Stock Ethics and Philosophy 101

[stills999]

Hi Koog,

Thanks for the response. I admit right away I'm at a disadvantage as I'm NOT versed in the details of Rand's Objectivism, but I am certainly open to learning more. At first glance, however, it certainly seems to be in opposition to what I stated.

I'm taking this from Wikipedia, so please feel free to clarify in case objectivism is mis-represented here.

"Objectivism's central tenets are that reality exists independent of consciousness [I agree there is more to reality than conciousness], that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception [I agree or disagree depending on how reality is defined], that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic [I probably disagree unless knowledge here is taken as not being absoluate knowledge of cause and effect], that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (rational self-interest) [I might agree with the disclaimer that happiness includes that which comes from making others happy], that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism [disagree that laissez-faire is always best, but there are specific circumstances], and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally. [I disagree that art's ONLY role is to transform ideas but I'm not sure what type of transformation is intended here]."

And your quote...

"Truth is the recognition of reality [disagree, truth seems to be something more than the mere mental process of recogition ... truth seems to exist independent to what is thought about it] ; reason, man’s only means of knowledge, is his only standard of truth [I agree or disagree depending on the how reason is characterized ... for instance, when I observe (trying NOT to reason much) that it FEELS cold is this feeling providing any knowledge about my state of consciousness?)].

That is certainly a lot of issues to cover! I'm frankly not sure where to start and if we can reasonably expect to get through the depth of these inter-connected ideas. But, if you have some additional comments or specifics to discuss I'm certainly willing to continue the discussion.