crime he committed before he was born is a mockery of justice. To hold him guilty in a matter where no innocence exists is a mockery of reason. To destroy morality, nature, justice and reason by means of a single concept is a feat of evil hardly to be matched. * OWNERSHIP DK The rightfully acquired ability to use and dispose of property. An individual justly owns whatever he has acquired without violating the principles of justice in acquisition and justice in transfer. * PROPERTY 64/Apr/13 Any material element or resource which, in order to become of use or value to men, requires the application of human knowledge and effort should be private property by the right of those who apply the knowledge and effort. * PAPER MONEY HPD-179 Receipts for real money in storage. * PERCEPTS VOS-19 IOE-11 A group of sensations automatically retained and integrated by the brain. PSE-27 Through the stimulation of his various sensory receptors man receives information which travels to his brain in the form of sensations (primary sensory inputs). These sensory imputs as such do not constitute knowledge; they are only the material of knowledge. Man's brain automatically retains and integrates these sensations thereby forming percepts. Percepts constitute the starting point and base of man's knowledge: the direct awareness of entities, their actions and their attributes. * PERFECT - Feb81-3 Flawlessly complete satisfaction of a standard of value. The best possible in a given context. A perfect sphere is a sphere that is flawless in the context of man's form of perception. All concepts are derived from the perceptual level of man's awareness, and all standards of perfection must be consistent with this fact. * PHILOSOPHY FNI-18 An integrated view of life. FNI-22 An integrated view of man, of existence, and of the universe. 70/Jun/4 The science that studies the fundamental aspects of the nature of existence, the fundamental, universal principles of existence. DK A set of principles which provides a consistent and comprehensive frame of reference from which to judge entities and actions. * PITY The Fountainhead 583 The awareness of a man without worth or hope. A sense of finality; of the not to be redeemed. There was shame in this feeling - his own shame that he should have to pronounce such judgment upon a man and that he should know an emotion which contained no shred of respect. * PLEASURE DK The manifestation in consciousness of certain patterns of stimulation of the nervous system. * POLITICS 70/JUN/4 The study of the principles governing the proper organization of society. * PRAXEOLOGY History is a chronological continuum, not a logical one. Cause and effect are in the sequence, however the immediate post hoc effect is often the actual effect of an earlier more distant cause - hence causes and effects are often confused, particularly by those who take a short term perspective. Praxeology (the science of the basic motivations, nature and consequences of human action) is a logical continuum, not a chronological one. It accounts for and ranks the causal forces at work in human history and provides a logical system for anticipating their overlapping, often delayed effects. * PRECEDENT Precedent is merely the assumption that somebody else, in the past with less information, nevertheless knows better than the man on the spot. * TRADITION means to do things in the same grand style as your predecessors; it does not mean to do the same things. * PRESUPPOSE means that you cannot hold concept A unless you have first grasped concept B. * PRIDE 67/May/9 PSE-220 AS-1020 The pleasure a man takes in himself on the basis of and in response to specific achievements or actions. Self-esteem is "I can do." Pride is "I have done." * SELF-ESTEEM 64/May/17 67/Mar/1 67/Dec/1 It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. AS-1057 Reliance on one's power to think. Pseudo self-esteem is an irrational pretense at self-value. * PRINCIPLE 64/Jan/1 A fundamental primary or general truth on which other truths depend. It is not the role of principle to provide particularized concretes for each individual but to enable their discovery. DK The fundamental distinguishing characteristic not of an object but of a set of interconnected actions. * PROBABILITY See Chapter 3 * PRODUCTIVENESS PSE-219 AS-1020 The act of bringing knowledge or goods into existence. 65/Nov/52 Production is the application of reason to the problem of survival. Combining his personal forces with the forces of nature in such a way that the cooperation leads to some particular desired arrangement of material. The transformation of naturally existing entities into material that enables the achievement of human values. The result of this act is * WEALTH * PROFIT The result of helping yourself (which entails self- responsibility). Those who hate profit hate the idea of self-betterment. They are anti-life. * PROOF Basic3 A process of inference. It establishes that a proposition is true by deriving it from previous knowledge. DK Demonstrate a correspondence between an idea and an observed fact. * PROPOSITION 67/Jun/7 A combination of concepts. * PSYCHO-EPISTEMOLOGY 64/Oct/41 The study of the mental operations that are possible to and that characterize man's cognitive behavior. 69/Jul/4 The study of man's cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious. WAR-154 One's method of using his consciousness and considering intellectual issues. * PSYCHOLOGICAL VISIBILITY PSE-186 67/Dec/6 PRL-77 Man needs the experience of self-awareness that results from perceiving his self as an objective existent. He is able to achieve this experience through interaction with the consciousness of other living entities. As for social metaphysicians it is not visibility they seek from others but identity. * PSYCHOLOGY PSE-3,5 The science that studies the attributes and characteristics which certain living organisms possess by virtue of being conscious. The science that studies the attributes and characteristics which man possesses by virtue of his rational faculty. * RACISM 63/Sep/33 The notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage. The notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. A man is to be judged not by his own character and actions but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors. * RATIONALIZE Basic6 To pick some random explanation to justify one's feelings and stick to it regardless of reason, logic, evidence or argument. Think 6 To attempt to justify conclusions that have already been accepted on the basis of one's feelings. * REASON 62/Jan/3 62/Mar/11 The faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the evidence of reality provided by man's senses. PSE-4 Man's ability to extend the range of his awareness beyond the perceptual concretes immediately confronting him. PSE-5 To project a chain of inference that is independent of immediate sensory stimuli. * RATIONAL 65/Dec/55 Derived from the facts of reality and validated by a process of reason. * RATIONALITY PSE-219 The unreserved commitment to the perception of reality, to the acceptance of reason as an absolute - as one's only guide to knowledge, values and action. * RECESSION HPD-179 The liquidation period following an inflation. * REDUCTION Dec86-4 The means of connecting an advanced concept to reality by traveling backwards through the hierarchical logical structure involved in the formation of that concept. * REFERENCES See Chapter 3 * REFLEX PSE-22 An automatic involuntary action which occurs as a consequence of a stimulus to a receptor. It does not involve the faculty of consciousness. * REPRESSION 66/Aug/8 A subconscious mental process that forbids entry into conscious awareness of certain ideas, memories, identifications and evaluations. An automatized avoidance reaction. * REVOLUTION A violent transfer of power from one faction to another faction within the same class is called a * COUP, and this changes nothing. A transfer of power from one class to another is called a revolution, and this does change things - although the changes are not necessarily the ones the revolutionaries sought. Revolutions are always violent, for tyrants will always kill to retain power. * RIGHT TO WORK LAWS 63/Jun/23 Forbid employers and unions from contractually agreeing to an all-union workplace. * RIGHTS 62/Feb/7 63/Apr/13 63/Jun/21 64/Apr/13 64/May/19 VOS-97 AS-1061 WAR-43 See Chapter 5 of my book Rights are the conditions of social existence required by man's nature for his proper survival. * ROMANTICISM 69/May/1 WAR-73 A category of art based on the recognition of the principle that man possesses the faculty of volition. * SACRIFICE Surrender of a higher value in favor of a lower value or of a non-value. * SCHIZOPHRENIA Basic6 Inability to hold the mind focused on a single purpose. No logical relationship between one thought and the next. Definition by non-essentials. DS-128 Oriented exclusively to the internal world of his own experience and disconnected from the external world. Said of Buckminster Fuller's speech: Non-linear endless improvisation. * SCIENCE PSE-2 The rational and systematic study of the facts of reality. Physics discovers what is; engineers turn this knowledge into things that have never been. * SELFISHNESS Concern with one's own well-being. See CHAPTER 1 for a discussion of this concept. * SENSATION VOS-18 The product of the automatic reaction of a sense organ to a stimulus from the outside world. * SENSE OF LIFE 65/Mar/10 A pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics. A subconsciously integrated appraisal of man's nature and the nature of reality, summing up one's view of man's relationship to existence. 66/Feb/1 3 The integrated sum of man's basic values. * SERVICE 63/Mar/12 Work offered for trade on a free market to be paid for by those who choose to buy it. The altruist definition is: unrewarded self- sacrificial unilateral giving while receiving nothing in return. * SIMILARITY IOE-18 The relationship between two or more existents which possess the same characteristic(s) but in different measure or degree. * SOCIAL METAPHYSICS 65/Feb/5 The psychological syndrome that characterizes an individual who holds the consciousnesses of other men, not objective reality, as his ultimate psycho-epistemological frame-of-reference. * SOCIAL SYSTEM 65/Nov/54 A set of ethical-political-economic principles embodied in a society's laws, institutions and government which determine the relationships - the terms of association - among the men living in a given geographical area. * SOCIALISM 62/Dec/53 65/May/19 A theory or system of social organization which advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production - capital, land etc. - in the community as a whole. * SOCIETY 62/Feb/7 For a New Liberty pg 37 A group or number of individual men who live in the same geographical area and who deal with one another. Society is not a separate entity endowed with some sort of autonomous existence apart from the individual men of whom it is composed. Society as such does not exist; only individual men exist. 63/Apr/14 A civilized society is one in which physical force is banned from human relationships and in which the government, acting as a policeman, may use force ONLY in retaliation and ONLY against those who initiate its use. * SOUL 66/FEB/3 A mind and its basic values. Aristotle: The inner meaning of the body's movement. See AS-858 for a discussion of the Soul-Body dichotomy. * SOVEREIGNTY The independent prerogative to determine your own values, actions, goals, thoughts and convictions. * SPIRITUALITY, The reverence one feels at the sight of a great accomplishment. The value a person places on the symbolic expression of the importance of purpose in human life. * STANDARD vs PURPOSE See Chapter 3 * SUBJECTIVE Basic1 Dependent on consciousness. Reality is the SUBJECT of consciousness. * SUBJECTIVISM 63/Jun/21 65/Feb/7 The belief that reality is not a firm absolute but a fluid indeterminate realm which can be altered in whole or in part by the consciousness of the perceiver i.e. by his feelings, wishes or whims. Pure subjectivism does not recognize the concept of identity i.e. the fact that man or the universe or anything possesses a specific nature. * SUICIDE 62/Sep/39 To save the life of a loved one (her death is the price). Fighting for freedom (slavery is the price). If life can have nothing more to offer him at that price then his dying is not a sacrifice. 64/Apr/15 He knows what human existence is and he will not accept anything less. He is unwilling to endure a non-human state of being with escape from death, not the achievement of life, as the best he can hope for. * TAUTOLOGY 67/May/13 Analytic truths represent concrete instances of the Law of Identity therefore are tautologies i.e. a proposition that repeats the same thing: 2+2=4. * TELEOLOGY IOE-34 The study of goal-directed behavior. * THINK PSE-38 39 A man is in focus when and to the extent that his mind is set to the goal of awareness, clarity, and intelligibility with regard to the object of his concern. To sustain that focus with regard to a specific issue or problem is to think. To be in focus is to set one's mind to the purpose of active cognitive integration. To focus is to move from a lower level of awareness to a higher level. To be in focus means that one must know what one's mind is doing. AS-1038 The process of defining identity and discovering causal connections. Leonard Reed: when you shut your mouth and your head begins talking to itself. * THINKING IN PRINCIPLES - Jun87-6 - To abstract the essence of a series of concretes, then identify, by an appropriate use of logic, the necessary implications or result of this essence. You thereby reach a fundamental generalization, a Principle, which subsumes and enables you to deal with an unlimited number of instances. * TIME 62/May/19 Time is a measurement of motion. Motion presupposes entities that move. If nothing existed there could be no time. Time is "in" the universe; the universe is not "in" time. See "On The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" Part 1 for Einstein's view of simultaneity. To grasp the concept of Motion you have to grasp a change of spatial relationships among entities. If you see some stationary objects and one object that is moving, you grasp the fact that it is moving by seeing the changed relationship between it and the other objects, and that gives you the concepts of Time and Space. * TIME DEPOSIT HPD-180 The lending of your money to a bank not to be available for a specified period of time for which you receive a fee (interest). * TO BE See Chapter 3 * TOTALITARIANISM The deliberate use of institutionalized coercion. * UNIT IOE-12 An existent regarded as a separate member of a group of two or more similar members. Things viewed by a consciousness in certain existing relationships. * UNREAL AS-1017 That negation of existence which is the content of a human consciousness when it attempts to abandon reason. * VALUE VOS-15 That which one acts to gain or keep or defend. See AS-1018 for a presentation of the supreme values of Reason, Purpose and Self-esteem. Basic values are abstractions - qualities such as rationality, independence, self-esteem, etc. Particular values are the actual people or entities one values. Something has intrinsic value when it is a direct source of pleasure. It has instrumental value when the pleasure is consequential. Value presupposes a valuer, and some purpose. It is only in relation to some valuer and purpose that something can be said to have value. * VIRTUE 67/Mar/4 AS-1012 1018 The action by which one gains and keeps a value. If you believe that you can have a value without there being an action involved, then you have been effectively deprived of that value. * VIBES DK Good vibes are when your perceptions correspond to your mental construct of what an enjoyable situation should be. Bad vibes are dissonant. * WHIM VOS-14 A desire experienced by a person who does not know and does not care to discover its cause. __ A HANDBOOK OF LOGICAL FALLACIES compiled by David King 58 Spring Valley Drive Milford WY 82520 To find each fallacy, search: * name AD FIDENTIA AMBIGUOUS COLLECTIVE APPEAL TO IGNORANCE ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM ARGUMENTUM AD VERECUNDIAM ASSUMPTION CORRECTION ASSUMPTION BAREFOOT BARKING CAT BEGGING THE QUESTION BOOLEAN SYNDROME COMPLEXITY-SIMPLISTIC DETERMINISM DICTUM EX POST FACTO DISCARDED DIFFERENTIA DONUT ECLECTIC ELEPHANT EMPHATIC EXCLUSIVITY FALSE ALTERNATIVE FALSE ATTRIBUTION FALSIFIABILITY FALSIFIED INDUCTIVE GENERALIZATION FANTASY PROJECTION FLAT EARTH NAVIGATION SYNDROME FLOATING ABSTRACTION FROZEN ABSTRACTION GOVERNMENT ABSOLUTIST GOVERNMENT SOLIPOTENCE GRATUITOUS INCULPATION GRAVITY GAME HOMILY AD HOMINEM I-CUBED IGNORING HISTORICAL EXAMPLE IGNORING UNIT PERCENTAGES INSTANTIATION OF THE UNSUCCESSFUL JOURNALISTIC FALLACIES MEGATRIFLE MOVING GOALPOST SYNDROME NULL VALUE OVERLOOKING SECONDARY CONSEQUENCES PIGEONHOLING POST HOC NULLIFICATIO PRO TEMPERI PRETENTIOUS PRETENTIOUS ANTECEDENT PROOF BY SELECTED INSTANCES PROVING A NEGATIVE REIFICATION OF THE EXISTENT REIFICATION OF THE IMPROBABLE REIFICATION OF THE POSSIBLE RELATIVE PRIVATION RETROGRESSIVE CAUSATION SELECTIVE SAMPLING SELF EXCLUSION SHINGLE SPEECH SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY STOLEN CONCEPT SUPRESSION OF THE AGENT THOMPSON INVISIBILITY SYNDROME TREE/FOREST UNINTENDED SELF-INCLUSION UNKNOWABLES VARIANT IMAGIZATION WOULDCHUCK * AD FIDENTIA - (Against Self-Confidence) If you cannot directly refute someone's principles, you strike indirectly with an attack on their confidence in those principles. Question their certainty of the principles' validity: "How can you be sure you're right?" The AMBIGUOUS COLLECTIVE fallacy is the use of a collective term without any meaningful delimitation of the elements it subsumes. "We" "you" "they" and "the people" are the most widely used examples. This fallacy is especially devastating in the realm of political discussion, where its use renders impossible the task of discriminating among distinctly different groups of people. I often challenge those who commit this fallacy to eliminate from their discussion vocabulary all general collective terms, and each time they want to use such a term to use instead a precisely delimiting description of the group the term is intended to subsume. An antecedentless pronoun is an example in the singular of the Ambigious Collective fallacy. Here are two examples of the Ambiguous Collective fallacy: "Last November, 77% of us voted in favor of term limits." In this statement, who exactly are the "us"? The speaker wants to convey the idea that term limits are very widely supported, but if in fact the 77% refers only to those who voted, that subgroup may well be a quite small percentage of the total population. "We need to train doctors to teach us how to get and stay healthy." In this statement, who are the "we" and who are the "us"? Is the speaker trying to promote socialized medicine by advocating government control of the medical schools? When he says "we need to" does he really mean "the government should"? And is the "us" merely a subtle way of saying "me"? * ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM - (bandwagon fallacy) "All societies require military service. We are a society. Therefore we should require military service." * ARGUMENTUM AD VERECUNDIAM - The appeal to authority. Whose authority? If an issue is to be resolved by such an appeal, the authority must be one recognized by both parties. A justice system which does not recognize the rights of the individual will not provide a satisfactory solution. The only way to make this a viable resolution is if both parties can agree on a completely neutral, objective authority to decide the issue. Where does one exist? Only in the facts of reality. * ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION (The Virtue of Selfishness, chapter 19) "Only the most degenerate, morally depraved, cretinous imbecile could fail to see the truth of my argument." * ASSUMPTION CORRECTION ASSUMPTION - He assumes (implicitly) that I will correct his mistaken assumptions. * BAREFOOT - "If government didn't exercise control over the manufacture, distribution, price and sale of shoes we would all go barefoot!" If "shoes" doesn't suit you, just substitute "police" or "fire protection" or "mail delivery" or anything else the government claims to provide. Nothing the government claims to provide cannot be provided in a more humane, just, and economical manner by free associations of individual people. * ELEPHANT "Hey, mister, you better buy a bottle of my Elephant Repellent. If you don't buy it, the elephants will come into the neighborhood and trample you! My proof that this stuff really works is that there are no elephants around here." for "Elephant Repellent" substitute the word "Government" and for "elephants" substitute the word "crime" or "Russians" or "poverty" or "chaos" or anything else the government claims to prevent. Nothing the government claims to prevent cannot be prevented in a more humane, just, and economical manner by free associations of individual people. * BARKING CAT (From "Free To Choose" by Milton Friedman) What would you think of someone who said, "I would like to have a cat provided it barked"? Yet your statement that you favor a government provided it behaves as you believe desirable is precisely equivalent. The biological laws that specify the characteristics of cats are no more rigid than the political laws that specify the behavior of government agencies once they are established. The way the government behaves and the adverse consequences are not an accident, not a result of some easily corrected human mistake, but a consequence of its constitution in precisely the same way that a meow is related to the constitution of a cat. * BEGGING THE QUESTION - A question that implies and/or uses its answer. "Why should you be good to people?" (He expects me to be good to him by answering his question.) * BOOLEAN SYNDROME - Choosing to view a continuum as represented by only its extremities. It consists in dividing a range of options exhaustively into the two extremes and then insisting that a choice be made between one or the other extreme, without regard to any of the intervening alternatives. * FANTASY PROJECTION - * CONTEXT IMPOSITION - An attempt to impose his own intellectual or moral context on another person by someone who has closed his mind to reality and manufactured his own fantasy, then expects others to share it and help him sustain it. He ignores the objective realities of the situation, concentrating instead on subjective perceptions that are false. "If you were terminally ill, you too would advocate life preservation." "There are no atheists in foxholes." By naming her opinion in advance he would make her unable to alter it. Imposition of the Slave Mentality: "Aren't you thankful that they allow this?" (I am expected to limit myself to the context of "their" allowables.) The proper answer is, "No, I am resentful that they forbid other freedoms I should possess." They have a six-inch knife and have stuck it four inches into me. Should I be thankful they have not shoved it in the final two inches? Or resentful that they have shoved it in four inches? (I am expected to accept their behavioral context and to judge my situation from within that context.) * I-CUBED - You assume that your adversary is Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Inexperienced and then impose this context on the discussion. I almost always encounter this from astrologers, who admonish me to "examine this before you reject it!" They always assume I have not done so. * PIGEONHOLING - An attempt to subsume something into a frame-of-reference that is too small to incorporate the thing. You call me a name so you don't have to see me - you just see the name that you call me. * DISCARDED DIFFERENTIA - Define by using the Genus only. * DONUT - A form of false dichotomy. Insists that all donuts be divided into two piles: large donuts and sugar donuts. * ECLECTIC FALLACY - Eclecticism consists of selecting the good parts from a set of ideas and discarding the bad parts. But this process implies that you already know how to do the selecting, and have a standard of judgment to use for evaluating the ideas. If you in fact do, then there is no problem and eclecticism is a valid intellectual process. But if you approach a set of ideas in a state of ignorance then you are not intellectually equipped to pick and choose from among them. You could not know whether what you accepted is true or false. Herein lies the danger of eclecticism - if you are going to pick and choose you must already have enough knowledge to do the selecting. * SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY - When a disputant allows himself to be sidetracked by irrelevancies, ignoring his opponent's logic and evidence. He cannot grasp the whole of the issue - or the principle underlying it - so he focuses on some small part (usually just one word) and directs his rebuttal to an attack on that tiny bit which is all he can perceive. "What do you mean by ------?" Where ------ is any word included in your presentation, usually a quite ordinary word which your opponent uses without any difficulty in other contexts. He views things through his specialized eyes, extracts a part of the truth and refuses to see more, sometimes quoting your least significant statements, in order to make it appear that you have said nothing better. Some Ad Hominem arguments probably have the same source: He can't see your ideas so he directs his rebuttal at your person. Or will simply start talking about something he CAN understand - the result being a jarring change-of- subject in the discussion. He seizes upon one instance and constructs a generalization from it: Observing that I don't like clams, he concludes that I have an aversion to sea food in general. She sees something happen once or twice and concludes that it is a regularly-occuring phenomenon. These responses are not consciously deliberated, but result from his inability to perceive the focal idea of the discussion. His only alternative to one of these responses would be bovine immobility - unless he possessed a sufficient degree of intellectual acumen to realize his lack of comprehension, and a sufficient degree of self-esteem to admit to it. * HOMILY AD HOMINEM - Appealing to a person's feelings or prejudices, rather than his intellect, with a trite phrase designed to reinforce a subjective rather than objective view of a situation. If the homily is not accepted in answer to the situation, the next thing that will be done is to attack the person's character rather than answer his argument. * EMPHATIC FALLACY - To emphasize one element of a set at the expense of other equally significant elements. Or to place emphasis on a spurious aspect of a situation. You see this when people react violently to comparatively minor troubles but are seemingly unshaken by really serious ones. It is a sort of being at a loss for a proportionate emotional reaction - a shivering at shadows. * MEGATRIFLE - Take a small, inconsequential effect and magnify it to become all-encompassing in its supposed influence. These are people whose fear of the snake in the grass is so great that they are unable to see the bear that is about to eat them. * COMPLEXITY-SIMPLISTIC FALLACY - If someone comes up against a large bundle of particular facts, but has no general principles with which to integrate those particulars, and is not in the habit of thinking in principles, the multiplicity of facts will appear so complex to him that he will not be able to deal with the situation analytically. You will hear him say: "This is too complex a situation to yield any easy solution!" "Unfortunately, no easy answers exist. The solution to the problem will turn out to be as complex as the problem itself." "That's a simplistic view of a complex situation." For him it is indeed too complex - he has no way to sort the facts, to identify their distinguishing characteristics, and to grasp the fundamentals underlying them. Without integrating principles he just cannot cope. His solution will be an Ad Hoc solution that will fail to address more than a few of the particulars. He will manifest a Descriptive (rather than Analytical) intellectuality. (The descriptive person believes that his description IS an analysis.) He does not think in principles, but focuses his attention on the presentation of specific phenomena only. Complexity does not make something unintelligible, any more than the complexity of the symptoms of a disease make the cause of those symptoms unintelligible. What makes the phenomenon unintelligible is the attempt to analyze it without reference to fundamental principle - to a unifying cause. Abstraction offers a method for thinking about complicated issues in a precise way. By resorting to particularizing rather than generalizing, pragmatists are left floundering in a mire of complexity. The contention that principles are simplistic is a spurious one; it is only by means of principles that man is able to retain and make use of the vast storehouse of knowledge relevant to any given issue. Concretes by themselves are meaningless, and cannot even be retained for long; abstractions by themselves are vague or empty. But concretes illuminated by an abstraction acquire meaning, and thereby permanence in our minds; and abstractions illustrated by concretes acquire specificity, reality, the power to convince. * FLOATING ABSTRACTION - (Barbara Branden's lectures, Principles of Efficient Thinking - lecture #4) a generalization subsuming no particulars. * GOVERNMENT ABSOLUTIST - This consists of making comparative judgments (usually of people's behavior) that are based not on any moral or ethical principle but are made by reference to a government (invariably one's own government). The consequence is to make a spurious distinction between two people (or groups) who in fact manifest identical behavior. Tom Clancy: "Terrorists don't relate to the people around them as being real people. They see them as objects, and since they're only objects, whatever happens to them is not important. Once I met a man who killed four people and didn't bat an eye; but he cried like a baby when we told him his cat died. People like that don't even understand why they get sent to prison; they really don't understand. Those are the scary ones." What Clancy cannot see is that any policeman or any soldier of any country manifests exactly the same behavior that Clancy has condemned as terrorism. William Buckley: "The Cold War is a part of the human condition for so long as you have two social phenomena which we can pretty safely denominate as constants. The first is a society that accepts what it sees as the historical mandate to dominate other societies - at least as persistently as microbes seek out human organisms to infect. And the second phenomenon, of course, is the coexistence of a society that is determined NOT to be dominated or have its friends dominated." Buckley does not realize that a Soviet analyst would make precisely the same identification that Buckley has made, but with the roles reversed. * GRATUITOUS INCULPATION * SPURIOUS CAUSATION "The consumer will have to pay the bill for the oil spill." "Scientists are responsible for the danger of nuclear war." "The advance of modern medicine underlies the present population explosion." "Henry Ford is responsible for air pollution." "Taxpayers are forced to finance policies that many of them would oppose." The taxpayer does not do the financing - the government does. The statement implies that the taxpayer is performing some positive action, when in fact he is the passive victim. These seem to be variants of the POST HOC fallacy. The selected element is contributory but is certainly not a sufficient cause. An attempt is being made to transfer blame onto someone who is only marginally (or not at all) responsible. * EXCLUSIVITY FALLACY - Trying to make an idea of limited applicability extend in its coverage to the inclusion of an overly large range: "All human experience can be explained by a study of energy flows." * FALSE ALTERNATIVE - Assuming that only one alternative exists in a given situation, when in fact, a second and usually more fundamental alternative exists. * OVERLOOKING SECONDARY CONSEQUENCES - To consider only the immediate results of an action, ignoring the long-term effects. Along with this is the fallacy of * IGNORING HISTORICAL EXAMPLE. People who do not look into the future beyond the end of their nose also do not look into the past beyond yesterday (and sometimes not even that far). If they did, they would readily see that the previous implementation of their schemes was invariably a failure. Not only do they fail to see that the scheme WOULD BE a failure, they fail to see that it HAS BEEN a failure. * FALSE ATTRIBUTION - The Straw Man syndrome. Present a false description of your adversary and then base your repudiation on that description. "Objectivism advocates infanticide, therefore Objectivism is evil." * FALSIFIABILITY - (Karl Popper) A conjecture or hypothesis must be accepted as true until such time as it is proven to be false. Popper maintains that scientists approach the truth through what he calls "conjecture and refutation." In actuality, scientists approach the truth not through conjecture and refutation, but through conjecture and CONFIRMATION - the demonstration, by means of careful experiment, that a hypothesis corresponds to the facts of reality. Until the phenomenon is proven TRUE there is no obligation to base my attitude toward it on the assumption that it MIGHT be true. If there were such an obligation, then I would be obliged to give serious consideration to every crackpot notion that has ever been put forward. * FLAT EARTH NAVIGATION SYNDROME - Devoting a lot of time and energy to solving problems that don't exist, such as figuring out ways to navigate on a flat earth. Generalizing from a hypostatization. Looking for an easy way out of a dilemma that does not exist. Theology is a study with no answers because it has no subject matter. * FROZEN ABSTRACTION - (The Virtue of Selfishness, chapter 10) Substituting a particular concrete for the wider abstract class to which it belongs - such as using a specific ethics (e.g., altruism) for the wider abstraction "ethics." * GOVERNMENT SOLIPOTENCE - If the government is not doing something about a problem, then nothing can be done about it. Only the government can solve society's problems. * GRAVITY GAME - This consists of demanding that an idea be proven over and over again indefinitely before its validity is acceptable. (The name was conceived while watching an infant throw her toy onto the floor over and over and over again.) An open mind does not grant equal status to truth and falsehood. Nor does it remain floating forever in a stagnant vacuum of neutrality and uncertainty. * INSTANTIATION OF THE UNSUCCESSFUL - To insist on implementing something which is known to have failed. "What we need is government control of the economy!" * MOVING GOALPOST SYNDROME - "Computers might be able to understand Chinese and think about numbers but cannot do the crucially human things, such as...." - and then follows their favorite human specialty - falling in love, having a sense of humor, etc. But as soon as an artificial intelligence simulation succeeds, a new "crucial" element is selected (the goalpost is moved). Thus the perpetrators of this fallacy will never have to admit to the existence of artificial intelligence. * NULL VALUE - A statement (or question) that gives (or elicits) no cognitively meaningful information: "Are you honest?" If he's honest, he'll say 'Yes' - but if he's a liar, he'll say 'Yes' You learn nothing in either case. * POST HOC NULLIFICATIO PRO TEMPERI - (Temporal nullification of a previous phenomenon) Unless you can specify the exact moment I made a certain statement, then you must concede my insistence that I never made that statement. "When did I say that?" For a clever (and bewildering) retort reply: "About 20 minutes past 2 on Thursday afternoon." * DICTUM EX POST FACTO The alteration of history by personal decree. This is done by the sort of person who tries to rewrite history with his tongue. * PRETENTIOUS - Here the speaker assumes omniscience in respect to the subject under consideration. He assumes also that he speaks for the entire human race. "We don't know what life is" (or insanity, intelligence, etc). "We can't conceive of personal death." Any attempt to refute this fallacy will usually elicit its corollary, The Falsifiability Syndrome. * PRETENTIOUS ANTECEDENT - Having made a brief reference to a phenomenon, you later assert that the phenomenon has now been fully explained. * PROOF BY SELECTED INSTANCES - Richard Feynman: "Many years ago I awoke in the dead of night in a cold sweat, with the certain knowledge that a close relative had suddenly died. I was so gripped with the haunting intensity of the experience that I was afraid to place a long-distance phone call, for fear that the relative would trip over the telephone cord (or something) and make the experience a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fact, the relative is alive and well, and whatever psychological roots the experience may have, it was not a reflection of an imminent event in the real world. After my experience I did not write a letter to an institute of parapsychology relating a compelling predictive dream which was not borne out by reality. That is not a memorable letter. But had the death I dreamt actually occurred, such a letter would have been marked down as evidence for precognition. The hits are recorded, the misses are not. Thus human nature unconsciously conspires to produce a biased reporting of the frequency of such events. If enough independent phenomena are studied and correlations sought, some will of course be found. If we know only the coincidences and not the unsuccessful trials, we might believe that an important finding has been made. Actually, it is only what statisticians call the fallacy of the enumeration of favorable circumstances." * FALSIFIED INDUCTIVE GENERALIZATION - Restrict a wide abstraction to a narrow set of particulars and then conclude that an attribute of these particulars must be definitive of the abstraction, thus negating the entire principled structure underlying the abstraction. A similar fallacy is that of equating opposites by substituting nonessentials for their essential characteristics. "They concluded that a free market, by its nature, leads to its own destruction - and they came to the grotesque contradiction of attempting to preserve the freedom of the market by government controls; to preserve the benefits of laissez-faire by abrogating it." * PROVING A NEGATIVE - (The Objectivist Newsletter, April 1963) "Proving the non-existence of that for which no evidence of any kind exists. Proof, logic, reason, thinking, knowledge pertain to and deal only with that which exists. They cannot be applied to that which does not exist. Nothing can be relevant or applicable to the non-existent. The non-existent is nothing. A positive statement, based on facts that have been erroneously interpreted, can be refuted - by means of exposing the errors in the interpretation of the facts. Such refutation is the disproving of a positive, not the proving of a negative.... Rational demonstration is necessary to support even the claim that a thing is possible. It is a breach of logic to assert that that which has not been proven to be impossible is, therefore, possible. An absence does not constitute proof of anything. Nothing can be derived from nothing." If I say, "Anything is possible" I must admit the possibility that the statement I just made is false. (See Self Exclusion) Doubt must always be specific, and can only exist in contrast to things which cannot properly be doubted. * REIFICATION OF THE POSSIBLE - Regarding a possible effect as being a certainty, when making an evaluation of a cause. This has two significant variants: * Reification of the Improbable, and * Reification of the Existent, which consists of basing one's criticism of a scheme on the observation that one possible outcome of that scheme might lead to a state of affairs that already exists under the present circumstances. * RELATIVE PRIVATION - To try to make a phenomenon appear good, by comparing it with a worse phenomenon, or to try to make a phenomenon appear bad, by comparing it with a better phenomenon. Consider junkfood. A very nutritionally-conscious person has a rather low opinion of junkfood. But what would be your attitude toward a greasy hamburger if you hadn't eaten for three or four days? You can malign junkfood because your nutritional standards are high enough to permit you to do so. But an Ethiopian would like nothing better than to have access to MacDonald's, Hardee's or Wendy's and, in fact, such access would be the best thing that could happen to the Ethiopian. Because you have alternatives that the Ethiopian does not have, he is in a position of relative privation when compared to you. In just the same way, the people who labored in sweatshops at the turn of the century were in a state of relative privation when compared to you. Because your alternatives are different (and much better), the sweatshop seems to you to be an abomination, but in fact the sweatshop was immensly preferable to the alternatives available to them. "Eat your carrots! Just think of all the starving children in China." "I used to lament having no shoes - until I met a man who had no feet." The real danger from this last example of the fallacy is that if people believe that their own situation really is ameliorated by such a comparison, they will naturally conclude that their own situation can, in practice, actually BE ameliorated by MAKING somebody else worse off! * RETROGRESSIVE CAUSATION - An interview with a young woman who had seven children - all of them "crack babies": Interviewer: "Didn't you ever think about the effect your drug use was having on your children?" Woman: "Yeah, that thought entered my mind now and then. Whenever it did, I got high so that I wouldn't have to think about it." The cause (drug use) has an effect (remorse). She invokes the cause in order to eliminate the effect. Thus the effect acts retrogressively to induce further implementation of the cause. * SELF EXCLUSION - This is a form of the Stolen Concept fallacy. It denies itself. "Nothing makes any difference." (including this statement?) "Music is the only genuine form of communication." (but this statement, meant to be a communication, is not music) "True knowledge is impossible to man." (but this statement is meant to be knowledge) "There are no absolutes." (except this one, of course) "Words have no validity." To say that "one should not make judgments" is to make a judgment. "There are questions whose truth or untruth cannot be decided by men; all the supreme questions, all the supreme problems of value are beyond human comprehension." .... Nietzsche David Kelley: "To assert 'what is known depends on the knowledge of it' is to offer that very thesis as something known, and therefore as a statement that subsumes itself. But this is manifestly not what the proponent of the thesis intends. That facts depend on our belief in them, he implies, is objectively true, a fact of reality about consciousness and its objects, made true by the nature of things, not by his believing it. Otherwise he would have to allow that objectivity is a fact for the objectivist. He would have to allow that the primacy of consciousness is both true, because he believes it, and false, because the objectivist denies it. [But the Marxist multi-logic dialectic does indeed assert this very notion.] To avoid this, he must assert that the objectivist is wrong, which means asserting the primacy of consciousness as a fact he himself did not create. He thereby contradicts his own thesis. It is an inner or performative contradiction, like that of the person who denies the axiom of action - the denial itself being an action." * SHINGLE SPEECH - Agglomerating several different superficial aspects of a subject, in hopes that the resulting verbal structure will be comprehensible. * STOLEN CONCEPT - (The Objectivist Newsletter, Jan 1963) Using a concept while ignoring, contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically and genetically depends. "All property is theft." "The axioms of logic are arbitrary." (something is arbitrary only in distinction to that which is logically necessary.) "All that exists is change and motion." (change is possible only to an existent entity) "You cannot prove that you exist." (proof presupposes existence) "Acceptance of reason is an act of faith." (faith has meaning only in contradistinction to reason) * SUPRESSION OF THE AGENT - "During the economic crisis, millions of people were thrown out of work." Who threw them out? The first answer to this would probably be, "their employers." The statment certainly invites the readers to infer this. But in fact, government, which destroyed the unfortunate workers' industries by means of taxation and regulation, is the causal agent that the passive construction of the statement suppresses or banishes from the mind. Dehumanization of the Action: "During the first two years of Garcia's administration, the economy grew rapidly." This sentence establishes a strong, though implicit, causal connection between Garcia's interventionist programs and good economic news. "But inflation escaped the government's control and the economy soon began to contract." Economic developments are now pictured as things with their own, non-human, principles of action. They are not caused by anything that humans like Garcia do, but proceed on their own way. * THOMPSON INVISIBILITY SYNDROME - (Atlas Shrugged Part3 Chap8 pg1076) Someone so far removed from your frame of reference that he is psychologically invisible. * TREE/FOREST Fallacy: People who don't think in principles will not be able to see the principles underlying a philosophy. Usually, all they will be able to see is the behavior of individuals who call themselves adherents of that philosophy. * UNINTENDED SELF-INCLUSION (from James P. Hogan) "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell. Why didn't he put "I think" at the end of it? By omitting the "doubt- qualifier" Russell is unintentionally describing his own attitude. * UNKNOWABLES (The Objectivist Newsletter, Jan 1963) "That which, by its nature, cannot be known. To claim it unknowable, one must first know not only that it exists but have enough knowledge of it to justify the assertion. The assertion and the justification are then in contradiction. To make the assertion without justification is an irrationalism." Branden's argument implies that the unknowable must be a particular, specifiable entity. I maintain that it can be merely an aspect of existence that consciousness cannot perceive. To assert that all things CAN be known is to imply that existence is subsumed by consciousness. I claim that there are unknowables. Not any particular, specifiable unknowable items (for that would indeed be the contradiction noted above), but merely aspects of reality that are unperceiveable. (You cannot simultaneously perceive both sides of your cat.) My justification for this assertion is the primacy of existence over consciousness. Thus Quantum Indeterminacy is a genuine phenomenon. It is the closest we can come to specifying an aspect of reality that is unknowable: the simultaneous perception of position and momentum. * VARIANT IMAGIZATION - Generating dissimilar images from similar concepts. Certain kinds of crops, such as corn, are "harvested", but other kinds, such as trees, are "slashed" or "devastated". Who would forbid farmers to "harvest" a crop of beets? But who would willingly allow men armed with chainsaws to "devastate" the ecology? * WOULDCHUCK FALLACY - If you take the old tongue-twister: "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" and make a slight homonymous substitution: "How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a wouldchuck could chuck would?" you arrive at a description of a certain kind of dissertation made by people who are trying to "prove" an idea for which they have no factual corroboration. This is a description of much of scientific belief before the time of Galileo. For instance, it was believed that if you dropped a 5-pound rock and a 10-pound rock simultaneously, the 10-pounder WOULD hit the ground first because, being heavier, it WOULD therefore be pulled down harder and WOULD therefore travel faster. Notice the use of the word "would" in those statements. This expression of conditional probability is chucked around as though it were an assertion of factual reality. Implicit to such statements is the assumption that what seems plausible is therefore true and requires no further proof. I became acutely aware of this "Wouldchuck" argument while reading the Tannehills' book, "The Market For Liberty." The entirety of Part2, which sets forth in detail their view of a free-market society, consists of the Wouldchuck argument. Here is a typical example: "This insurance would be sold to the contracting parties at the time the contract was ratified. Before an insurance company would indemnify its insured for loss in a case of broken contract, the matter would have to be submitted to arbitration as provided in the contract. For this reason there would be a close link between the business of contract insurance and the business of arbitration." Sounds plausible, doesn't it? Yes... BUT, no proof of these conjectures is offered. They are nothing more than unsubstantiated hypostatizations. The proponent of a program, through the use of this argument, can articulate a comprehensive framework within which the implementation of his program seems undeniably plausible. But if the framework itself has no other foundation than this WouldChuck supposition, the whole scheme rests on a very shaky basis. * APPEAL TO IGNORANCE - Assertions based on what we do NOT know: "No one knows precisely what would happen if a core was to melt down." And the compounding of arbitrarily asserted possibilities. What COULD happen is what is possible. The burden of proof is on the skeptic to provide some specific reason to doubt a conclusion that all available evidence supports. It is not true that "coulds" and "maybes" are an epistemological free lunch that can be asserted gratuitously. The case against the skeptic is that doubt must always be specific, and can only exist in contrast to things which cannot properly be doubted. * SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT Consent to what? Just what is it I consent to when I do NOT vote? To the policies of Bush? To the policies of Clinton? To the policies of Marrou? To the policies of all those whose principled disagreement with the electoral system precludes their participation in it? The process of implication contains a causal relationship. For one thing to imply another thing, there must be a causal sequence between the two things. People who make the assertion "silence implies consent" never propose any chain of logical connection between the silence and the consent. Precisely how does consent arise from silence? How can dead men be said to consent to anything? If my silence does imply consent, then how far does that implication reach? Am I considered to consent to all things about which I am silent? Even those about which I am completely ignorant? To the fact that someone in Calcutta beats his wife? If I must express disapproval of all things with which I do NOT consent, for fear of reproach resulting from my silence about any of them, there would not be sufficient hours in the day for such a plethora of denials. * DETERMINISM (The Objectivist Newsletter, May 1963) - "The doctrine of determinism contains a central and insuperable contradiction - an EPISTEMOLOGICAL contradiction - a contradiction implicit in any variety of dererminism, whether the alleged determining forces be physical, psychological, environmental or divine. In fact, Man is neither omniscient nor infallible. This means: (a) that he must work to ACHIEVE his knowledge, and (b) that the mere presence of an idea inside his mind does not prove that the idea is true; many ideas may enter a man's mind which are false. But if man believes what he HAS to believe, if he is not free to test his beliefs against reality and to validate or reject them - if the actions and content of his mind are determined by factors that may or may not have anything to do with reason, logic and reality - then he can never know if his conclusions are true or false....But if this were true, no knowledge - no CONCEPTUAL knowledge - would be possible to man. No theory could claim greater plausibility than any other - including the theory of psychological determinism." One of the catches to determinism is that you cannot argue with it. To argue is to make an attempt to induce someone to alter the actions or content of his mind. The determinist enters the argument with the claim that such alteration is impossible - that he has no power to volitionally change his state of consciousness. He says, and means literally, "My mind is made up - don't confuse me with the facts!" Biologists have tacitly assumed that when they have understood the operation of each molecule in a nerve membrane, they will understand the operation of the mind. But both the digital and the analog paradigms of computation make it clear that this assumption is wrong. After all, a computer is built from a completely known arrangement of devices whose operation is understood in minute detail. Yet it is often impossible to prove that even a simple computer program will calculate its desired result or, for that matter, whether the computation will even terminate. Wilder Penfield explored the brain with electrical probes. By stimulating different parts of the brain he could cause a subject to turn his head, blink his eyes, move his limbs and a host of other things. But though he could make the patient's hand move he could never make the patient feel that he had WILLED the hand to move. Penfield found that the effects of consciousness could be selectively controlled by outside manipulation. But however much he probed, he could not enter consciousness itself. He could not find the mind and invade its autonomy. The fundamental question of free will does not involve Man's physical behavior but his psychological behavior. It concerns Man's ability to control the functioning of his own mind. On the Determinist premise, men are not merely unfit for freedom, they are metaphysically incapable of it since they do not have fundamental control over the choices made in their minds. Political issues become matters of pure pragmatism: there is no right or wrong, but only effective or ineffective techniques of social manipulation. * JOURNALISTIC FALLACIES: Some subtle methods of media distortion: use of emotionally loaded images, isolation of events from their historical context, limitation of debate to "responsible" options, framing of dissident viewpoints in ways that trivialize them, personification of complex realities (Saddam = Iraq), objectification of persons ("collateral damage") * SELECTIVE SAMPLING - "The death rate among American soldiers in Vietnam was lower than among the general population." But the soldiers in Vietnam were young and healthy. You are comparing them with a data base including non-young and non-healthy people. * IGNORING UNIT PERCENTAGES - "You are safer walking down a dark alley than sitting in your living room with friends, because most murders are committed in the victim's home by his acquaintances." This ignores the fact that most people spend much more of their time at home than walking down alleys. __ SOURCE MATERIAL FOR THE STUDY OF OBJECTIVISM Some of the authors cited here are not Objectivists, nonetheless many of their ideas are excellent expressions of Objectivist principles. * General Philosophy * Epistemology * Psychology * Morality * Ethics * Politics * Economics * Esthetics * Education * Science Fiction as an introduction to the study of Science * Science Fact * Books and Movies in the Romantic Art Form * Miscellaneous good stuff Most of this stuff can be purchased from: LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS 938 Howard St #202 San Francisco 94103 Write and ask them for their catalog. The lectures are on cassette tapes. For more information on any of these subjects, contact: David King 58 Spring Valley Drive Milford WY 82520 * General Philosophy THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS - Ayn Rand & Nathaniel Branden (Signet book #AE2931) ATLAS SHRUGGED - Ayn Rand - Random House THE OBJECTIVIST NEWSLETTER, THE OBJECTIVIST, THE AYN RAND LETTER, THE OBJECTIVIST FORUM A series of monthly journals published from 1962 to 1985 by Rand et al. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF OBJECTIVISM - 20 lectures by N. Branden FOR A NEW LIBERTY - Murray Rothbard - Libertarian Review Foundation An excellent application of libertarianism to all aspects of social existence. Everything is nicely explained by detailed reference to the non- aggression principle. * Epistemology PRINCIPLES OF EFFICIENT THINKING - 10 lectures by Barbara Branden 1984 - George Orwell - New American Library (Signet) 451 CY688 This is the most prophetic book of the 20th century. Orwell's concepts of Newspeak and Prolefeed are indispensable to an understanding of the development of American culture during the last half of this century. A thorough knowledge of Newspeak, as it has been implemented in America, is the best means by which one can avoid an immense quagmire of faulty thinking. INTRODUCTION TO OBJECTIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY - Rand - Ed. by Binswanger and Peikoff - Penguin 452-01030-6 EVIDENCE OF THE SENSES - David Kelley - Louisiana State Univ. Press L-261 TRUTH AND TOLERATION - David Kelley * Psychology PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF-ESTEEM - Nathaniel Branden - Bantam 23449 If you haven't read this book, you don't really know what psychology is. In this work Psychology has found an Aristotle to organize its material, systematize its problems and define its fundamental principles. THE DISOWNED SELF - N. Branden - Bantan 22794 ROBIN AND MARIAN - James Goldman - Bantam T2772 Is the screenplay for the movie starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn (the story of how Robin Hood died). The introductory essay, on the subject of heroes, is magnificent. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ROMANTIC LOVE - 16 lectures by N. Branden * Morality HOW I FOUND FREEDOM IN AN UNFREE WORLD - Harry Browne - Macmillan Practical procedures for achieving as much personal freedom as possible in an authoritarian society. * Ethics LIBERTARIANISM - John Hospers - Nash, 1971 (out of print) LIBERTARIANISM IN ONE LESSON - David Bergland - Orpheus Publications Clearly shows the fundamental differences among the Liberal, Conservative, and Libertarian ethical views. EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION - Robert Axelrod - Basic Books Explains how cooperation can emerge among self-seeking individuals when there is no central authority to police their actions. Not surprisingly, the most practical way of dealing with the Prisoners' Dilemma is to use a technique based on the libertarian ethic. (Axelrod is not a libertarian.) MARKET FOR LIBERTY - Morris and Linda Tannehill - Laissez Faire Books, 1970 Contains some excellent statements of principle, but all else consists of the WouldChuck argument. THE ENTERPRISE OF LAW contains the proof for the principles presented in this book. FOR A NEW LIBERTY fills in the principled basis. * Politics CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - Henry Thoreau (in "Walden and Other Writings", Bantam 21246) A classic portrayal of the anarchist principle. ENTERPRISE OF LAW - Bruce Benson - Pacific Research Institute There is a lot of sloppy thinking in this book, but nevertheless it is a very good documentation of the historical rise and development of government law, the present disastrous state of government law, and the present nature of private law. This book is a good answer to the question "What is government?" A strong case is made that government in the USA is a tool of coercion used by special-interest groups to effect wealth transfers. THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS - Robert Heinlein - Berkley 0 425 06262 7 A colony on the Moon is Earth's "Botany Bay." The central managing computer becomes a conscious entity and it, along with a few of the humans, stage a revolution, freeing Luna from Earth's control. The best SF story ever written. It contains some of Heinlein's best political philosophy. THE GREAT EXPLOSION - Eric Frank Russell - Avon (Equinox) 23820 Includes a portrayal of a society without government VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR - James P Hogan - Ballantine Del Ray 29472 Portrayal of a society without government THE SYNDIC - C.M. Kornbluth - Avon (Equinox) 20586 The government has been driven out of America, and the country is ruled by a consortium of the Mafia et al. THE PROBABILITY BROACH - L. Neil Smith - Ballantine 28593 What would America be like today if the Whiskey Rebellion had been successful, Washington executed, the Constitution abolished, and the political ideals of the Anti-Federalists implemented? * Economics HOW YOU CAN PROFIT FROM THE COMING DEVALUATION - Harry Browne - Arlington House, 1970 (out of print) Despite its unfortunate name, this is an excellent textbook on economics. ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON - Henry Hazlitt - Harper & Row This book is an excellent refutation of many economic errors. But that's all it is. The entire work is a criticism of economic error and an apology for the institution (government) that perpetrates that error. He nowhere proposes what might be the proper course of economic endeavor. I think this would make a good primer - something that would clear away the mistaken beliefs in a person's mind. CAPITALISM THE UNKNOWN IDEAL - Rand et al. - Signet E9227 HOW THE WEST GREW RICH - Nathan Rosenberg and L.E.Birdzell, Jr. - Basic Books This is a fascinating and illuminating history of the economic growth of our society, from the demise of the feudal system of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. This book is an excellent starting point for a study of economic history. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN BUSINESS - Ed. by John Brooks - Doubleday PANICS AND CRASHES - Harry Schultz - Pinnacle Books 230516 This is an excellent history book, with lots of fascinating documentation, but not much at all in the way of principled guidance. THE ECONOMIC TIME BOMB - Harry Browne - St. Martin's Press, 312-92133-0. Browne argues that the larger danger in a crisis situation is not the crisis itself but the potentially destructive effect of any legislation that might be enacted to deal with it. This applies not only to real crises, but also to imagined ones. As such "non-problems" as the trade deficit, stock market declines, and America's new status as a debtor nation are exploited as excuses for more government, the probability of catastrophe increases. Another aspect of this analysis is that government might already have taken actions (prior to the crisis) that preclude an alleviation of the crisis. For example: Environmental laws passed prior to the California earthquake made it illegal for Route 1 to be repaired. PUBLIC GOODS & MARKET FAILURES - Ed by Tyler Cowen - Transaction Publishers Only the third section of this book (Case Studies) has any real value. But it is pricelessly valuable! It consists of examinations, in the real world, of situations contemplated theoretically in the first two sections. It clearly shows the tremendous difference between the fantasy of economic theory and the reality of economic fact. TRIUMPH OF CONSERVATISM - Gabriel Kolko; Quadrangle Books, Chicago 1967 Shows how a political-industrial complex came into being in America during the early years of the 20th century as businessmen tried (successfully) to use the federal government as a tool of coercion in the marketplace. This book is good for background but not as a primary source. It corroborates the "special- interest" thesis in THE ENTERPRISE OF LAW. FREE TO CHOOSE - Milton & Rose Friedman - Avon 52548 The best - and really the only useful - parts of this book are chapters 7 and 8, where the Friedmans critique government intervention in the marketplace. These two chapters have a lot of useful historical analysis. * Esthetics THE ROMANTIC MANIFESTO - Rand * Education Home Schooling is really quite easy in the state of Wyoming. A law passed in 1986 (Wyoming Statute 21-4-101) specifies that parents desiring to home- school their children need merely inform the local school board of their decision and, each year, specify the curriculum they will use. Private schools in Wyoming are not required to register nor be accredited in order to operate. They may award their own diplomas, and are not required to have certified teachers. The Rutherford Institute is a service that monitors state schooling regulations throughout America. Information on any state can be obtained from The Home Education Reporter, Box 510, Manassas VA 22110. HOME EDUCATION MAGAZINE Box 1083 Tonasket WA 98855 AERO-GRAMME, 417 Roslyn Rd, Roslyn Heights NY 11577 (516)621-2195 TAKING CHILDREN SERIOUSLY - Sarah Williams, 23 Whitley Road, London N17 6RJ A bi-monthly British journal on home schooling and other parenting issues. DR. MONTESSORI'S OWN HANDBOOK - Maria Montessori - Schocken SB98 For working with children aged about 3 to 6. LIBERATING SCHOOLS - ed. by David Boaz FAMILY MATTERS - David Guterson SUPER PARENTS, SUPER CHILDREN - Frances Kendall HOW TO RAISE A BRIGHTER CHILD - Joan Beck HOMESCHOOLING FOR EXCELLENCE - David and Micki Colfax CAPITALISM FOR KIDS - Karl Hess THE OX CART MAN - Donald Hall - Viking Penguin Press A children's book portraying free enterprise. * Science Fiction as an introduction to the study of Science One of the best ways to engender an interest in science in the minds of young people is to introduce them to it through works of good science fiction. Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and James Hogan are authors who combine science fact with thoughtful scientific speculation into well-written, intelligently imaginative stories. These seven books are by James P. Hogan. (All are Ballantine Del Ray books.) All are a rare combination of excellent science and excellent fiction. INHERIT THE STARS - #31792 \ THE GENTLE GIANTS OF GANYMEDE #32327 - a Trilogy GIANTS' STAR #32720 / THE GENESIS MACHINE #30576 THE TWO FACES OF TOMORROW #32387 THRICE UPON A TIME #32386 CODE OF THE LIFEMAKER #30549 RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA - Arthur C. Clarke - Ballantine #345 24175 4 The investigation of an uninhabited space ship wandering through the Solar system. Excellent science exposition in this book. THE SENTINEL - Arthur C. Clarke - Berkley #6183 THE DEEP RANGE - Arthur C. Clarke - Bantam #28925 TRUE NAMES - Vernor Vinge - Bluejay #94444 For computer programmers, hackers, and those interested in Artificial Intelligence. ROBOT VISIONS - Isaac Asimov - Penguin #45064 An integrated collection of both science essays and robot stories. Many of the stories are parables illustrating the problems in logic encountered when dealing with machine intelligence, and the essays deal with the idea of computer intelligence and its significance to human society. THE PAST THROUGH TOMORROW - Robert Heinlein - Berkley #10223 * Science Fact Isaac Asimov has written dozens of volumes of science essays. I know of no better way to get a broad general education in science than by reading those essays. THE INTELLIGENT MAN'S GUIDE TO THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES - Isaac Asimov Pocket Cardinal #95004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Box 3186 Harlan Iowa 51593-2377 $34.97 per year RELATIVITY FOR THE MILLION - Martin Gardner - Macmillan, 1962 This is a clear and simple exposition of the Special and General Relativity. WHEELS, LIFE AND OTHER MATHEMATICAL AMUSEMENTS - Martin Gardner - W.H. Freeman & Co., 1983 TIME TRAVEL AND OTHER MATHEMATICAL BEWILDERMENTS - Martin Gardner - W.H. Freeman & Co., 1988 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE - George Gamow - Bantam #5863 QED - Richard Feynman - Princeton Univ. Press. A non-mathematical presentation of Quantum Electro-Dynamics (the way in which light interacts with matter). RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF 1001 WONDERS OF SCIENCE This one is for children. * Books and Movies in the Romantic Art Form I will begin by naming the principle that underlies those works of literature that I, as an Objectivist, find esthetically appealing. The thing they all have in common is a manifestation of VALUES; to be precise: a striving to achieve important values in the face of great adversity. The defining characteristic of Romantic Art is that it portrays Man as a volitional being whose choices are significant determining factors in the course of his life. For a full philosophical explanation of what values are and why they are a fundamental necessity of life, you should read Ayn Rand's essay "The Objectivist Ethics", which appears in her book THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS. When a person strives to achieve great values - and is successful - that person is a HERO. Indeed, it is precisely this behavior that is the defining characteristic of a hero. So, to put it quite simply, since I am a man whose life is built around very firmly and explicitly held values, I love stories about heroes. Stories which show me, in symbolic form, the achievements of others and thus help give me the spiritual strength to work toward my own goals. For a magnificient description of heroes - and why we don't have them anymore - you should read James Goldman's screenplay for ROBIN AND MARIAN. There is one more attribute a good story should have: it should be a well- told story: a story that consists of a believeable world - one that is internally coherent and can induce in the observer an appropriate mental frame-of-reference. J.R.R. Tolkien described this attribute as a condition of "...literary belief, the state of mind that has been called 'willing suspension of disbelief.' What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful 'subcreator.' He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside. If you are obliged, by kindliness or circumstance, to stay, then disbelief must be suspended (or stifled), otherwise listening and looking would become intolerable. But this suspension of disbelief is a substitute for the genuine thing, a subterfuge we use when condescending to games or make-believe, or when trying (more or less willingly) to find what virtue we can in the work of an art that has for us failed." Tolkien's masterpiece, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, is by far the best example of the sort of Romantic Art described here. It is a magnificient fairy tale about a fabulous land, Middle Earth, where the forces of Good war against and are victorious over the forces of Evil. A land where the Kings have majesty, the Heroes have grace, and even the Villains have stature. DOWN THE LONG HILLS - Louis L'Amour - Bantam #02038 One of L'Amour's best - the hero is a 7-year-old boy. ON THE BEACH - Nevil Shute - Bantam #S3875 THE GIRL WHO OWNED A CITY - O.T. Nelson -Dell (Laurel Leaf) #92893 A plague takes all human adults, leaving only the children. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Hemingway - Scribner #SL104 CYRANO DE BERGERAC - Edmond Rostand - Bantam HT4650 THE MIRACLE WORKER - William Gibson - Samuel French, Inc. How Annie Sullivan taught the child Helen Keller to be a human. One of the very few works of literature that have an explicitly epistemological theme. ANTHEM - Ayn Rand TOILERS OF THE SEA - Victor Hugo WATERSHIP DOWN - Richard Adams Here are some of the movies that are excellent portrayals of heroism (I think it unfortunate that many of them have a setting of war and violence, but human society being what it is, this context is what gives rise to much of the heroism in fiction): Black Stallion Firefox Spartacus Man From Snowy River Dam Busters Great Escape Muppet Movie Swiss Family Robinson Dark Crystal High Noon Train Philadelphia Experiment Dark Victory Lassiter Raid on Entebbe Somewhere in Time Dragonslayer Last Unicorn Watership Down Benji the Hunted These three movies I take special note of, because they portray a rarely- encountered hero - a strong-willed, self-assertive woman: Conan the Barbarian Time Rider Yentl * Miscellaneous good stuff FULL CONTEXT - a monthly journal from The Objectivist Club of Michigan. 2317 Starr Rd. D-1, Royal Oak, MI 48073 Institute for Objectivist Studies 82 Washington St #207 Poughkeepsie NY 12601-9768 IOS issues a bi-monthly journal written by David Kelley and his associates. Cato Institute 1000 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington DC 20001 Cato is a libertarian think tank. ROLLING HOMES - Jane Lidz - A&W Publishers A beautiful picture book - showing how buses and trucks have been artistically converted into handmade houses on wheels. THE VINTAGE MENCKEN - ed. by Alistair Cooke - Random House (Vintage) #V-25 Mencken was one of the greatest masters of the English language. THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY - Ambrose Bierce - Dover #T487 In the form of a dictionary, this is some of Bierce's strange humor. To unlock the power of your computer: The Public (software) Library P.O.Box 35705 Houston, TX 77235-5705 An immense quantity of computer software, both public domain and shareware. Send them $2 for their catalog. Specify MS-DOS or MAC Computer networks: Institute for Global Communications 3228 Sacramento St San Francisco 94115 (415) 9230900 An anarchist computer network. Compuserve, GO ISSUES, Section 3, Library 3 on individualism __ This is a key-word index of some Objectivist source material. It is designed for computer searches. Just search for the word you want. *********** REFERENCES ************ ARL :The Ayn Rand Letter B# :The lectures on Basic Principles of Objectivism given by N. Branden L# :The Psychology of Romantic Love lectures RAA :The Revolt Against Affluence RPP :Role of Philosophy in Psychotherapy T# :Lectures on Principles of Efficient Thinking given by Barbara Branden. TEC :Tax-exempt Church TOA :Textbook of Americanism TOF or MmmYY-pp (Apr87-10) :The Objectivist Forum TPI :The Playboy Interview VOS :The Virtue of Selfishness (hardback - index) YY/Mmm/pp (67/May/11) :The Objectivist Newsletter or The Objectivist ********* Objectivist Newsletter ************* Abortion; 69/Feb/3; ARL383 (feticide); Jun81-3 Agnosticism; 63/Apr/15; Dec87-6 Alienation; 65/Jul/29 Altruism; 62/Jul/27; 63/Oct/39 Ambition; ARL51 American Philosophical Association; 70/Jun/1 Amoralist; ARL205 Amundsen:Roald; Apr87-10 Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy; 67/May/11 Anderson:Benjamin (Economics and the Public Welfare); 65/May/21 Anderson:Martin (The Federal Bulldozer); 66/Apr/8 ANDERSON:MARTIN; 65/May/21 Anthropology; Feb81-10 Anti-concept; ARL1; ARL197; ARL205 Anti-Industrial Revolution; 71/Jan/1 Antitrust; 62/Jan/1; 62/Feb/5; Jun80-6 Anxiety; 66/Nov/7 Apollo 11; 69/Sep/1; 69/Dec/1 Apollo 8; 68/Nov/16 Apollo; ARL157 Appeasement; 66/Jan/1 Arbitrary; Dec87-1 Architecture; Dec85-10 Argument from Intimidation; 64/Jul/25; ARL374 Arnold:Magda (Emotion and Personality); 66/Jan/12 Art/Cognition; 71/Apr/1 Art; 65/Apr/15; 66/Mar/1; 68/Nov/5: Dec82-1; TPI-11 Axiomatic Concepts; Feb87-4 Balance of Trade; Aug87-14 Barron:John (KGB Today:The Hidden Hand); Oct83-12 Barron:John (MIG Pilot); Aug80-10 Barzun (The American University); 68/Nov/11 Beck:Joan (How to Raise a Brighter Child); 68/Sep/11 Behaviorism; Feb80-10 Berlin; 62/Jan/4 Bessemer:Henry; Jun85-12 Beyond Freedom and Dignity; ARL33; ARL70 Biology Without Consciousness-And its Consequences; 68/Feb/5 Blanshard:Brand (Reason and Analysis); 63/Feb/7 Bludge mentality; Apr84-11 BLUMENTHAL:ALLAN; 69/Jun/6 BLUMENTHAL:JOAN; 64/Mar/11; 68/Nov/5 Bork:Robert; Oct87-7 Born Free (movie); 66/Sep/14 BRANDEN:BARBARA;62/Jan/2; 62/Mar/11; 62/Dec/54; 63/Jun/23; 66/Feb/14; 66/Sep/12; 66/Oct/7; 67/Apr/11 BRICK:AVIS; 67/Jun/13; 68/Jun/12; 68/Jul/8 Bucher:Lloyd; 69/Feb/1 Bullit (movie); 69/Jun/13 Buy American; Apr87-1 Capital Punishment; 63/Jan/3 Capitalism; 63/Nov/44; 65/Oct/47; 65/Nov/51; ARL338 Capote (In Cold Blood); 66/Feb/15 Capuletti:Jose Manuel; 66/Dec/12 Causality; 66/Mar/8 Censorship; ARL70; ARL229 Certainty; ARL286 Charly (movie); 69/Jun/11 Chess; ARL111 Child labor; 62/Apr/14 Christ; TPI-10 Chu:Valentin (Ta Ta Tan Tan); 63/Nov/42 Collectivism; TOA-3 Collins and Tamarkin (Marva Collins' Way); Aug86-11 Communism; ARL86 Competition; 68/Aug/8 Comprachicos; 70/Aug/1 Compromise; 62/Jul/29; 64/Jan/1 Conflicts of interests; 62/Aug/31 Consensus; 65/May/19; ARL85 Conspiracy; 69/Jan/10 Constitution; Nov67-9; Dec87-8 Consumerism; 65/Oct/47 Cooke:Janet (Jimmy's World); Aug81-2 Copyrights; 64/May/19 Core Evaluations; Feb85-3 Corruption Fallacy; ARL92 Covenant; ARL121; ARL375 see also the Covenant file folder Crane:Philip (The Democrat's Dilemma); 65/Oct/49 Creationism; Apr81-13 Creative; ARL178 Crocker:George (Roosevelt's Road to Russia); 64/Jan/2 Cultural Barometer; 66/Feb/14 et seq. Cultural Value-Deprivation; 66/Apr/1 Czechoslovakia; 68/Jul/8 Dear John (movie); 66/Sep 13 Democratic National Convention; ARL95 Depressions; 62/Aug/33 Determinism; 63/May/17 Draft; 67/Oct/10 Drury (Capable of Honor); 66/Oct/7 Drury (Preserve and Protect); 68/Dec/11 Drury (The Throne of Saturn); 71/May/11 DRURY:ALLEN; 69/Jan/9 Duty; 70/Jul/1 East Minus West = Zero (Keller); 62/Nov/48 Economics; 68/Aug/8; ARL337; Aug80-3; Aug82-3; Apr87-7; Aug87-12; TEC Education:Traditional/Progressive/Montessori; Jun84-10 Education; Aug82-10; Aug83-2; Oct83-1; Oct84-1; Aug86-11 EFRON:EDITH; 62/MAY/18 ;62/Nov/48; 63/Jul/26; 64/May/18 EFRON:ROBERT; 66/Jan/12; 67/Mar/8; 68/Feb/5 Egalitarianism; ARL333 Ekirch:Arthur (Decline of American Liberalism); 62/Jul/28 Election 1972; ARL133 Electrical Conspiracy; 62/Jan/1; 62/Feb/6 Ellis:Albert; 67/Dec/11 Emotions/Actions; 66/Jun/7 Emotions/Repression; 66/Aug/8 Emotions/Values; 66/May/1 Emotions; 62/Jan/3; Oct87-3 Energy Crisis; ARL257 Envy; 71/Jul/1 Epistemology; 66/Jul/1; 70/Mar/1; Oct84-3; Aug85-1; Dec86-1; Feb87-1 Establishment; ARL70 Esthetics; 62/Nov/49; 63/Oct/37; 65/Jan/1 Ethics of Emergencies; 63/Feb/5 Ethics; 63/Jan/1; 65/Feb/7 Existentialism; ARL291 Extremism; 64/Sep/35 F.C.C.; 62/Jan/1; 62/Mar/9; 63/Jul/25 Facts of Reality; Feb87-7 Fair Trade; Apr87-8 Fairness Doctrine; ARL77; ARL82 Falsifiability; Aug82-4 Fascism; ARL86 Federal Reserve; 66/Jul/14 Fertig:Lawrence (Prosperity Through Freedom); 62/Mar/10 First cause; 62/May/19 Fleming:Harold (Ten Thousand Commandments); 62/Apr/14 Flynn:John (Roosevelt Myth); 62/Dec/54 Force; the Covenant file folder Foreign aid; 62/Sep/37 Free Will; 64/Jan/3 Freud; Feb80-11 Friedan (Feminine Mystique); 63/Jul/26 Galbraith:John Kenneth (The Affluent Society); RAA Georgia Sodomy; Dec87-7; Oct86-13 Gish (Lillian Gish: The Movies Mr. Griffith and Me); 69/Nov/7 Goldwater:Barry; 64/Dec/49 Government financing; 64/Feb/7 Government; 63/Dec/45; TOA-7; TPI-12; CGG statism Gravity game; ARL292 Great White Hope (drama); 69/Apr/7 Greatest Good For the Greatest Number; TOA-10 GREENSPAN:ALAN; 62/Jan/4; 66/Jul/11 Hacker:Louis (The World of Andrew carnegie); 69/Apr/12 Hahn:Otto; Dec83-5 Hainstock (Teaching Montessori in The Home); 71/Jul/13 Hansel (ESP:A Scientific Evaluation); 67/Mar/8 Hardwick; Oct86-13; Dec87-7 Hazlitt (Economics in One Lesson); 62/Feb/6 Hedonism; 62/Feb/7; TPI-8 Hegel; Feb86-12 Heraclitus; Feb86-12 HESSEN:BEATRICE; 64/Jan/2; 66/Apr/8; 68/Jan/12; 68/Sep/11; 70/May/12; 71/Jul/13 HESSEN:ROBERT; 62/Feb/6; 62/Apr/14; 62/Jul/28; 62/Nov/51; 63/Nov/42; 68/Nov/11; 69/Apr/12; 70/Jan/9; 70/Aug/11 Hippies; ARL201 History; Oct85-1 Hoffman:Banesh; (The Tyranny of Testing); 64/Mar/11 HOLZER:ERIKA(PHYLLIS); 68/Dec/11; 69/Jun/10 HOLZER:HENRY and PHYLLIS; 67/Oct/10 Horror File; 65/Jun/25 et seq. HUAC testimony; Aug87-1 Hugo (Ninety-Three); 62/Oct/42 Hugo (The Man Who Laughs); 67/Dec/9 Humanae Vitae; 68/Sep/1 Huntford:Roland (The Last Place on Earth); Apr87-10 I Am Curious (yellow) (movie); 69/Dec/12 Ibsen:Henrik; 71/Apr/10 Idealism; 69/Jan/3 Imaginary numbers; Aug85-7 Imitation; ARL228 In the Heat of the Night (movie); 68/Jan/10 Individualism; 62/Apr/13; Feb86-9; TOA-3 Industrial Revolution; 62/Nov/51 Inflation; ARL301; ARL337; Aug80-8 Inherited Wealth; 63/Jun/22 Innocents; Dec83-6; TPI-10 Instincts; 62/Oct/43 Intellectual honesty; ARL287 Introspection; ARL289; Dec85-2 Irrationalism; 63/Jul/27 Jones:Joyce (Citizenship Education); 67/Jun/13 Jones:W.T. (A History of Western Philosophy); 64/Sep/36 Journalism; 69/Jan/9; Dec80-8; Aug81-1; Oct82-9 KAMM:HENRY; 69/Jan/1 Kant; 71/Sep/4; ARL290; ARL377; Jun87-3 Kaufmann (Philosophic Classics); 64/Sep/36 Keller:Werner (East Minus West = Zero); 62/Nov/48 Kennedy:J.F.; 62/May/17; 62/Jun/21 Kidder:Tracy (The Soul of a New Machine); Feb82-5 Knight:Frank H.; Jun80-6 Knowledge; Apr81-8 Kudirka:Simas; 71/Jan/13 Labor Unions; 63/Nov/43 Law of Comparative Advantage; Aug87-11 Law; Jun83-8 Libertarianism; Aug81-11 Linguistic Analysis; ARL291 Literary style; Jun84-6 Literature; 68/Jul/1 Lithuanian Sailor; 71/Jan/13 Logic; ARL287; Dec86-8 Love Story (movie); 71/Jun/10 LUDEL:SUSAN; 69/Jan/9; 69/Oct/8; 70/Mar/11; 70/Jul/10; 71/May/11 Lyons:Eugene (Workers' Paradise Lost); 68/Jan/12 Man for all Seasons (movie); 68/Jan/9 Man in the Glass Booth (drama); 69/Jul/12 Man of La Mancha (drama); 69/Apr/10 Marchenko (My Tesimony); 70/Jul/10 Marcuse:Herbert; 70/Sep/7 Marginal Utility; RAA-5 Marilyn Monroe; 62/Oct/45 Marxism; Apr80-8 Maturity; 65/Nov/53 McGovern; ARL85; ARL125 Medicine; 62/Jun/25; 63/Mar/11; Apr85-3 MELTZER:JOAN; 65/Oct/49 Mental Health; 63/Mar/9; 67/Feb/8 Merwin-Webster (Calumet K); 67/Oct/6 Metaphysical vs Man-made; ARL177; ARL287 Midnight Cowboy; 69/Dec/11 Mill:John Stuart; ARL252 Minow:Newton; 62/Jan/1; 62/Mar/9; 63/Jul/25 Miracle Worker; 70/Mar/7 Missing Link; ARL204 Mixed economy; 62/Mar/9 Money; 66/Jul/11; ARL338; Oct80-9 Monopolies; 62/Jun/23 Montessori Education; Jun84-7 Montessori; 70/May/12 Moral Grayness; 64/Jun/21 Movies; Feb83-9 Muttnik; 67/Dec/2 Nazism; 69/Feb/5; 69/Oct/1; 70/Apr/1; 71/Jan/8 NELSON:JOHN; 69/Aug/3 New Left; 70/Sep/7 Newspeak; ARL115; ARL357; ARL376 Nietzsche:Friedrich; Feb86-8 Ninth Amendment; Nov67-9 Nixon-China; ARL58 Nixon; 68/Jun/1; ARL5 Nuclear power; Dec80-2 O'CONNOR:FRANK; 69/Nov/7 Obituary; Feb82-1 Objectivism; 62/Aug/35; Jun82-8; Aug83-2 Open mind; ARL292 Oppenheimer:J Robert; Dec83-5 Our Man Flint (Movie); 66/Feb/14 Parents/Childr