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What:"The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made" in Philosophy: Who Needs It
Please print out these questions:
1) What is the basic metaphysical issue that lies at the root of any system of philosophy? Describe each of the two alternatives involved in this basic metaphysical issue. Give an example of each. Which viewpoint does Ayn Rand champion?
2) What is the source of the reversal involved in the primacy of consciousness viewpoint? Does the ability to grasp the distinction necessary for the primacy of existence viewpoint come to man automatically?
3) Can the universe, as a whole, come into or go out of existence according to Ayn Rand? If, according to Ayn Rand’s philosophy, the universe as a whole always existed and always will exist, then doesn’t this contradict the findings of scientists, especially given the “big bang” theory of the universe?
4) What does it mean to Ayn Rand to say that man is capable of “creation”? What is the “best and briefest identification of man’s power in regard to nature”? Who originally formulated this idea?
5) What law governs all the countless forms, motions, combinations, and dissolutions of elements within the universe –from a floating speck of dust to the formation of a galaxy to the emergence of life? What does Ayn Rand describe as “the metaphysically given”. Is the law of identity what philosopher John Locke meant when he spoke of “the law of nature” (See John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chapter II, Of the State of Nature, Section 6.)?
6) How does man “discover and accept the metaphysically given”?
7) What is Ayn Rand’s position with regard to the human mind and the Law of Identity, that is to say, does she regard the human mind as subject to the Law of Identity? Does Ayn Rand’s view regarding the human mind and the law of identity mean that she believed that the human mind does not possess the faculty of volition?
8) Although man’s “…faculty of volition as such is not a contradiction of nature…” how does it open “…the way for a host of contradictions…”? What must be accepted because it cannot be changed? What must never be “…accepted uncritically…”?
9) Given Ayn Rand’s views on the metaphysical and the man-made, did she believe that “40 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong”? Why or why not? Does this mean that one should always disagree with the majority?
10) Did Ayn Rand think that the “metaphysically given” could be true or false? Given the answer to the first part of this question, what did Ayn Rand define “truth” as?
11) What example does Ayn Rand give in the essay to show the difference between the metaphysically given and the man-made? How about this example: a person takes an action that causes an unintended series of causal events to take place that eventually leads to the death of a person he doesn’t know and isn’t aware of in some far-off distant place ; is this the metaphysically given or the man-made, some combination of the two, or something completely different? (Similar to the butterfly flaps its wings in North America, which is a contributing cause to a typhoon in China, but substitute the butterfly with a person clapping his hands.)
12) What do concepts like “chance” and “contingency” refer to for Ayn Rand? According to Ayn Rand’s definition of “chance” what does it mean to say that the results of rolling dice are subject to “chance”? Is it possible for a person to predict with certainty what the die roll result would be according to Ayn Rand’s philosophy?
13) What did Ayn Rand mean by a “package deal”? What is an example of package deal?
14) Distinguish a “man-made” fact from a “metaphysically given fact”.
15) In what two respects does the faculty of volition give man a special status? What does Ayn Rand mean when she says “Nothing can force a man to think.” (pg. 31)? How does one “change” other men given what has been said so far?
16) What does Ayn Rand view as the psychological or emotional consequence of someone who does not have any “…knowledge of the nature or the functioning of a human consciousness…” (pg. 29, 2nd full para down).
17) Given her views on “the metaphysical versus the man made”, did Ayn Rand believe in the idea of “innate endowment”, i.e., the belief that some people have an inner talent or skill that they are born with?
18) What is “rewriting reality”? What are some of the examples Ayn Rand gives of “rewriting reality”? Give your own example of rewriting reality.
19) At the beginning of “The Metaphysical versus The Man-Made”, Ayn Rand quotes from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Placing this quote in a rational context, what does Ayn Rand regard as “accepting the things I cannot change”? What does Ayn Rand say the part “to change the things I can” means? What does Ayn Rand regard as “knowing the difference”? With regard to man, what does “to accept” mean and what does “to change” mean?
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Proposed Answers to Questions for "Philosophy and a Sense of Life"
1) What is “metaphysics” (as used in this essay)?
Answer: See Ayn Rand Lexicon, entry on “Metaphysics"
2) Ayn Rand says that a “…sense of life is a pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man’s emotional responses and the essence of his character.” (Pg. 25, “Philosophy and a Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_, Ayn Rand) What does it mean for something to be “preconceptual”? What does it mean for something to be “subconscious” as opposed to “conscious” ( in other words, what is the “subconscious” for Rand)? What does it mean for something to be “implicit” in your mind, as opposed to “explicit”?
a) “Long before he is old enough to grasp such a concept as metaphysics, man makes choices, forms value-judgments, experiences emotions and acquires a certain implicit view of life.”
b) (See entry on “Subconscious” in Ayn Rand Lexicon) “Strictly speaking, Objectivism does not subscribe to the idea of an unconscious at all. We use the term ‘subconscious’ instead- and that is simply a name for the content of your mind that you are not focused on at any given moment. It is simply a repository for past information or conclusions that you were once conscious of in some form, but that are now stored beneath the threshold of consciousness…” (Quoting Leonard Peikoff, from Entry on “Subconscious” in Ayn Rand Lexicon)
c) Implicit knowledge- Axiomatic concepts identify explicity what is merely implicit in the consciousness of an infant or an animal. (Implicit knowledge is passively held material which, to be grasped, requires a special focus and process of consciousness –a process which an infant learns to perform eventually, but which an animal’s consciousness is unable to perform.)” (See Ayn Rand Lexicon, Entry on “Implicit Knowledge”)
3) When discussing the concept of “sense of life”, Ayn Rand seems to speak of some part of the human mind that is not directly under one’s control. (“Whatever the case may be, his subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him.”(Pg. 26, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand [emphasis added]) Try to reconcile her view that the “subconscious mechanism” is, in some sense, not directly under one’s control with the fact that Rand was clearly a proponent of volition and choice. (“The key to what you so recklessly call ‘human nature,’ the open secret you live with, yet dread to name, is the fact that man is a being of volitional consciousness. Reason does not work automatically...” (Galt’s Speech, Atlas Shrugged, See also entry on “Free Will” in Ayn Rand Lexicon)
Answer: While Rand thought that the process of reasoning, of acquiring new knowledge, is volitional, there are other aspects of our consciousness that are not under our control (percept formation), and there are also aspects of our consciousness that are not under our direct control although the content of our thinking will affect them (emotions). “To the extent to which a man is mentally active, i.e., motivated by the desire to know, to understand, his mind works as the programmer of his emotional computer –and his sense of life develops into a bright counterpart of a rational philosophy. To the extent to which a man evades, the programming of his emotional computer is done by chance influences; by random impressions, associations, imitations, by undigested snatches of environmental bromides, by cultural osmosis.” (Pg. 26, first full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
4) A person who regards himself as an alcoholic will sometimes describe the urge to drink as difficult (or even impossible) to resist, such that once he has had one drink, he cannot resist drinking to excess. Ayn Rand says in “Philosophy and Sense of Life” that one’s “…subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him.”(Pg. 26, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand [emphasis added]) Is the difficulty alcoholics have in resisting the temptation to drink to excess after having one drink an example of such a “habitual pattern”?
Answer: I think yes. Obviously, this is more of a question for the science of psychology, and I am, by no means, an expert on this.
5) Consider this description of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from a University of Florida web site:
Could Ayn Rand’s description in “Philosophy and Sense of Life” (that one’s “…subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him.”(Pg. 26)) be a clue helping to explain how some people become Obsessive-Compulsives?
Answer: I think so. This appears to be more of a question for the science of psychology. But, note this paragraph from this essay: “Since an act of volition –a process of thought- is required to use that mechanism for a cognitive purpose, man can evade that effort. But if he evades, chance takes over: the mechanism functions on its own , like a machine without a driver; it goes on integrating, but integrating blindly, incongruously, at random- not as an instrument of cognition, but as an instrument of distortion, delusion and nightmare terror, bent on wrecking its defaulting processor’s consciousness.” (pg. 27, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
6) According to Ayn Rand in “Philosophy and a Sense of Life”, how is a sense of life formed? What is the key concept, in the formation of a sense of life? Is this key concept in the formation of a sense of life an ethical or metaphysical term?
a) Sense of life is formed “…by a process of emotional generalization which may be described as a subconscious counterpart of a process of abstraction, since it is a method of classifying and integrating. But it is a process of emotional abstraction: it consists of classifying things according to the emotions they invoke -i.e., of tying together, by association or connotation, all those things which have the power to make an individual experience the same (or a similar) emotion.” (pg. 27, first full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) “The key concept, in the formation of a sense of life, is the term ”important”.”(pg. 28, first full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
c) “’Important’ –in its essential meaning, as distinguished from its more limited and superficial uses –is a metaphysical term.” (pg. 28, 2nd full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
7) What is a “metaphysical value judgment”?
Answer: (pg. 28, 2nd full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
8) What are some of the examples that Ayn Rand gives of the concept of “important” (as the concept is used in this essay)? Can you think of any others? What does the integrated sum of these “basic values” represent?
a) (pg. 28, bottom, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b)
c) “The integrated sum of a man’s basic values is his sense of life.”(pg. 29, top, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
9) Does a man’s “sense of life”, his “implicit sense of values” that remains in his subconscious, necessarily have to match the philosophy that he explicitly embraces? Does the possibility of a variance between a man’s conscious philosophy and his subconscious “sense of life” explain why a person who embraces the self-sacrifice of Christianity or Socialism could, in his daily life, at least for a while, be successful at living (“successful” by the terms of Ayn Rand’s philosophy –a good career, decent friends, good wife/husband, etc.)?
a) “In some cases, a man’s sense of life is better (closer to the truth) than the kind of ideas he accepts.” (pg. 30, second full para down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) Yes, this is why you could have a Christian/Marxist person who is “successful at life” (defined by Ayn Rand’s meaning of success), but I think his long-run prospects aren’t good unless he changes his expressly held beliefs. (pg. 31, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
10) Did Ayn Rand believe that a person’s “sense of life” is incapable of being changed? At the end of Ayn Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead”, the character of Dominique Francon has changed her mind regarding whether “the good”, as represented by people like Howard Roark, can succeed in this world. At the beginning of the novel, she is normally described as having a “malevolent universe premise” (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Fountainhead.id-111,pageNum-48.html ). At the end, Dominique rejects this premise. Rand says in this essay, that: “Since it is an emotional sum, it [sense of life] cannot be changed by a direct act of will. It changes automatically, but only after a long process of psychological retraining, when and if a man changes his conscious philosophical premises.” (pg. 31, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand) Does this mean that, at the end of the novel, Dominique Francon would have needed to engage in a “…long process of psychological retraining…” (or was she doing this throughout the novel)?
a) No, while it is not under one’s direct control, it is possible to change it. “Since it is an emotional sum, it [sense of life] cannot be changed by a direct act of will. It changes automatically, but only after a long process of psychological retraining, when and if a man changes his conscious philosophical premises.” (pg. 31, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) I’m not sure. I’d have to go back and read the novel now.
11) What two aspects of a man’s existence does Rand regard as the “…special province and expression of his sense of life…”? Does the concept of “love at first sight” have any legitimacy in Ayn Rand’s philosophy? A cynical person might say that “love at first sight” is really just “lust at first sight”, in other words, especially for men, love is initially based on the opposite sex’s physical appearance/anatomy; is this necessarily inconsistent with what Rand is saying here about it being “…a person’s sense of life that one falls in love –with that essential sum, that fundamental stand or way of facing existence, which is the essence of a personality.” (pg. 32, Third Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)?
a) love and art (pg. 32, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) I don’t know, but I did read in _Letter’s of Ayn Rand_, ed. By Michael S. Berliner, where she said she believed in “love at first sight”.
c) I think that sexual attraction has to do with what one regards as important. A woman is going to tend to emphasize herself and her body in different ways, based on her “implicit sense of values”, and a man who has a similar “implicit sense of values” about what is important in a woman will notice the fact that she emphasizes those features of her body in the way she dresses and behaves. For instance, physical health in a prospective sexual partner might be regarded as important by someone who wants a long-term relationship, because they want a husband/wife that they can be with for a long time, and if they appear unhealthy, then they might die sooner. (Note that at one time, a woman with greater body weight was considered more desirable because it was an indicator that she was “well fed”, and therefore healthy. Now, in modern times, when food is readily available to all, being overweight is a sign of being unhealthy.) The point is, physical appearance often says a lot about what a person finds important in themselves and in a prospective romantic partner, so I think that saying it is really “lust at first sight”, instead of “love at first sight”, is an inaccurate description of the mental process that is occurring.
12) What religious myth does Ayn Rand mention as being a sort of allegory describing the subject matter of her essay, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”? Give an example from a religion of this myth. Do you agree or disagree with her assessment (provide reasons why or why not)?
a) The religious myth she refers to is the myth of a “supernatural recorder” from whom nothing can be hidden, who lists all of man’s deeds. She says this is a primitive attempt to explain a man’s sense of life.
b) Christianity –“judgment day”, when you die and God judges your life (pg. 31, First Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
c) Interesting. I find her connection there intriguing. It means that for Rand, YOU are, in some sense, the judge of your actions, and must live, on some level of consciousness, with all of your actions.
Answer: See Ayn Rand Lexicon, entry on “Metaphysics"
2) Ayn Rand says that a “…sense of life is a pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man’s emotional responses and the essence of his character.” (Pg. 25, “Philosophy and a Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_, Ayn Rand) What does it mean for something to be “preconceptual”? What does it mean for something to be “subconscious” as opposed to “conscious” ( in other words, what is the “subconscious” for Rand)? What does it mean for something to be “implicit” in your mind, as opposed to “explicit”?
a) “Long before he is old enough to grasp such a concept as metaphysics, man makes choices, forms value-judgments, experiences emotions and acquires a certain implicit view of life.”
b) (See entry on “Subconscious” in Ayn Rand Lexicon) “Strictly speaking, Objectivism does not subscribe to the idea of an unconscious at all. We use the term ‘subconscious’ instead- and that is simply a name for the content of your mind that you are not focused on at any given moment. It is simply a repository for past information or conclusions that you were once conscious of in some form, but that are now stored beneath the threshold of consciousness…” (Quoting Leonard Peikoff, from Entry on “Subconscious” in Ayn Rand Lexicon)
c) Implicit knowledge- Axiomatic concepts identify explicity what is merely implicit in the consciousness of an infant or an animal. (Implicit knowledge is passively held material which, to be grasped, requires a special focus and process of consciousness –a process which an infant learns to perform eventually, but which an animal’s consciousness is unable to perform.)” (See Ayn Rand Lexicon, Entry on “Implicit Knowledge”)
3) When discussing the concept of “sense of life”, Ayn Rand seems to speak of some part of the human mind that is not directly under one’s control. (“Whatever the case may be, his subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him.”(Pg. 26, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand [emphasis added]) Try to reconcile her view that the “subconscious mechanism” is, in some sense, not directly under one’s control with the fact that Rand was clearly a proponent of volition and choice. (“The key to what you so recklessly call ‘human nature,’ the open secret you live with, yet dread to name, is the fact that man is a being of volitional consciousness. Reason does not work automatically...” (Galt’s Speech, Atlas Shrugged, See also entry on “Free Will” in Ayn Rand Lexicon)
Answer: While Rand thought that the process of reasoning, of acquiring new knowledge, is volitional, there are other aspects of our consciousness that are not under our control (percept formation), and there are also aspects of our consciousness that are not under our direct control although the content of our thinking will affect them (emotions). “To the extent to which a man is mentally active, i.e., motivated by the desire to know, to understand, his mind works as the programmer of his emotional computer –and his sense of life develops into a bright counterpart of a rational philosophy. To the extent to which a man evades, the programming of his emotional computer is done by chance influences; by random impressions, associations, imitations, by undigested snatches of environmental bromides, by cultural osmosis.” (Pg. 26, first full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
4) A person who regards himself as an alcoholic will sometimes describe the urge to drink as difficult (or even impossible) to resist, such that once he has had one drink, he cannot resist drinking to excess. Ayn Rand says in “Philosophy and Sense of Life” that one’s “…subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him.”(Pg. 26, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand [emphasis added]) Is the difficulty alcoholics have in resisting the temptation to drink to excess after having one drink an example of such a “habitual pattern”?
Answer: I think yes. Obviously, this is more of a question for the science of psychology, and I am, by no means, an expert on this.
5) Consider this description of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from a University of Florida web site:
“Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)…is characterized by recurrent and disturbing thoughts (called obsessions) and/or repetitive, ritualized behaviors that the person feels driven to perform (called compulsions). Obsessions can also take the form of intrusive images or unwanted impulses.
Common types of obsessions include concerns with contamination (e.g., fear of dirt germs, or illness), safety/harm (e.g., being responsible for a fire), unwanted acts of aggression (e.g., unwanted impulse to harm a loved one), unacceptable sexual or religious thoughts (e.g., sacrilegious images of Christ), and the need for symmetry or exactness.
Common compulsions include excessive cleaning (e.g., ritualized hand washing), checking, ordering and arranging rituals, counting, repeating routine activities (e.g., going in/out of a doorway), and hoarding (e.g., collecting useless items). While most compulsions are observable behaviors (e.g., hand washing), some are performed as unobservable mental rituals (e.g., silent recitation of nonsense words to vanquish a horrific image).” (http://www.ufocd.org/WhatIsOCD.htm )
Could Ayn Rand’s description in “Philosophy and Sense of Life” (that one’s “…subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him.”(Pg. 26)) be a clue helping to explain how some people become Obsessive-Compulsives?
Answer: I think so. This appears to be more of a question for the science of psychology. But, note this paragraph from this essay: “Since an act of volition –a process of thought- is required to use that mechanism for a cognitive purpose, man can evade that effort. But if he evades, chance takes over: the mechanism functions on its own , like a machine without a driver; it goes on integrating, but integrating blindly, incongruously, at random- not as an instrument of cognition, but as an instrument of distortion, delusion and nightmare terror, bent on wrecking its defaulting processor’s consciousness.” (pg. 27, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
6) According to Ayn Rand in “Philosophy and a Sense of Life”, how is a sense of life formed? What is the key concept, in the formation of a sense of life? Is this key concept in the formation of a sense of life an ethical or metaphysical term?
a) Sense of life is formed “…by a process of emotional generalization which may be described as a subconscious counterpart of a process of abstraction, since it is a method of classifying and integrating. But it is a process of emotional abstraction: it consists of classifying things according to the emotions they invoke -i.e., of tying together, by association or connotation, all those things which have the power to make an individual experience the same (or a similar) emotion.” (pg. 27, first full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) “The key concept, in the formation of a sense of life, is the term ”important”.”(pg. 28, first full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
c) “’Important’ –in its essential meaning, as distinguished from its more limited and superficial uses –is a metaphysical term.” (pg. 28, 2nd full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
7) What is a “metaphysical value judgment”?
Answer: (pg. 28, 2nd full para. down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
8) What are some of the examples that Ayn Rand gives of the concept of “important” (as the concept is used in this essay)? Can you think of any others? What does the integrated sum of these “basic values” represent?
a) (pg. 28, bottom, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b)
c) “The integrated sum of a man’s basic values is his sense of life.”(pg. 29, top, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
9) Does a man’s “sense of life”, his “implicit sense of values” that remains in his subconscious, necessarily have to match the philosophy that he explicitly embraces? Does the possibility of a variance between a man’s conscious philosophy and his subconscious “sense of life” explain why a person who embraces the self-sacrifice of Christianity or Socialism could, in his daily life, at least for a while, be successful at living (“successful” by the terms of Ayn Rand’s philosophy –a good career, decent friends, good wife/husband, etc.)?
a) “In some cases, a man’s sense of life is better (closer to the truth) than the kind of ideas he accepts.” (pg. 30, second full para down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) Yes, this is why you could have a Christian/Marxist person who is “successful at life” (defined by Ayn Rand’s meaning of success), but I think his long-run prospects aren’t good unless he changes his expressly held beliefs. (pg. 31, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
10) Did Ayn Rand believe that a person’s “sense of life” is incapable of being changed? At the end of Ayn Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead”, the character of Dominique Francon has changed her mind regarding whether “the good”, as represented by people like Howard Roark, can succeed in this world. At the beginning of the novel, she is normally described as having a “malevolent universe premise” (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Fountainhead.id-111,pageNum-48.html ). At the end, Dominique rejects this premise. Rand says in this essay, that: “Since it is an emotional sum, it [sense of life] cannot be changed by a direct act of will. It changes automatically, but only after a long process of psychological retraining, when and if a man changes his conscious philosophical premises.” (pg. 31, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand) Does this mean that, at the end of the novel, Dominique Francon would have needed to engage in a “…long process of psychological retraining…” (or was she doing this throughout the novel)?
a) No, while it is not under one’s direct control, it is possible to change it. “Since it is an emotional sum, it [sense of life] cannot be changed by a direct act of will. It changes automatically, but only after a long process of psychological retraining, when and if a man changes his conscious philosophical premises.” (pg. 31, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) I’m not sure. I’d have to go back and read the novel now.
11) What two aspects of a man’s existence does Rand regard as the “…special province and expression of his sense of life…”? Does the concept of “love at first sight” have any legitimacy in Ayn Rand’s philosophy? A cynical person might say that “love at first sight” is really just “lust at first sight”, in other words, especially for men, love is initially based on the opposite sex’s physical appearance/anatomy; is this necessarily inconsistent with what Rand is saying here about it being “…a person’s sense of life that one falls in love –with that essential sum, that fundamental stand or way of facing existence, which is the essence of a personality.” (pg. 32, Third Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)?
a) love and art (pg. 32, Second Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
b) I don’t know, but I did read in _Letter’s of Ayn Rand_, ed. By Michael S. Berliner, where she said she believed in “love at first sight”.
c) I think that sexual attraction has to do with what one regards as important. A woman is going to tend to emphasize herself and her body in different ways, based on her “implicit sense of values”, and a man who has a similar “implicit sense of values” about what is important in a woman will notice the fact that she emphasizes those features of her body in the way she dresses and behaves. For instance, physical health in a prospective sexual partner might be regarded as important by someone who wants a long-term relationship, because they want a husband/wife that they can be with for a long time, and if they appear unhealthy, then they might die sooner. (Note that at one time, a woman with greater body weight was considered more desirable because it was an indicator that she was “well fed”, and therefore healthy. Now, in modern times, when food is readily available to all, being overweight is a sign of being unhealthy.) The point is, physical appearance often says a lot about what a person finds important in themselves and in a prospective romantic partner, so I think that saying it is really “lust at first sight”, instead of “love at first sight”, is an inaccurate description of the mental process that is occurring.
12) What religious myth does Ayn Rand mention as being a sort of allegory describing the subject matter of her essay, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”? Give an example from a religion of this myth. Do you agree or disagree with her assessment (provide reasons why or why not)?
a) The religious myth she refers to is the myth of a “supernatural recorder” from whom nothing can be hidden, who lists all of man’s deeds. She says this is a primitive attempt to explain a man’s sense of life.
b) Christianity –“judgment day”, when you die and God judges your life (pg. 31, First Full Para Down, “Philosophy and Sense of Life”, _The Romantic Manifesto_ by Ayn Rand)
c) Interesting. I find her connection there intriguing. It means that for Rand, YOU are, in some sense, the judge of your actions, and must live, on some level of consciousness, with all of your actions.
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