11 November 1999 · Review — on Rand and Peikoff.
Who created the universe? Why are we here? And, what is reality? These ambiguous existential questions are answered in Leonard Peikoff’s book, The Philosophy of Objectivism. Mr. Peikoff has finally created a written treatise of Ayn Rand’s own philosophy, aptly named Objectivism.
After reading the first chapter, which deals with reality, some of my most unclear conceptions were set straight: who created the universe?, why are we here?, and what is reality?
Well, everything depends on axioms. Defined by Rand as “irreducible principles of cognition” (page 4) these are the postulates of philosophy. Knowledge of axioms is implicit. The three axioms that are relevant to these primary existential questions are those of consciousness and existence itself.
Consciousness is pertinent in the equation for it is the part of us that can form concepts: it allows us to understand what we observe. The difference between animals and humans, states Rand, is that animals are perception-based while we on the other hand–through perception–are concept-based.
Existence itself utterly exists. As Ayn Rand bluntly puts it, “Existence exists.” Because we are conscious, and because we can observe everything around us, when we see a table, we know it exists. We know it exists. It, the table. The table exists. The table is.
What bothers me is that so many people, while relying on these facts (be it for survival, or whatever), deny the primacy of existence, and instead of accepting the fact that the table they eat at is real, prefer to believe that existence is relative to what they perceive.
This is known as the primacy of consciousness, or, in the vernacular, the “power of belief.”
Miss Rand decorously compared it to a man facing the dilemma of an exploding volcano. The man of the primacy of consciousness, instead of being rational and running for his life or finding another sensible way to escape, sat on the ground before the burning mountain with his eyes closed, thinking “If I concentrate hard enough, I will be safe.” Well, life’s a bitch.
Those who understand and utilize the self-evidence that existence exists realize that there need not be any cosmic consciousness, i.e. God. If existence has primacy over consciousness, God cannot exist. The very essence of anything supernatural means something “above nature.” Etymologically: super = above; natural = existence viewed from a specific perspective. “Supernatural”, as stated in Peikoff’s text, is “an assault on everything man knows about reality. It is a contradiction of every essential of a rational metaphysics.”
Before people decide to persuade others to believe their contemplations, they should be able to prove it; Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff together have done exactly this.
Composed 1999 · part of the Essays collection · authorship documented on the Provenance page.