The Page of Reason

Preface

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From all of my life expe­ri­ence, from all knowl­edge that I have ever acquired from a mag­nif­i­cent array of gen­er­ous knowl­edge con­trib­u­tors, I assert that Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples are the only pos­si­ble prin­ci­ples for inci­sive pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness, for all humans, all around the Earth. With­in The Page of Rea­son, I will make my case.

Since the advent of primeval lan­guages, our human minds have been assault­ed by ever-more, ever-var­i­ous, ever-con­tra­dic­to­ry, and ever-eva­sive irra­tional ideas. And, on count­less occa­sions through­out the ages, will­ful­ly cho­sen and enact­ed to their final social con­clu­sions, irra­tional ideas have caused vast des­ti­tu­tion, destruc­tion, and death.

Our primeval natures will always be with us. How­ev­er, irra­tional ideas are just sim­plis­tic con­cep­tu­al errors. They are just ideas that have become entan­gled with the per­sis­tent and per­ni­cious, primeval prin­ci­ple that: any­thing-goes!

With great life-enrich­ing effects, we are able to over­come primeval any­thing-goes ideas by wise­ly employ­ing our rea­son­ing skills. And it is only by such wise rea­son­ing that we will ever become able to con­sis­tent­ly cul­ti­vate our pur­suits of happiness.

Such a wise desire notwith­stand­ing, it is impos­si­ble to know the truth, the whole truth, and noth­ing but the truth—about the facts of human ratio­nal­i­ty, in detail. How­ev­er, by well-for­mu­lat­ed prin­ci­ples, we can prof­itably progress towards our impor­tant purpose.

To be use­ful, to be sta­ble, to be good, to be true, such well-for­mu­lat­ed prin­ci­ples must sub­sume the broad­est rea­son­ably pos­si­ble range of present­ly known facts, and they must be well-anchored with­in objec­tive real­i­ty by inci­sive rational-work.

Ratio­nal­i­ty has always been our dis­tinc­tive human attribute, our prin­ci­pal virtue, and our fun­da­men­tal tal­ent. Nev­er­the­less, it has only been with­in the most recent 2600 years that we humans have engaged in mean­ing­ful inves­ti­ga­tions of ratio­nal­i­ty. Thus, with­in the prodi­gious­ly long dura­tion of human his­to­ry, we have only just recent­ly begun to actu­al­ize the vibrant­ly good life that ratio­nal­i­ty offers.

Why has this inves­ti­ga­tion work only just recent­ly begun, and then evolved at such an excru­ci­at­ing­ly slow pace? For three pri­ma­ry reasons:

• One: Rea­son, rationality’s method of work, is a set of vol­un­tary skills that can only become per­formed with­in indi­vid­ual human minds.
• Two: Ratio­nal-work, non-con­tra­dic­to­ry inte­gra­tions of per­cepts and con­cepts by log­i­cal rea­son, must become performed.
• Three: Cul­tur­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant ratio­nal-work always depends upon present states of lit­er­a­cy and of var­i­ous sorts of infor­ma­tion technologies.

It is only with­in indi­vid­ual human minds that rea­son­ing skills and con­cep­tu­al knowl­edge can exist and devel­op. How­ev­er, at birth, our minds became formed devoid of such con­tent. Nev­er­the­less, since our births, our minds have become slates, upon which, by choice, we can write and rewrite to the very end of our con­scious lives.

By my choice, for almost thir­teen years, I direct­ed my mind towards impor­tant, pur­pose­ful work:

• First: I worked hard to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly inves­ti­gate and to there­by rea­son­ably assim­i­late a very broad knowl­edge context.
• Sec­ond: Once I came to under­stand their utter­ly cru­cial impor­tance, I then worked hard to acquire an inci­sive under­stand­ing of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal principles.
• Third: Begin­ning with a lim­it­ed set of writ­ing skills, I then worked very hard to fur­ther devel­op, hone, and pol­ish those skills.
• Fourth: Dur­ing five years, as I worked on those writ­ing skills, I com­posed The Page of Rea­son, the final pur­pose of which is to com­mu­ni­cate fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal prin­ci­ples to you, and to each oth­er able indi­vid­ual, on Earth.

With­in this book, I have done my utter best to inci­sive­ly define those principles.

• For inci­sive pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness, on Earth, such prin­ci­ples, Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples, are necessary.

Let there be light! And there is light, a human light: rea­son. And, as we pro­ceed, by prin­ci­ples, to fur­ther sep­a­rate the light from the dark­ness, we will see that this light is good: every! day.

A Brain is Free. A Mind is Earned.

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I invite you to embark with me upon this brief great adven­ture, and to then employ The Page of Rea­son, as a use­ful tool, with­in your own endur­ing great adven­ture. You and I have much to dis­cuss: me with­in my ratio­nal text, you with­in your own ratio­nal mind.

• Get the Kin­dle eBook or the paper­back book from Amazon. 
  • https://​ama​zon​.com/​(id pend­ing) or just search for the title.
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• Order the paper­back book from your favorite bookstore.
• Check­out the paper­back from your library or the check­out the eBook from your library’s Over­Drive service.
• Expect pub­li­ca­tion by April 1st of 2021, pos­si­bly sooner.

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Eight-Parts in Eight-Pages is a self-imposed, one part per page, artis­tic con­straint that is imple­ment­ed in an 8‑point font, on legal-size pages, with­in the mas­ter copy. Dur­ing five years’ worth of ratio­nal-work, I employed this artis­tic con­straint to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly pre­vent tex­tu­al bloat, while pro­gres­sive­ly enrich­ing, refin­ing, and tight­ly pack­ing tex­tu­al con­tent, most par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in Part 5, the part that drove the need for the 8‑point font.

• Through­out this book, TheP​a​ge​Of​Rea​son​.com is referred to as “the website.”
• The web­site hosts sup­ple­men­tal infor­ma­tion in sup­port of this book’s themes.
• Part 5 (The Page), in its orig­i­nal one-page for­mat, can be viewed at the website.

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Preface Endnotes

End­notes: End­notes are incor­po­rat­ed as final sec­tions with­in most parts, and I rec­om­mend that due atten­tion be paid to them.

The Dic­tio­nary: Webster’s is ref­er­enced in about 60% of this book’s end­notes, and def­i­n­i­tion parts have been select­ed that best reflect this book’s intend­ed mean­ings. Each such ref­er­ence is a ref­er­ence to Webster’s Third New Inter­na­tion­al Dic­tio­nary of the Eng­lish Lan­guage, Unabridged. Chica­go: Ency­clopæ­dia Bri­tan­ni­ca, 1986.

Attribute: Webster’s, page 141. (1b) A qual­i­ty intrin­sic, inher­ent, nat­u­ral­ly belong­ing to a thing or person.

Hap­pi­ness: Webster’s, page 1031. (2a1) A state of well-being char­ac­ter­ized by rel­a­tive per­ma­nence, by dom­i­nant­ly agree­able emo­tion rang­ing in val­ue from mere con­tent­ment to intense joy in liv­ing, and by a nat­ur­al desire for its continuation.

Inci­sive: Webster’s, page 1142. (2) Marked by sharp­ness and pen­e­tra­tion, espe­cial­ly in keen clear unmis­tak­able res­o­lu­tion of mat­ter at issue or in point­ed deci­sive effec­tive­ness of pre­sen­ta­tion. clear-cut, crisp.

Knowl­edge: Webster’s, page 1252. (2a1) The fact or con­di­tion of know­ing some­thing with a con­sid­er­able degree of famil­iar­i­ty gained through expe­ri­ence of or con­tact or asso­ci­a­tion with the indi­vid­ual or thing so known. (2d) The fact or con­di­tion of pos­sess­ing with­in men­tal grasp through instruc­tion, study, research, or expe­ri­ence one or more truths, facts, prin­ci­ples, or oth­er objects of perception.

Objec­tivism: “Objec­tivism” is the name of Ayn Rand’s phi­los­o­phy. All works of oth­ers, mine includ­ed, that pro­fess know­ledge of her phi­los­o­phy are com­men­taries, inter­pre­ta­tions, opin­ions, etc. Fur­ther­more, the words “Objec­tivism, Objec­tivist, etc.” should only be employed in ref­er­ence to Ayn Rand’s phi­los­o­phy as a phi­los­o­phy, cer­tain­ly nev­er as names for oth­er sorts or types of ideas or entities.

Primeval: Webster’s, page 1801. Of or relat­ing to the ear­li­est ages of the world or human history.

Primeval Lan­guages: Most esti­mates for the emer­gence of primeval “word” lan­guages fall with­in the range of 50 to 150 thou­sand years ago. And we can rea­son­ably infer that primeval “sign” lan­guages (facial expres­sions, ges­tures, etc.) exist­ed before and con­cur­rent with primeval “word” languages.

Prin­ci­pal: Webster’s, page 1802. (2) A mat­ter or thing of pri­ma­ry impor­tance. A main or most impor­tant element.

Prin­ci­ple: Webster’s, page 1803. (1a) A gen­er­al or fun­da­men­tal truth. A com­pre­hen­sive and fun­da­men­tal law, doc­trine, or assump­tion on which oth­ers are based or from which oth­ers are derived. (1b1) A gov­ern­ing law of con­duct. An opin­ion, atti­tude, or belief that exer­cis­es a direct­ing influ­ence on the life and behav­ior. A rule or code of usu­al­ly good con­duct by which one directs one’s life or actions.

Rea­son: Webster’s, page 1891. (2a1) The pow­er of com­pre­hend­ing, infer­ring, or think­ing, espe­cial­ly in order­ly, sen­si­ble, ratio­nal ways. The abil­i­ty to trace out the impli­ca­tions of a com­bi­na­tion of facts or sup­po­si­tions. (2a2) The prop­er exer­cise of the intel­lec­tive fac­ul­ty in accor­dance with right judg­ment, right use of the mind, right thinking.

Tal­ent: Webster’s, page 141. (3) The abil­i­ties, pow­ers, and gifts bestowed upon a man. Nat­ur­al endow­ments. (4a) A spe­cial innate or devel­oped apti­tude for an expressed or implied activ­i­ty usu­al­ly of a cre­ative or artis­tic nature. (4b) Gen­er­al intel­li­gence or men­tal pow­er. abil­i­ty.

Vast Des­ti­tu­tion, Destruc­tion, and Death: Besides pop­u­la­tions of mil­lions, and all else in between, an indi­vid­ual human life is vast, for the indi­vid­ual who lives it.

Virtue: Webster’s, page 2556. (1a1) Wis­dom based on a knowl­edge of the good that makes one act in accor­dance with the good. (1a2) A habit involv­ing the choice of excel­lence in con­duct with the excel­lence being real­ized in a mean between excess and defect.

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Part 1: The Preliminary Introduction

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Some ages, brow did sweat.
Some pages, brow did whet.
From dust came pages, brow, and sweat,
And to dust they shall pay their debt,
But not, just, yet.

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Section 1: The Principal Themes

• Rea­son con­sti­tutes the essen­tial tool for the sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness of each human individual.
• Objec­tivism con­sti­tutes the phi­los­o­phy of real­i­ty inte­grat­ed reason.
• Each able indi­vid­ual, on Earth, would most cer­tain­ly ben­e­fit from an under­stand­ing of Objectivism.
• Objectivism’s fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples have been inci­sive­ly defined on a sin­gle page of about 2000 words (Part 5: The Page).

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Section 2: Reality Integrated Objectivist Principles

The eas­i­ly under­stood ratio­nal prin­ci­ples that are nec­es­sary for inci­sive pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and happiness:

Ratio­nal Real­i­ty and Knowledge
Ratio­nal Ethics, Virtues, and Rights
Ratio­nal Free­dom, Lib­er­ty, Jus­tice, and Government
Ratio­nal Artis­tic Purpose

Phi­los­o­phy is not a bauble of the intel­lect, but a pow­er from which no man can abstain. Any­one can say that he dis­pens­es with a view of real­i­ty, knowl­edge, the good, but no one can imple­ment this cre­do. The rea­son is that man, by his nature as a con­cep­tu­al being, can­not func­tion at all with­out some form of phi­los­o­phy to serve as his guide.

Peikoff, Leonard. Chap­ter 1, “Real­i­ty.” Objec­tivism: The Phi­los­o­phy of Ayn Rand. New York: Merid­i­an, 1993, page 1, para­graph 1.

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Section 3: Reason, Integration, and Pursuits of Happiness

Through­out the ages, to achieve ben­e­fi­cial out­comes, humans have rearranged bits and pieces of cause-and-effect nat­ur­al real­i­ty. How­ev­er, not being nature’s cre­ators, to achieve those cause-and-effect rearrange­ments, it has always been nec­es­sary for us to first grasp nature’s non-con­tra­dic­to­ry truths. And, just as rea­son ever has been our tool for grasp­ing those truths, it will ever be just so.

Nature is only to be com­mand­ed by obey­ing her.

Bacon, Sir Fran­cis. First Book. Novum Organum. 1620, apho­rism 129.

Rea­son (log­i­cal rea­son) is a set of vol­un­tary skills that can only become pro­gres­sive­ly mas­tered by punc­tu­at­ed ratio­nal-work with­in indi­vid­ual human minds. And to inte­grate is to assem­ble valu­able parts into a non-con­tra­dic­to­ry pur­pose­ful whole. The pur­pose of rea­son is to inte­grate obser­va­tions of real­i­ty into non-con­tra­dic­to­ry knowl­edge; from non-con­tra­dic­to­ry knowl­edge, to inte­grate non-con­tra­dic­to­ry val­ues and judg­ments; and from those, to inte­grate non-con­tra­dic­to­ry actions.

Close eval­u­a­tions of knowl­edge, val­ues, judg­ments, and actions will dis­close that, to the degrees well-inte­grat­ed, they are ulti­mate­ly employed with­in pur­suits of hap­pi­ness. More­over, it is from these inescapable facts of every­day life that the fab­ric of each individual’s life becomes composed.

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Section 4: Irrationality, Consequences, and Corrections

Nat­ur­al real­i­ty = objec­tive real­i­ty + sub­jec­tive real­i­ty. With­in objec­tive real­i­ty, con­tra­dic­tions do not exist. How­ev­er, with­in sub­jec­tive real­i­ty, irra­tional ideas, which always entail con­tra­dic­tions, do exist. And ideas do cause con­se­quences. At min­i­mum, they sim­ply con­sume pre­cious time. How­ev­er, at worst, on count­less occa­sions through­out the ages, will­ful­ly cho­sen and enact­ed to their final social con­clu­sions, irra­tional ideas have caused vast des­ti­tu­tion, destruc­tion, and death.

Except­ing sim­ple acci­dents and inno­cent knowl­edge deficits, such ideas are the root caus­es of all human gen­er­at­ed tragedies. And ulti­mate­ly, such ideas can only become cor­rect­ed by ratio­nal-work, non-con­tra­dic­to­ry inte­gra­tions of per­cepts and con­cepts by log­i­cal rea­son, not by suf­fer­ing fur­ther irra­tional ideas.

I present The Page of Rea­son, as a potent tool, as a pow­er­ful cat­a­lyst, to sub­stan­tial­ly cor­rect irra­tional ideas: to there­by dimin­ish human gen­er­at­ed tragedies.

Choic­es are required. Time and work are also required. How­ev­er, this is not par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult work, and it is vir­tu­al­ly guar­an­teed to become extra­or­di­nar­i­ly reward­ing and plea­sur­able work. Our choic­es. Our time. Our work. Our rewards. Our plea­sures. Rea­son is noble. Wel­come! And I am pleased to meet you here.

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Section 5: Understanding The Page of Reason

The Ini­tial Pur­pose: My work to com­pose The Page of Rea­son began with a pur­pose­ful desire to ratio­nal­ly inte­grate, with­in my own mind, a lifetime’s worth of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence. Towards that pur­pose, I began with­in an ear­li­er attempt to for­mu­late the best of my ideas onto a one-page writ­ten text. Then, through­out my lat­er long writ­ing project, I worked con­sis­tent­ly to enrich and refine that text into an expand­ed work of inter­nal con­sis­ten­cy. However, . . .

A fool­ish con­sis­ten­cy is the hob­gob­lin of lit­tle minds.

Emer­son, Ralph Wal­do. Self-Reliance. 1841, para­graph 14.

• Clear­ly, Ralph Wal­do would judge my mind to be: a fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind.

From the very first page of my writ­ing, I employed a self-imposed one-page con­straint. I sensed a pur­pose­ful need to tai­lor a big mem­o­ry full of big ideas into a fash­ion­able hat of a con­sis­tent tex­ture and style that would com­fort­ably fit my own fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind.

Fur­ther­more, also from the very first page, I employed the prin­ci­ple that I should com­pose in a con­sis­tent tex­ture and style that would con­sis­tent­ly com­mu­ni­cate my ideas to you. If I could con­sis­tent­ly com­mu­ni­cate my ideas to you, then I would con­sis­tent­ly under­stand them with­in my own fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind.

Oh Ralph, Ralph, Ralph Wal­do! Take a hike! Slump along now and hump your fool­ish, incon­sis­tent, mis­fit ideas into some stinky slug-plumped swamp—somewhere, light-years away. Dump ‘em there. Then, sprint back to us: unbur­dened and refreshed.

The Long Project: I began com­pos­ing The Page of Rea­son on Octo­ber 15th of 2015 as a novice author who pos­sessed rea­son­ably well-devel­oped ver­bal lan­guage skills. How­ev­er, I did not pos­sess any sig­nif­i­cant writ­ing expe­ri­ence, and I most def­i­nite­ly did not pos­sess the writ­ing skills that were nec­es­sary to pro­duce this book. There­fore, I had to acquire, hone, and pol­ish much of that, and that work, well-increased by count­less bits of ratio­nal-work on all oth­er aspects of this project, con­sumed con­sid­er­able dos­es of time and effort.

Judg­ing it com­plete, I first pub­lished The Page of Rea­son on April 1st of 2016 (on the web­site). How­ev­er, I was then unable to restrain myself from author­ing fur­ther enrich­ments and refine­ments. On July 4th, I called a final halt. Then, on August 15th, fol­low­ing numer­ous re-reads, I embarked once more! Then, all over, again, again, and again! (Final­ized: Jan­u­ary 19th of 2021.)

• By ratio­nal-work, I chew, chew, chewed a lifetime’s worth of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence. By that, I pro­duced this book. Nev­er give-up!

The Parts: I began com­pos­ing The Page of Rea­son with ini­tial work on Parts 4 and 5. And, through­out my long writ­ing project, I worked assid­u­ous­ly to make those two parts easy to read, easy to under­stand, and inci­sive­ly accu­rate. How­ev­er, my self-imposed one-page con­straints exclud­ed fur­ther, impor­tant and valu­able, infor­ma­tion and con­text. There­fore, once I had resolved to share Parts 4 and 5 with you, I then con­cur­rent­ly com­posed the addi­tion­al parts and supplements.

Part 5 con­sti­tutes an excep­tion­al­ly inde­pen­dent sub-essay. How­ev­er, to estab­lish impor­tant con­text, the whole book should first be read in sequen­tial order. Once that con­text has been estab­lished, then Part 5’s val­ue becomes great­ly enriched, and all oth­er parts and sup­ple­ments become sub­stan­tial­ly inde­pen­dent sub-essays.

The Razor: Part 5, Orrin’s Razor, con­cludes my attempt to for­mu­late a one-page inci­sive def­i­n­i­tion of Objec­tivism. I am con­fi­dent that indi­vid­u­als who pos­sess sig­nif­i­cant pre­knowl­edge of Objec­tivism will find Part 5’s def­i­n­i­tion to be extra­or­di­nar­i­ly accu­rate and valu­able. How­ev­er, con­cern­ing such con­clu­sions, each Stu­dent of Objec­tivism must for­mu­late their own judgments.

The Cul­ti­va­tors: Here are four facts that each able indi­vid­ual should know:

• Objec­tivism con­sti­tutes the present­ly unsur­passed cul­ti­va­tor of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal principles.
• The Page of Rea­son, cou­pled with The Great Per­sua­sion, con­sti­tutes the present­ly unsur­passed cul­ti­va­tor of Objec­tivism (my intention).
• By choice, one can cul­ti­vate one’s own con­cep­tu­al mind: to there­by cul­ti­vate one’s own pur­suits of happiness.
• Prodi­gious­ly few adults are ever thor­ough­ly unable.

The Emo­tions: Though I am most def­i­nite­ly not an emo­tion­al­ist, each time that I have read through this book, I have expe­ri­enced impor­tant emo­tion­al respons­es. I can there­fore tes­ti­fy that one’s ratio­nal efforts to grasp the truths of real­i­ty, knowl­edge, the good are not cold, dry, and remote.

Well-inte­grat­ed knowl­edge con­sis­tent­ly caus­es appro­pri­ate, noble, well-informed, and well-nuanced emo­tions. Val­ue judg­ments con­sti­tute con­se­quen­tial sub­sets of our knowl­edge. And vig­or­ous­ly, sub­con­scious­ly, at light­ning fast speeds, our minds match our var­i­ous­ly direct­ed, var­i­ous­ly focused, lim­it­ed obser­va­tions with our pre­formed val­ue judg­ments, and there­by cause our emotions.

• Ratio­nal knowl­edge enrich­es and refines val­ue judg­ments, and there­by enrich­es and refines emotions.

Should you choose to read the whole book, then know that I will be engag­ing in a no holds barred effort to com­mu­ni­cate to you: Objectivism’s fun­da­men­tal principles—with all of the ratio­nal knowl­edge and emo­tion­al pow­er that my fool­ish lit­tle hob­gob­lin mind can pos­si­bly muster.

The Final Pur­pose: Too often, our lives become swamped, by treach­er­ous assaults, of mul­ti­far­i­ous kinds, from copi­ous-cadres of death-wor­ship­ing, death-deal­ing, any­thing-goes misfits.

Dis­tinct­ly counter-assault­ing such evils: Objec­tivism inci­sive­ly iden­ti­fies, defines, and explains the only known full-set of fun­da­men­tal ratio­nal prin­ci­ples that are nec­es­sary to estab­lish ratio­nal order with­in each of our cul­tures and civ­i­liza­tions: for the life-enrich­ing ratio­nal-self-inter­est of each human individual.

There­fore, due to Objectivism’s unri­valed impor­tance, amongst all pos­si­ble earth­ly ideas, it would be good if The Page of Rea­son were to become avail­able to each able indi­vid­ual, on Earth. Then, for each one, to read, or not to read: that would be a choice. To ascend to the moun­tain top, or not: that would also be a choice.

• Would it be good to become well-informed about ratio­nal­i­ty, our fun­da­men­tal tal­ent, the tal­ent by which we live or die every day: bit by tiny bit?

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Part 1 Endnotes

Ethics: Webster’s, page 780. (1) The dis­ci­pline of deal­ing with what is good and bad or right and wrong or with moral duty and obligation.

Evil: Webster’s, page 789. (2a) Some­thing that is inju­ri­ous to moral or phys­i­cal hap­pi­ness or wel­fare. • Orrin: With wis­dom, evil intel­lec­tu­al ideas are to be just­ly counter-assault­ed by good intel­lec­tu­al ideas, evil phys­i­cal forces by good phys­i­cal forces.

Inte­grate: Webster’s, page 1174. (2) To form into a more com­plete, har­mo­nious, or coor­di­nat­ed enti­ty often by the addi­tion or arrange­ment of parts or elements.

Objec­tive: Webster’s, page 1555. (1b3) Belong­ing to nature or the sen­si­ble world. Pub­licly or inter­sub­jec­tive­ly observ­able or ver­i­fi­able. Inde­pen­dent of what is per­son­al or pri­vate in our appre­hen­sions and feel­ings. Of such nature that ratio­nal minds agree in hold­ing it real or true or valid.

Real­i­ty: Webster’s, page 1890. (2c1) What actu­al­ly exists. What has objec­tive exis­tence. What is not a mere idea. What is not imag­i­nary, fic­ti­tious, or pretended.

Right: Webster’s, page 1955. (1) Some­thing moral­ly just or con­so­nant with the light of nature. (2) Some­thing to which one has a just claim. (2b) A pow­er, priv­i­lege, or con­di­tion of exis­tence to which one has a nat­ur­al claim of enjoy­ment or possession.

Sub­jec­tive: Webster’s, page 2275. (2c) Of, relat­ing to, or being what­ev­er in expe­ri­ence or knowl­edge is con­di­tioned by mere­ly per­son­al char­ac­ter­is­tics of mind or by par­tic­u­lar states of mind as opposed to what is deter­mined only by the uni­ver­sal con­di­tions of human expe­ri­ence and knowledge.

Vir­tu­al­ly: Webster’s, page 2556. (2) Almost entire­ly. For all prac­ti­cal purposes.

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Part 2: The Topical Outline

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Noth­ing Can Be Ratio­nal­ly Known to Exist That Is
More Mag­nif­i­cent, More Impor­tant, or More Glorious
Than One’s Own Con­cep­tu­al Mind.

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• This part’s leader, Part 5 out­line, and foot­er are par­tic­u­lar­ly significant.
• Oth­er­wise, this part is an elab­o­rat­ed table of con­tents, a good struc­tur­al overview, of the whole book.

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• Pref­ace and Pref­ace Endnotes

• Part 1: The Pre­lim­i­nary Introduction
  • Sec­tion 1: The Prin­ci­pal Themes
  • Sec­tion 2: Real­i­ty Inte­grat­ed Objec­tivist Principles
  • Sec­tion 3: Rea­son, Inte­gra­tion, and Pur­suits of Happiness
  • Sec­tion 4: Irra­tional­i­ty, Con­se­quences, and Corrections
  • Sec­tion 5: Under­stand­ing The Page of Reason
  • Part 1 Endnotes

• Part 3: The Begin­nings: About Orrin Smith and The Page of Reason
  • Sec­tion 1: Ear­ly Work His­to­ry: Respect for End-to-End Evil-Force-Free Trade
  • Sec­tion 2: Ear­ly Edu­ca­tion His­to­ry: Mod­er­ate Achieve­ments: Dribs and Drabs
  • Sec­tion 3: Intel­lec­tu­al Bedrock: Just Anoth­er Guy (With an Every­day Light!)
  • Sec­tion 4: Mid­dle Pro­fes­sion­al His­to­ry: Adept, Pro­duc­tive, and Respected
  • Sec­tion 5: April Fools’ Day of 2008: The Secret Plan: Blend Tasty Lemonade
  • Sec­tion 6: The Accom­plish­ments: Yes! Yes! and a Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress!
  • Sec­tion 7: Refresh­ment Time! A Superbly Blend­ed Batch of Tasty Lemonade!
  • Part 3 Endnotes

• Part 4: The Crit­i­cal Intro­duc­tion: A Dis­cov­ery of Objectivism
  • Sec­tion 1: Objec­tivism and The Page
  • Sec­tion 2: Mas­ter­ing Any Subject
  • Sec­tion 3: Mas­ter­ing the Sub­ject of Ratio­nal Philosophy
  • Sec­tion 4: The Sweat of His Brow: Orrin’s Great Big Ratio­nal Chew
  • Sec­tion 5: Com­ments on Key Objec­tivist Literature
  • Sec­tion 6: Table of Key Objec­tivist Lit­er­a­ture (with brief comments)
  • Part 4 Endnotes

• Part 5: Orrin’s Big Razor: His One Page Def­i­n­i­tion of Objectivism
  • Sec­tion 1: The Require­ment: A Vig­or­ous Phi­los­o­phy for a Vibrant Life
    • The Root: Real­i­ty: “What defines con­cep­tu­al knowl­edge?” Plus: Knowl­edge: “What defines con­cep­tu­al knowl­edge?” (An inex­tri­ca­bly inter­twined pair.)
    • The Trunk: Ethics: “What defines good indi­vid­ual judgment?”
    • The Branch­es: Pol­i­tics: “What defines good social judg­ment?” And: Esthet­ics: “What is beau­ti­ful, wor­thy of admi­ra­tion, wor­thy of emulation?”

• • Sec­tion 2: Real­i­ty: “What Defines Con­cep­tu­al Reality?”
    • Note: With­in zero to absolute degrees of cer­tain­ty, our con­cep­tu­al minds pos­sess only real­i­ty per­spec­tives. And, to the degree that a con­cept is ratio­nal­ly valid, is ratio­nal­ly cer­tain, it is a fact. Ideas, propo­si­tions, def­i­n­i­tions, etc. are inter­min­glings of con­cepts, each of which must pos­sess validity.
    • Objectivism’s Three Axiomat­ic Con­cepts: The imme­di­ate­ly observ­able, mutu­al­ly inte­grat­ed, and ratio­nal­ly irrefutable human real­i­ty perspectives. 
      • Exis­tence: The human uni­ver­sal, spher­i­cal, real­i­ty perspective.
      • Iden­ti­ty 1: The human dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing real­i­ty perspective.
      • Iden­ti­ty 2: The human cause-and-effect real­i­ty perspective.
      • Con­scious­ness: The human iden­ti­fi­ca­tion real­i­ty per­spec­tive. And: Objectivism’s Pri­ma­cy of Exis­tence Corollary.

• • Sec­tion 3: Knowl­edge: “What Defines Con­cep­tu­al knowledge?”
    • 1. Per­cepts: The orig­i­nal raw data: for all higher-animals.
    • 2. Con­cepts: Pos­si­ble knowl­edge: for human high­er-ani­mals, only.
    • 3. Per­cept Range: From an indi­vid­ual human mind’s all-inclu­sive iso­la­tion to its poten­tial tur­bo-charg­ing from civ­i­liza­tions’ rich intel­lec­tu­al legacies.
    • 4. Con­cept Pow­er: For life, ratio­nal-work shuf­fles sym­bol­i­cal­ly named mem­o­ry files to pack, unpack, and repack evolv­ing con­cept def­i­n­i­tions, there­by pro­vi­sion­ing indi­vid­ual humans with life-enrich­ing benefits.
    • 5. Gen­e­sis: From start to fin­ish, we for­mu­late our knowl­edge by inter­mit­tent and nat­u­ral­ly lim­it­ed rearrange­ments of obser­va­tions and concepts.
    • 6. Valid­i­ty: The roots of valid con­cepts reside exclu­sive­ly with­in non-con­tra­dic­to­ry cause-and-effect objec­tive reality.
    • 7. Just Know­ing: By spew­ing tur­bu­lent clouds of smoke and fog, mem­o­ry fac­to­ries sub­tly fuel alleged forms of “just knowing.”
    • 8. Lan­guage: Ratio­nal-work is per­formed exclu­sive­ly in intro­spec­tive language.
    • 9. Emo­tions 1: Their three impor­tant func­tions: attach­ment, report­ing, and motivation.
    • 10. Emo­tions 2: Their one fun­da­men­tal cause: obser­va­tions matched with pre­formed val­ue judgments.

• • Sec­tion 4: Ethics: “What Defines Good Indi­vid­ual Judgment?”
    • 1. Irra­tional­i­ty: Irra­tional­i­ty is the prin­ci­pal root cause of human gen­er­at­ed tragedies.
    • 2. Judg­ment Tree: Root: the good­ness of indi­vid­ual human life. Trunk: virtues. Branch­es and Leaves: sub­or­di­nat­ed val­ues, laws, rules, and options.
    • 3. Virtues: The trunk of impor­tant, life-enrich­ing, and root inte­grat­ed prin­ci­pal val­ues for good judg­ment guidance.

• • Sec­tion 5: Pol­i­tics: “What Defines Good Social Judgment?”
    • 1. Rights: Rights bridge ethics and actions with­in social con­texts. Each indi­vid­ual pos­sess­es a nat­ur­al right to per­form evil-force-free acts.
    • 2. Evil-Force: Any human gen­er­at­ed force that is aimed towards abro­gat­ing any valid, non-self-abro­gat­ed, indi­vid­ual human right is prohibited.
    • 3. Gov­ern­ment: Its only source, pur­pose, and oblig­a­tion: indi­vid­ual rights. Its only meth­ods: civ­il adju­di­ca­tion and retal­ia­to­ry force justice.

• • Sec­tion 6: Esthet­ics: “What Is Beau­ti­ful, Wor­thy of Admi­ra­tion, Wor­thy of Emulation?”
    • Artis­tic Pur­pose: Weav­ing affir­ma­tions, inspi­ra­tions, and moti­va­tions for bound­less evil-force-free pur­suits of sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and happiness.

• • Sec­tion 7: The Deliv­ery: A Vig­or­ous Phi­los­o­phy for a Vibrant Life
    • Real­i­ty Inte­grat­ed Log­i­cal Rea­son: The only pos­si­ble razor for valid­ly cul­ti­vat­ing knowl­edge, val­ues, judg­ments, and actions.
    • Real­i­ty Inte­grat­ed Objec­tivist Prin­ci­ples: The eas­i­ly under­stood ratio­nal prin­ci­ples for sur­vival, pros­per­i­ty, and happiness.
    • Objec­tivism: The only known inde­struc­tible map to ratio­nal human life.

• • Part 5 Endnotes

• Part 6: The Crit­i­cal Analy­sis: Objec­tivism in Context
  • Sec­tion 1: Objec­tivism in Knowl­edge Con­text: About Con­cept Definitions
  • Sec­tion 2: Objec­tivism in His­toric Con­text: Our Fun­da­men­tal Axiomat­ic Race
  • Sec­tion 3: Objec­tivism in Learn­ing Con­text: Inci­sive­ly Cog­niz­ing Objectivism
  • Part 6 Endnotes

• Part 7: Ratio­nal Knowl­edge Resources
  • Sec­tion 1: Time and Choice
  • Sec­tion 2: Objec­tivism: Key Objec­tivist Literature
  • Sec­tion 3: Objec­tivism: Ayn Rand: The Philosopher
  • Sec­tion 4: Objec­tivism: Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Cho­sen Heir
  • Sec­tion 5: Objec­tivism: The Objec­tive Standard
  • Sec­tion 6: Objec­tivism: The Page of Reason
  • Sec­tion 7: The Great Cours­es: The Deep Well-Chewed News
  • Sec­tion 8: The Great Cours­es: A Vibrant Foun­da­tion­al Enrichment
  • Sec­tion 9: The Great Cours­es: A Broad Knowl­edge Context
  • Sec­tion 10: The Great Cours­es: A Vast Con­cep­tu­al Hier­ar­chy of His­to­ry One
  • Sec­tion 11: The Great Cours­es: A Vast Con­cep­tu­al Hier­ar­chy of His­to­ry Two
  • Sec­tion 12: Objec­tivism: A Brief Nom­i­na­tion of Addi­tion­al Virtues
  • Part 7 Endnotes

• Part 8: John Galt, God, Jesus, Can­dide, and The Huckleberrys!
  • Sec­tion 1: The Irra­tional Night­mare: Ghosts and Zom­bies Galore!
  • Sec­tion 2: Inter­reg­num: Betwixt the Night­mare and the Dream
  • Sec­tion 3: The Ratio­nal Dream: Your Very Own Noble Prize
  • Sec­tion 4: And Thank You for Reasoning
  • Part 8 Endnotes

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• The Great Persuasion
  • Open­ing Remarks:
    • Sec­tion 1: Your Invi­ta­tion to the Great Persuasion
    • Sec­tion 2: Apoc­a­lyp­tic Conclusions
    • Sec­tion 3: Con­text Keep­ing and Ratio­nal Definitions
    • Sec­tion 4: Cap­i­tal­ism and Politics
  • Squawk­ing with Great Parrots:
    • Sec­tion 5: A Jere­mi­ad for Jus­tice (squawks included)
    • Sec­tion 6: The Great Par­rot High-Brow Squawks
    • Sec­tion 7: Our Mid­dle-Brow Gold­smith Counter-Squawks
    • Sec­tion 8: Sat­ur­day Night Knock­down! Able Rea­son vs. Caint Thinks!
  • Cause-and-Effect:
    • Sec­tion 9: Big Cos­mos and Free Will
    • Sec­tion 10: Pure Gold from Gray Ores
    • Sec­tion 11: Choic­es and Principles
    • Sec­tion 12: Defin­ing Institutions
    • Sec­tion 13: Ratio­nal Persuasion
  • Prop­a­ga­tion Work:
    • Sec­tion 14: Mid­dle-Brow Goldsmiths
    • Sec­tion 15: Our USA Project
    • Sec­tion 16: Our USA Sub-Projects
    • Sec­tion 17: Ratio­nal-Self-Inter­est Ser­vice Fees
  • Clos­ing Remarks:
    • Sec­tion 18: Our Pro­gres­sive Con­quests of Evil
    • Sec­tion 19: Glim­mer­ing Pearls and Gems
    • Sec­tion 20: Smoke and Fog
    • Sec­tion 21: I Rest My Case

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• After­word
  • Sec­tion 1: Ayn Rand: The Philosopher
  • Sec­tion 2: Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Cho­sen Heir
  • Sec­tion 3: The Page of Rea­son: Three Notable Causes
  • Sec­tion 4: Fur­ther Remarks

• Final End­notes
  • Sec­tion 1: A Few Key Hodgepodgisms
  • Sec­tion 2: Two Key Non-Hodgepodgisms
  • Sec­tion 3: Fur­ther Final Endnotes

• WebLinks

• Bib­li­og­ra­phy

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What’s in your philosophy?

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