The first lecture I attended was on the Objectivist virtue of pride.
The speaker started by referencing a scene from Atlas Shrugged, where Reardon is trying to find the motivation to go to a party being thrown by his wife. Reardon is in a loveless marriage with a woman whose behavior he finds bewildering and senseless. She seems to do things just to make him miserable, but, at the start of the novel, he cannot believe it is intentional. Reardon knows the party will be filled with her friends, whom he despises. Eventually, he goes to the party, very reluctantly. (I’m going from memory, and it’s been a number of years since I read Atlas, but I believe this is an accurate description.)
The speaker said the virtue of pride helps us to avoid making the mistake Reardon makes here.
The speaker then gave a second example, which comes from a feeling most of us have felt at one time or another. This is when we need to do specific things to advance our careers or long-term life goals, but part of us doesn’t want to. So, for instance, (my example), a person writing a novel might not want to sit down at his computer on any given day and actually put words on paper. He finds excuses not to begin writing, or gets easily distracted. I don’t believe the speaker called it this, but I call this a problem of motivation. The speaker noted that this is sort of the converse of the situation Reardon was in. It’s when we know we should do something, but don’t want to, while for Reardon, it was something he thought he should do, but was mistaken. (Reardon didn’t need to go to his wife’s party. What he needed to do was call a divorce lawyer.)
I tried to come up for a word for what Reardon was feeling and doing. He feels a lack of motivation to go to his wife’s terrible party, that has terrible people, but that is a good feeling. Unlike the situation of a writer who cannot bring himself to write due to a motivational lapse, Reardon’s feeling is rational and justified. In the end, the only expression I could come up with for Reardon’s behavior is a sort of slang expression: “Knuckling Under”. This is the idea of giving in, or submitting, in the face of unfair pressure from others.
The speaker said that the problem of motivation, such as a writer might feel, is another situation where practicing the virtue of pride can help.
The speaker then went on to discuss the “feeling of pride” as contrasted with the “concept of pride”. An example of the “feeling of pride” given by the speaker was also from Atlas Shrugged, when Dagny first meets Galt, and she describes his mouth as having the “shape of pride”. (Or something along those lines.)
My notes aren’t good on this point, but I think the speaker was focused more on the “concept of pride” rather than the “feeling of pride”. I would assume this is because a feeling is not something immediately under your control. Either you feel it, or you don’t. According to Objectivism, you choose the express ideas that you hold. Emotions and feelings are automatic, although they should change over time, depending on the express ideas you adopt and practice. (Feelings for Objectivism, I think, are ultimately a reflection of the ideas you hold.) Think about it like being an insomniac. He cannot “force” himself to sleep. He can take actions during the day, and over weeks, that will (sometimes) help him sleep better in the future, such as not drinking as much coffee, adhering to a regular sleep schedule, (possibly) meditating, etc. But, those are explicit lifestyle choices that improve a bodily function that is not directly under one’s control. (Take what I say on the Objectivist view of emotions in this paragraph with a “grain of salt”. It is not something I understand very well, and I have not thought about or studied it extensively.)
The Speaker said the lecture would look at the two aspects found in the definition of pride found in “The Objectivist Ethics”, in The Virtue of Selfishness. The first is the phrase “values of character”, and the second is the phrase “moral ambitiousness”. (It’s possible he said these are two ways Rand defines pride, I’m not sure from my notes.) (See http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/pride.html .)
Values of Character:
“Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned—that of any achievements open to you, the one that makes all others possible is the creation of your own character—that your character, your actions, your desires, your emotions are the products of the premises held by your mind—that as man must produce the physical values he needs to sustain his life, so he must acquire the values of character that make his life worth sustaining…” (Galt’s Speech, Atlas Shrugged)
The speaker started out by asking: what is “character”?
He described it as an entrenched, on-going state that makes you want to act in a certain way. He used the expression “emotional dispositions”, and noted that some people have certain “entrenched” behavior patterns. He used the example of “socially awkward people” versus people who are very “gregarious”. He said these attitudes are a product of the premises held in your mind. (“Premises” is one of those words in Objectivism that has somewhat unique significance, and is sort of a “term of art” you’’ll hear in Objectivist circles. EG, “benevolent universe premise”, “check your premises”, and “tribal premise”.)
An online dictionary defines “character” as “one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/character), which is not too far off from what I think the speaker and Rand meant in the quote above about pride.
The speaker then discussed another scene in Atlas Shrugged. (This one was at the party that I think Reardon’s wife was throwing that he didn’t want to go to.) Francisco approaches Reardon and deduces what he feels regarding the party, about how it is a victory over the storm and the elements. I have in my notes the speaker said that Reardon tells Francisco this is evil, though I’m not too sure of my notes on that point. (I don’t remember Reardon’s reaction.) The speaker then talked about the idea of “implicit premises”, and said you can only hold contradictions in your mind if one premise is explicit and the other is implicit.
I tend to think this is correct. Someone might explicitly reject Christianity, for instance, yet, still feel some fear of death and going to hell because they were raised from a young age with those ideas. It’s not that easy to unshackle your mind from those notions when they have been buried in your subconscious from an early time. A woman might explicitly say she is morally equal to men, but allow herself to get sucked into an abusive relationship, perhaps because she accepted ideas from early childhood that taught her to be a human punching bag for some man. A criminal out of prison may want to reform, yet all he seems to be able to do is think about ways he could rob a bank. An alcoholic might want to quit drinking, but have such intense anxieties, that he cannot find the source of, that he is constantly tempted to drink. Your behavior patterns and your emotional response to things get programmed by what ideas you’ve come to accept in the past, and now, perhaps even forgotten that you once explicitly accepted those ideas. This is why self-analysis is critical to personal growth.
For Objectivism, as I understand it, there is no shame in having bad habits or behavior patterns. It’s what you do about it that matters. Are you working on it? Are you, if necessary, getting therapy? When you have negative emotions, do you stop to think about why you feel that way?
The speaker then went on to talk about another phrase from Galt’s speech, concerning pride:
“…that as man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self-made soul…” (Galt’s Speech, Atlas Shrugged)
The speaker asked what does it mean to “make a soul”? He noted that you don’t have direct control over your “soul”. This has to do with the Objectivist view on free will. (See what I said above, and the examples I gave, such as the atheist who cannot quite give up his fear of going to hell.) Obviously, “soul” here means something other than a supernatural entity. When Rand speaks of a “soul” she means one’s consciousness, or one’s mind.
The speaker gives another example from Atlas Shrugged to illustrate his point that you don’t have direct control over your “soul”. When the government passes a bunch of regulations to kill the new industries arising in Colorado, Reardon temporarily looses motivation. Then, he talks with Dagny about the guy who invented the motor they found, and that he actually existed, which regains his sense of self-efficacy.
My notes then got a little bit vague for a page or so, but I think the speaker gave additional examples of situations where Reardon basically had an “internal conflict” in his mind, which caused him problems throughout the novel. (Such as when Reardon has sex with Dagny, and hates himself, and her, for it.)
The speaker then asked: How would better practicing the virtue of pride of helped Reardon?
He then jumped to Rand’s idea of “moral ambitiousness”, as it helps to define the virtue of pride:
“The virtue of Pride can best be described by the term: ‘moral ambitiousness.’” (“The Objectivist Ethics”, The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand)
Here, he gave some fairly good practical guidance on practicing this virtue. For instance, he said, when you don’t want to work, you shouldn’t just try to “force it”. You should first think about why you don’t want to work on something.
He also noted that when people do something they do not want to do, such as a sex addict, (or, I assume, a drug user), they should attempt to look at why they feel compelled to do that.
The speaker didn’t say this, but I suspect addicts may require therapy or other treatment. But, going out and getting a therapist, and committing to therapy would, in my opinion, be practicing the virtue of pride too. You are sufficiently “morally ambitious” to seek mental health treatment -to believe that you can change. That is an accomplishment. (I do have in my notes that the speaker mentioned seeking therapy.)
An example of practicing the virtue of pride from my own life involves personal finance. I haven’t always been the best when it comes to how I deal with and handle money. (What I’d call the virtue of “thrift”.) A lot of my thinking on money tended to be how I believe “poor people” think about money, without even being fully aware of this. In recent years, I’ve read books by authors like Robert Kiyosaki. One of my “take aways” from his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, is that there are certain patterns of thinking and habits concerning money that tend to make poor people poor, and rich people rich. For instance, Kiyosaki says the house you live in is not an asset, because assets “put money in your pocket”. It is “poor people thinking”, if I recall what Kiyosaki thought on the subject, to believe the house you live in is an asset when it is clearly a liability. Another “personal finance guru” I’ve listened to a good bit on the radio is Dave Ramsey. Although I don’t think his strategies for getting out of debt make sense in 100% of all situations, I do think he offers much practical guidance on this topic. He comes at the issue from the standpoint of personal responsibility, and self-discipline, which includes creating a budget and having a strategy for paying off your debts. Becoming debt-free requires a change in your thinking and behavior. In other words, you must change your character. That is the sort of “moral ambitiousness” Ayn Rand was talking about.
The next talk I attended on the 28th was a discussion of “Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand”, by Leonard Peikoff. (This book is commonly referred to as “OPAR” in Objectivism circles.) This is a systematic presentation of all aspects of Miss Rand’s philosophy in a non-fiction book, which Ayn Rand never did herself. It was written by one of her closest associates, who was also an academic philosopher. The book was based on a lecture course Leonard Peikoff would give in the 1970’s while Miss Rand was still alive.
Something the speaker said that surprised me concerned the chapter on the concept of “objectivity”. He said that Rand didn’t write much on that topic. (Which I had gathered from reading most of her published non-fiction, including “Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology”.) He said that most of what Peikoff wrote about the Randian view on this topic in OPAR came from his own private talks with Miss Rand.
By way of a brief explanation, chapter 4 of OPAR provides a definition of the concept of objectivity, followed by a description of two key underlying foundational concepts. These are the ideas that knowledge is both “contextual” and “hierarchical”. Peikoff says the first is necessary to “…clarify the idea of noncontradictory knowledge…” The understanding that knowledge is “hierarchical” is necessary “…to clarify the concept of ‘proof’…” “Both topics are indispensable if we are to grasp fully the nature of logic and thus objectivity.” (OPAR)
To really grasp an idea, one must understand both its context and its hierarchical nature with respect to other concepts, and ultimately what one experiences in the world of sensory-perceptual data. (What one sees, hears, tastes, smells, feels, etc.) Context must be held because “…concepts are formed in a context -by relating concretes to a field of contrasting entities. This body of relationships, which constitutes the context of the concept, is what determines its meaning.” (OPAR) An idea’s context is understood by means of the method of “integration”. “One step at a time, a man must relate a new item to his previous ideas. To the extent of his knowledge, he must search for aspects, presuppositions, implications, applications of the new that bear on his previous views (in any field); and he must identify explicitly the logical relationships he discovers. If he finds a contradiction anywhere, he must eliminate it. Judging on the available evidence, he must either amend his former views or reject the new claim.” (OPAR)
Objectivism also makes a distinction between concepts that can be grasped by observation with one’s senses versus concepts that contain so much sensory data, that it cannot be all held in one’s head as a “perceptual entity”. For instance, one can grasp a concept like “cat”, simply by observing a few cats, in contrast to, say, dogs and chickens. Its possible for a child to form this simple concept, and, for a while at least, hold a definition in terms of just pointing to examples of what he means by “cat”. By contrast, other concepts, like “art”, “organism”, “atom”, or “culture”, “…cannot be reached directly from its concretes.” Concepts like “culture” presuppose that its concretes have been “…conceptualized earlier, usually in several stages, on increasing levels of abstraction. A definite order of concept-formation is necessary. We begin with those abstractions that are closest to the perceptually given and move gradually away from them.” Recognizing this leads to the conclusion that “…cognitive items differ in a crucial respect: in their distance from the perceptual level.” This is the “hierarchical nature of knowledge”.(OPAR)
Noticing this hierarchical aspect of knowledge leads to a second, in my opinion, very powerful, method of learning new concepts. This is the method of “reduction”: “Reduction is the means of connecting an advanced knowledge to reality by traveling backward through the hierarchical structure involved, i.e., in the reverse order of that required to reach the knowledge. ‘Reduction’ is the process of identifying in logical sequence the intermediate steps that relate a cognitive item to perceptual data.” (OPAR)
Peikoff then gives an example of reducing the concept of “friend”. Basically, he starts with a definition of friend as a type of relationship that is different from a “stranger” or an “acquaintance”. From there, he goes on to look at the nature of that “relationship” that forms the basis, specifically, of friendship. (In other words, by taking a key term from the definition, he has already taken a step backward along the conceptual hierarchy.) That relationship that signifies “friendship” involves things like “mutual knowledge”, “esteem”, and “affection”. This is another step back. It is closer to something we can perceive in reality, either in others, or through our own introspection. From there, Peikoff “breaks down” the concept of “esteem”. What does that depend on? A favorable appraisal of a person. A recognition of qualities in another, or oneself, that are good or valuable.
He also breaks down the concept of “affection” as a positive feeling one has for another. This also implies the concept of someone being good or valuable. From there, Peikoff breaks down the concept of “value”, which according to Objectivism is “that which one acts to gain and/or keep”. The process of understanding the concept of “value” is set forth in “The Objectivist Ethics”, by Ayn Rand. Ultimately it lies in the fact that we are living organisms of a certain nature, and if we want to maintain our existence, then we must pursue certain goals -values. From there, you can see individual human beings pursuing goals in order to live: eating, sleeping, finding shelter, etc. These goals are achieved with certain actions. (Working, growing food, building houses, etc.) At that point, the concept “friendship” has been mostly “reduced” to the perceptual level- to what we can see.
According to OPAR, to really grasp any idea you learn, whether at school, from other people, or in books, you must understand that idea in context, by means of integration, and also understand the hierarchical nature of that idea by means of reducing it to more immediately perceivable concepts. The processes of logic, for Objectivism, are the methods of integration and reduction -of understanding ideas in relation to other ideas, and in relation to the facts of reality. Any idea that cannot be reduced and integrated is to be dismissed as illogical.
Once you start explicitly practicing the methods of reduction and integration, you will find that it makes learning things much easier. For instance, I have found that when studying a particular textbook for a class in school, it often helps me to go to the library, and get two or three other textbooks on the same subject. I will then flip to the sections where those alternative textbooks cover the same subject. They will present the concept I am learning using slightly different wording, with slightly different examples. Why does this help? First, the other textbooks are relating the concept to other concepts that the class textbook, might not do, perhaps because it is not as a good on that point. Second, the use of other examples in the other textbooks relates the concept I am trying to learn to the facts of reality in a different way, giving me a more complete picture. This reflects a different explanation of the hierarchical nature of that idea -a slightly different, and perhaps, better, reduction of the concept.
The final lecture I have in my notes from that day was on the virtue of integrity. The lecturer said that integrity seems like a “shadow virtue” compared to the other virtues commonly listed in Objectivism. (OPAR describes the following virtues, which are all considered expressions of the primary virtue of rationality: Independence, Integrity, Honesty, Justice, Productivity, and Pride -along with a discussion on “The Initiation of Physical Force as Evil”.) The lecturer said the other virtues seem more specific, while integrity sort of covers them all. On this definition, I am not sure that I agree that integrity is any more or less of a “shadow virtue”, than, say pride. Pride, as “moral ambitiousness” seems to be about taking moral virtue seriously and committing to that course. (Although, there seems to be some overlap in my mind between integrity and pride.) The lecturer offered as her thesis that the virtue of integrity does, in fact, offer something substantial.
The lecturer noted that the cultural climate is against integrity. Politics encourages compromise over commitment to principle. She noted that our legal system is so full of rules and regulations, that it practically necessitates cheating just to survive. (My example: Think of the Internal Revenue Code.)
Since the predominant moral code of today is altruism, which requires self-harm, you have to breach integrity just to survive on that moral code. The lecturer said that since integrity, as commonly accepted today, is connected in the minds of the public to altruism, it poses a “trap” that sucks a student of Objectivism into altruism without thinking about it. (I didn’t quite get this point.) The lecturer said that intrinsicism, in the Objectivist sense of that term, is the result. (I also didn’t get this point.)
My notes indicated the lecturer first distinguished between “Ideas Integrity” and “Action Integrity”. The former being consistency of your ideas, and the latter being correspondence of your ideas to your conduct. I take the first as, for instance, not being an advocate, of say, reason, while also being a theist. An example of the second, I think, would be something like being an atheist, then going to church, and engaging in all the formal trappings of religiosity -even saying to your friends and family that you’re religious, when you’re secretly not.
Next the lecturer discussed the value of integrity, by reference to John Galt’s speech on integrity in Atlas Shrugged. Basically, that we cannot live as animals do, on a case by case basis. Human life requires a bigger picture, with long-range planning. Integrity is the recognition that reason is man’s means of survival.
The lecturer stated that cheating always hurts you. However, I think this is only true in a fully capitalist society. In a very mixed economy, cheating may be necessary just to survive. People living in a highly regulated economy will have to pay off government officials just to be able to do business. Think of Mexico, and its notoriously corrupt police force, where you can either pay off a cop, or spend an indefinite term in a Mexican prison. (I will leave it as an open question whether our own society is so “mixed” that cheating is now necessary.)
The lecturer then notes some of the ways cheating hurts you. Most of these were related to how you are implicitly “programming” your subconscious when you cheat. These are sort of like “signals” you send to your subconscious: (1) You are telling yourself that what you believe is all just “Bull Shit”; (2) You are saying ideas aren’t true or false; (3) You are saying ideas don’t really matter. All of these, the lecturer noted, will create self-doubt.
My notes got a little “fuzzy” on some point. When they picked back up, the lecturer had moved on to very “practical” or “concrete” applications of the virtue of integrity, which I found useful. Basically, she said she wanted to look at the thinking that should take place behind the action of integrity. First, to practice integrity, the lecturer said you needed to engage in ongoing, honest introspection. By “introspection” she meant the process of cognition directed inward. For instance, the lecturer notes, if you notice, through introspection, that you are prone to excessive caution, or unduly ambitious in setting goals, or you find your emotions tend to overreact to situations, you should be on the lookout and try to figure out why this is happening.
I think this is what the lecturer meant with this sort of introspection: Say you realize that you are so cautious that you are stuck in a “dead-end” job, or you are terrified to ask a girl out on a date because of being rejected, or whenever you go out to take a walk for exercise, you’re afraid you’re going to get mugged. Basically, you’re unwilling to take rational, calculated risks where the reward is sufficiently great. You should set a sort of “reminder” in your head, that is something like: “I’m going to be on the lookout for when I feel this way.” Then, when you start feeling that way, you stop, and follow up with questions like: “Am I being too cautious here? What am I giving up by not taking a chance? How big is the risk if I do take a chance?” So, to take that down to a particular example. If you feel fear when trying to ask a girl out on a date, you think something like: “What’s the worst that can happen here?” (She says no.) “What is the possible reward? (She says “yes”, and you eventually fall in love.) Furthermore, you can recognize that the more times you ask girls out on dates, the more you will face that fear, and probably, over time, it will diminish in your mind. So even if you ask ten girls out on dates, and they all say “no”, you are still accomplishing something -the reduction and management of your fear. Now, there may be good reason not to ask a particular girl out on a date, when you do this introspection. Perhaps you have it on good authority she likes to go out on dates with guys just to get a free meal. In that case, your fear may be well-founded, or rational, in that particular case, so you pass up even asking her out. (Everything I said in this paragraph is my own thinking, and I don’t know if the lecturer would agree with me.)
The lecturer then went on to caution against three things when introspecting to discover where you can use some “improvement of your character”. These are things to be on the lookout for: (1) Rationalization – basically a fake explanation to excuse not having integrity in a particular situation; (2) Half-truths- You only look at part of the truth, to avoid cognitive dissonance in terms of the compatibility of your ideas; (3) Evasion– You want incompatible things, or you want to avoid unpleasant issues. An example given by the lecturer of this last point was when two of your friends have a falling out, and you have to, in a sense, “choose” between them.
The lecturer also note that it is possible to make an “error of knowledge”. This is a specific idea from Objectivism, which is contrasted with a “breach of morality”. Only this latter is considered wrong or bad in Objectivism. So, for instance, you might mistakenly believe that someone is honest, because you don’t have any current evidence that they have been lying to you. This is an “error of knowledge”. Later, you might find out that they’ve been lying to you. If you continued to pretend that they hadn’t lied to you, this would be a “breach of morality”. But, the lecturer notes that you shouldn’t use the concept of “errors of knowledge” as a sort of rationalization or excuse. She noted that complacency, is, itself, a breach of morality. So, you cannot “stick your head in the sand”, and avoid gathering the facts necessary to make moral judgments.
The lecturer then discussed subjecting your moral principles to examination to make sure they are correct. I think this relates back to the distinction the lecturer made between “Ideas Integrity” and “Action Integrity”. This would relate to the former aspect of integrity -of ensuring consistency between the ideas that you hold. She said integrity is about loyalty to rational principles, not whims. For instance, (my example) you need to honestly ask yourself if holding some notion of a supreme being is consistent with your commitment to truth, logic, and the scientific method. The lecturer gave an example concerning Hank Reardon and Dagny Tagart in Atlas Shrugged. Basically, I think she meant they were not acting with full integrity, even if that was not their intent. She said Objectivism is not an ethics of intention.
The lecturer then asked what is a “principle”? It is a general truth on which other truths depend. A breach of integrity is a breach of the facts. For instance, when practicing the virtue of justice, a breach of integrity could occur in one of two ways: First, one could fail to judge at all. I take this as the sort of post-1960’s, “hippie view”, in which everyone is free to “do their own thing”, even if that results in the likes of Charles Manson. Second, one could engage in judgment without sufficient facts. I take this to be the sort of person who seems quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion, and to ascribe the worst motives to people. We all know the “church lady” type, or, more recently, the “social justice warrior” type, who goes after famous people on social media for being “racists” when they say something that isn’t 100% in line with their worldview. (Like when black racial collectivists went after radio personality Don Imus, and ultimately got him fired.) Although, I think, in the case of the “church lady type” or the “social justice warrior”, part of their problem is their underlying philosophy that leads to this sort of “judgmental” behavior. In other words, it’s inherent in religion and Marxist/Leftist thinking to engage in this sort of activity, by the logic of what they believe.
In the case of people who tend to make moral denunciations of others without having endeavored to learn all of the facts, I think that this occurs at times in Objectivist circles, usually amongst the younger people who might be new to Objectivism, and don’t fully understand it. Although, I’ve seen it with older people in this subculture, too. At this point in my notes, I have “Objectivist virtue signaler”, which is a “recycling” of a term used to describe the “social justice warrior” types on the left who like to make loud proclamations, and condemnations of people, usually on scanty or no evidence. For instance, the left-wing “virtue signaler” will get on Facebook or Twitter, and declare that some famous person is a “racist”, based on some very vague statements they may have made in the past, that could have any of a number of meanings. I think my use of the term “Objectivist virtue signaler” is my own thinking, and not something this lecturer said. I recall hearing someone saying this in a group of people at OCON between lectures, in reference to someone, and it may have gotten into my head that way.
My hypothesis on this phenomena: sometimes, younger people who have just discovered Objectivism will be so enthusiastic about the philosophy that they may be unwitting victims of the “Dunning-Kruger Effect”. They want to be good, but they don’t fully understand what that means, so they may try to act on ideas they don’t understand very well. They may wind up imitating Ayn Rand, and the characters from her books, rather than truly understanding them. They proclaim their love for the music of Rachmaninov and skyscrapers, take up smoking, etc. They adapt concrete things that seem to “represent Objectivism” in their minds, rather than understanding the fundamentals of the philosophy. Leonard Peikoff discusses the concept of “rationalism” in his lecture series “Understanding Objectivism”, and how to combat it, and I think this is related to this method of thinking. The difference between the “Objectivist virtue signaler” and the Marxist/Leftist “virtue signaler” is that Objectivism actually conforms to reality and is useful for helping you live your life. As such, someone engaging in “dogmatic thinking” with respect to Objectivism will, with high probability, eventually become frustrated because what they say doesn’t seem to have any connection to actual reality in their minds. At that point, they will either do deeper thinking about Objectivism, likely using the techniques of “reduction” and “integration” already discussed in relation to Leonard Peikoff’s book, OPAR, or they will just throw up their hands and move away from Objectivism. Rand said something similar in an interview for Playboy Magazine. (See the entry on “Dogma” found in The Ayn Rand Lexicon: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/dogma.html )
The lecturer said integrity involves “checking in”, to make sure our virtues are being practiced properly. She then discussed using a sort of “cost benefit analysis”, and whether that makes sense in living our lives. She basically thought this sometimes might make sense, as long as you ask the question: “By what yardstick is it a cost or a benefit?” She gave the example of a $5 coupon for a pizza place you don’t like. You can think it’s $5 off, but since you don’t like the pizza, is it really a benefit? She noted that the common view of principles is that they are either seen as “arbitrary duties” or as “things that help people”. (I think people on the political right tend to see it as the former, and people on the left tend to see the latter.) But, the speaker noted, both of these views see principles as impediments against having too much self-interest. She noted that for Ayn Rand, principles promote wellbeing.
I think the best way to see the difference between the conventional view of principles and the “Randian viewpoint”, is to think of principles in terms of “scientific principles”. For instance, the “scientific principle” of Newtonian mechanics allows us to calculate the instantaneous velocity of a cannon ball, or a rocket fired into space. This is useful for helping us to do things like launch satellites into orbit. Rand’s view of principles is more in line with the principles espoused by Newton than the “principles” found in the Bible or the Democratic Party Platform.
The last thing I have in my notes on this lecture is the Q&A. Someone asked about a quote from “The Fountainhead”, that I believe is made by Gail Wynand. He says something like: “All love is exception making.” I believe he said it with respect to Dominique Francon, and I also think he said she could never make an exception for anyone. Basically, I think the questioner wanted to know how this “fits” with Ayn Rand’s view on the virtue of integrity, since it seems like it would contradict that. The lecturer said she didn’t have a good explanation for that, which I thought was very honest. I have remembered this quote on several occasions in my own personal, romantic life, and I’ve wondered if I was just making up a rationalization for “excusing” certain beliefs or attitudes with people I’ve been involved with. I cannot fully explain this quote from “The Fountainhead”, other than to note that Gail Wynand was, by no means, a perfect man. You have to take what he says with a “grain of salt”, as not necessarily indicating what Ayn Rand thought. Just like you wouldn’t attribute anything Ellsworth Toohey believed to Rand, since he was the villain in the novel. But, I also think there may be something there, especially when it comes to romantic relationships. I just haven’t quite figured it out yet.
The last lecture I attended that day concerned the history of medicine, given by a professional surgeon. It was a history of the science of anatomy, specifically how difficult it was for people before modern times to legally obtain cadavers for dissection. The lecturer said it is very difficult to make any progress in medical science without first being able to understand human anatomy, which requires dissection of dead bodies. In the ancient and medieval worlds, and in most cultures, cutting open dead bodies was a religious or cultural taboo. She noted some of the historical exceptions to this. For instance, at various times in pre-modern Egypt, cutting open dead bodies was done as part of that culture’s burial ceremonies, so they learned something about internal organs. In India, children under 2 could be dissected. (I don’t remember the reason. Something to do with their religion.) In the Roman Empire, ancient physicians learned something about anatomy from wounded gladiators. From 200 A.D. to about 1400 A.D., the Church forbade dissection, meaning there wasn’t much progress. Plus, ancient Roman physician’s works became like a dogma, with many incorrect ideas. Then, around the time of the Renaissance, more progress was made. The name to remember from that period is William Harvey. I generally enjoy history of science presentations like this. It reminded me of James Burke’s “Connections” and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”. The discussion of William Harvey made me think of a fiction novel I read called “Quicksilver” by Neal Stephenson, which seems to be set in the same time period as Harvey. The novel is fiction, but involves historical characters, such as Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. In the novel, the characters will do things like dissect human bodies, or vivisect dogs to learn about anatomy, in addition to studying things like physics.
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