Philosophy: Who Needs It

Philosophy: Who Needs It by Ayn Rand, Penguin, 1984.

At the most general level, philosophical systems can be categorized into two groups: those that are based on the primacy of existence and those that are based on the primacy of consciousness. Aristotle and Ayn Rand favor the primacy of existence.

The anti-conceptual mentality has several characteristics: (a) intellectual passivity with respect to forming concepts at higher levels of abstraction, (b) difficulty distinguishing between laws of nature and laws of culture, © instead of a hierarchy of concepts, using only flat associations of particulars, (d) panicking when beliefs are challenged, due to an inability to rationally defend them, (e) chanting, not debating, (f) restricting social associations to only like-minded people, (g) judging individuals based on group-membership rather than individual actions. 

Ayn Rand blames much of philosophical error on something she calls an anti-concept.  She writes that an anti-concept is used to replace a legitimate concept. One way of forming anti-concepts is definition by nonessentials. This leads to grouping together particulars that don’t really belong together. Such anti-concepts suffer from an internal inconsistency. 

Ayn Rand asserts that the tribal lone wolf is a bad model for selfishness, because he has no inner self, no moral character, no values, no goals, no long-range planning. Ayn Rand remarks that the philosophy of self-sacrifice is less frightening to those who have less of a self to sacrifice. The moral code of the tribal lone wolf is simply: I am good because it’s me. The tribal mentality is similar, except its motto is: We’re good because we’re us.

The word “altruism” has several meanings. The informal meaning is kindness and generosity. Altruism in this sense of the word is not something that Ayn Rand objects to. Altruism has a more formal, philosophical meaning due to the coiner of the term, August Comte. This more formal meaning of the word altruism does not mean generous actions, but rather an ethical philosophy that makes sacrificing oneself for others the primary moral value. It is this latter, more extreme, meaning of altruism that Ayn Rand objects to. Ayn Rand’s description of August Comte’s ethical philosophy of altruism: (a) You have no intrinsic right to live, (b) Your right to live must be continually earned by your service to others, © Self-sacrifice is the supremely moral act, (d) Man is a sacrificial animal. 

Ayn Rand’s Objections to the Anti-Concept of Duty: (a) Bad replacement for obligation, because there is no quid-pro-quo, (b) There is no goal of ones own to be achieved, only obedience to authority, (ccc) Originally, the authority was God, but in its secularized form, the authority is unspecified (d) The concept of duty is disrespectful of final causation, because the action is required to be performed regardless of the consequences.

Ayn Rand spends some time criticizing John Rawls’ book, A Theory of Justice.  Rand asserts that Rawls denies the law of identity (a thing is itself), because he believes that your attributes are not part of you. Rawls imagines a strange metaphysics where the souls of morons and geniuses start off fundamentally equal, and that intelligence is simply a property acquired at a later date. John Rawls argues that talented people should not be allowed to benefit from their talent, unless they agree to also raise up the less able. Rawls believes that the fundamental injustice is that some people are born with more intelligence than others. Ayn Rand asserts that men of ability should not feel guilty about having an above average amount of ability. She objects to the assertion that the individual must earn the right to his own brain. She remarks that envy is more widespread in Europe than in the United States.

Ayn Rand asserts that the goal of radical egalitarians is to enslave and control men of ability. She says that radical egalitarians hold some strange beliefs: (a) Children of parents who can afford to send them to good schools have an unfair advantage, (b) Excellence should be penalized (but not to such a high degree that it damages society as a whole), © Talented people should feel guilty about their extra ability, (d) You have no right to your talents unless you earned them before you existed.

The political Left wants to control matter, because it believes matter is more important than mind. The political Right wants to control mind, because it believes mind is more important than matter. 

Libertarians promote a laissez-faire politics and economics that is superficially similar to Objectivism, but they deny the Objectivist foundation of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics upon which political and economic philosophy rest. 

Kant’s metaphysics (reality is unknowable) is an attempt to rationalize his hatred of reality. Kant’s epistemology is intended to promote doubt and is an attempt to rationalize his hatred of reason. Kant’s primary goal in developing his philosophical system was to rescue altruism from the Enlightenment. Kant was the arch-advocate of duty. Kant’s altruism was even more masochistic than the Christian variety. The fear that morality is the enemy of happiness came from Kant, not from Christianity. Kant’s conclusions are crystal clear, but his arguments leading to them are long, convoluted and incomprehensible. Naive people will assume that if they do not understand Kant’s argument, it is because they themselves are stupid, not because Kant is incoherent. One of the consequences of Kant’s destruction of philosophy is that rational men run away from philosophy and go into the technical professions, such as medicine, engineering and business, thus abandoning philosophy to the enemies of reason