Category: Philosophy

Being “reasonable”: what’s worth salvaging from Rand’s epistemology?

Post author By jon
Post date July 22, 2014

Given the critical tone of my last posts, the main motive for my overview of the Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology would seem to be scorn. On the negative side, as well as a the expected deep inconsistencies I was genuinely surprised to find how many straight-up contradictions I found when I started to tabulate Rand’s claims against other types of philosophical system: a particularly perplexing one is her attitude to measurement, which she simultaneously suggests is unnecessary and the only way essential characteristics can be compared.

But I maintain that we need to give credit when it’s due, and try to find the sensible equivalents of Rand’s positions – she is after all mimicking the greats.

Epistemology Ethics/Metaethics Philosophy Rand

Amateur philosophical background: the “epistemology”

Post author By jon
Post date July 22, 2014

“Mathematics is the science of measurement” – Ayn Rand, An Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology

Before I jump (or sink) into The Fountainhead, I thought I’d put together an (amateurish) primer on Ayn Rand’s philosophy in two parts. The first will deal with what she calls her “epistemology” – something that is usually understood as a means of knowing. The second will deal with the ethics. In each case, I’ve taken most of Rand’s material from her own words – if you want to follow along here, this is all taken from her book, An Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. I’m also indebted to the wonderful Partially Examined Life podcast’s episode on Rand – I’d highly recommend this for a professional touch – and the rest of their episodes too, for that matter.

Philosophy Philosophy of Mind

Mary the super-scientist

Post author By jon
Post date July 2, 2010

Further musings written in 2010 on philosophy of mind – on Frank Jackson’s knowledge argument, or Mary the super-scientist.

The Thought Experiment

Mary is a great scientist of vision, but is born without the ability to see the colour red. She gets to learn everything about the physics and physiology of seeing red, and understands everything physical about the process of seeing red including all the associated brain states. Eventually doctors manage to operate upon her and restore her ability to see the colour red. Does she not acquire a new fact upon experiencing the colour red? If something is added, then she must have acquired new facts, something beyond the physical.

You know all the physical facts about the brain and construct a model
This model of the brain acts less than the mind
The mind is more than the brain

Philosophy Philosophy of Mind

The Chinese Room

Post author By jon
Post date July 2, 2010

These are some musings written in 2010 on the subject of John Searle’s Chinese Room Argument.

A man has no knowledge of Chinese, only English. He is locked in a room, and follows a series of written instructions in English for the manipulation of Chinese characters. An appropriate series of instructions will allow him to converse in Chinese, even though he has no understanding of Chinese at all.

Backgammon Philosophy Philosophy of Science

Backgammon as a miniature natural system

Post author By jon
Post date December 29, 2009

This was written back in 2009. Some of the references are out of date, and the insights seem more commonplace now. I can’t tell if that’s because they’ve been borne out by time, or that they were obvious all along.

Backgammon is an ancient game, perhaps the oldest in the world.

Despite the fact that the inner workings of the game – the rules of checker movement – are obviously of human invention, the obscurity of their providence and their sheer simplicity almost makes them akin to natural physical laws, applying themselves to the minimalistic universe of the backgammon board.

Like the physical world, too, backgammon might seem to us to behave as an intractable mixture of determinism and randomness. Reports of games very similar, but presumably genetically unrelated, to backgammon being played by native people in the New World by the first European explorers might suggest that backgammon-like games represent a natural class of game to emerge from the mathematics of probability and position.

Because the study of this world – the science of backgammon – may be pursued for both fun and (gambling) profit, it too has a long history. And curiously, this natural philosophy follows a similar path to investigations of the broader universe.

The Thought Experiment

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