The Page of Reason

Propagating Objectivist Principles

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The Page of Reason

Third Edition: Integrating 2600 Years of Rational Investigations

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason

Eight-Parts in Eight-Pages

Part 5 is The Page

A Brain is Free. A Mind is Earned.

Orrin Smith

ThePageOfReason.com

 

Welcome to The Page of Reason

A seminal essay for the rational-self-interest of each able individual,

and for the cultures and civilizations that they will gloriously enrich.

The Great Persuasion

A participatory project to enrich rationality

within all cultures and civilizations all around the Earth.

The Declaration of Intent

From all of my life experience, from all knowledge that I have ever acquired from a magnificent array of generous knowledge predecessors, 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.

 

The Preface

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

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

With great counter-destructive effect, we are able to counter-assault primeval anything-goes ideas by carefully employing our rational persuasion skills. And it is only by such rational counter-assaults that we will ever become able to consistently cultivate our pursuits of happiness.

Rationality has always been our distinctive human attribute, our principal moral virtue, and our fundamental talent. Nevertheless, it has only been within the most recent 2600 years that we humans have actually engaged in meaningful investigations of rationality. Thus, within the prodigiously long duration of human history, we have only just recently begun to hone, polish, and apply our rational knowledge and skills.

  • Why has this rational-work only just recently begun, and so very slowly progressed? For four primary reasons:
    • Rationality’s importance must first become recognized.
    • Rational skills, reasoning skills, rationality’s methods of performing work, must then become employed.
    • Rational skills are voluntary skills that can only become progressively mastered by punctuated focused work within individual human minds.
    • Substantial knowledge transmittals have always depended upon progressive developments within literary and delivery technologies.

It is only within individual human minds that rational skills and conceptual knowledge can exist and develop. However, at birth, our minds became formed entirely devoid of such content. Nevertheless, since those 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 over eleven years, I engaged in purposeful rational-work:
    • First: I worked hard to acquire and reasonably assimilate a very broad knowledge context.
    • Second: Once I understood its crucial importance, I then worked hard to acquire an incisive understanding of fundamental rational knowledge.
    • Third: Beginning with a limited set of writing skills, I then worked very hard to further develop, hone, and polish those skills.
    • Fourth: Within the punctuated processes of polishing those skills, I produced The Page of Reason, the final purpose of which is to precisely communicate fundamental rational knowledge to you, and to each other able individual, on Earth.

Within The Page of Reason, I have done my utter best to communicate the essential facts and principles of fundamental rational knowledge.

If, if, if human life, on Earth, is our dearly treasured value, then our need for fundamental rational knowledge is truly dire. And, for incisive pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness, it is absolutely necessary.

I invite you to now embark with me upon this brief Greatest Ever Possible Adventure, and to then employ The Page of Reason, as a potent tool, within your own enduring Greatest Ever Possible Adventure. You and I have much to discuss.

$Free Reading: Enjoy reading the full text from the website: a font-size adjustable webpage or the Original as an embedded pdf.

Copyright © 2019 Orrin Smith

 

Part 1: The Preliminary Introduction

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.

Section 1: The Principal Themes

  • Reason is the essential tool for the survival, prosperity, and happiness of each individual.
  • Objectivism is The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason.
  • Each able individual, on Earth, would most certainly benefit from an incisive understanding of Objectivism.
  • Objectivism’s essential facts and principles have been incisively defined on a single page of about 2000 words (Part 5: The Page).

Section 2: Reality Integrated Objectivist Principles: …

The Absolutely Sublime, 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.

Section 3: Reason, Integration, and Pursuits of Happiness

Reason is a set of voluntary skills that can only become progressively mastered by punctuated focused work within individual human minds. And to integrate is to assemble valuable parts into a non-contradictory purposeful whole. The purpose of non-contradictory reason is to integrate observations of reality into non-contradictory knowledge; from 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.

Section 4: Contradictions, Consequences, and Resolution

Upon careful analysis, contradictions, irrationalities, are not known to exist external to human consciousness. However, within human consciousness, contradictions are known to exist. And ideas do cause consequences. At minimum, they simply consume precious time. However, at worst, on countless occasions throughout the ages, willfully chosen conceptual contradictions, irrational ideas, employed to their final social conclusions, have caused vast destitution, destruction, and death.

Excepting simple accidents and simple ignorance, it is the ever-evasive, anything-goes nature of conceptual contradictions that are the root causes of all human-generated-tragedies. Ultimately, conceptual contradictions can only become resolved by non-contradictory reason, not by employing further contradictions.

I present The Page of Reason, as a potent tool, for the resolution of conceptual contradictions. 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. Your choices. Your time. Your work. Your rewards. Your pleasures. Reason is noble. Welcome. And I am pleased to meet you here.

Section 5: Understanding The Page of Reason

The Initial Purpose: My work to compose The Page of Reason began with a burning desire to rationally integrate, within my own mind, a broad range of important knowledge to which I had been applying years of thoughtful study (P4, S4). Therefore, this is a composition of well-informed, prodigiously careful, incisive reason. However, I must here confess that my mind is just another little mind that has become a considerable hobgoblin of foolish consistency.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self Reliance, in The Harvard Classics. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1937. Volume 5. Page 66.

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”.

Moreover, also from the very first page, I employed the principle that I should compose in some form and style that would consistently communicate my ideas to you. If I could consistently communicate my ideas to you, then I would likewise consistently communicate them to 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. And then: sprint back to us—unburdened and refreshed!

The Long Project: I began this composition on October 15th of 2015 as a novice author who possessed a reasonably well-developed collection of verbal language skills, but who did not possess any significant formal writing experience. And I most definitely did not possess the precise language and compositional skills that were necessary to produce this work. Therefore, I had to acquire, hone, and polish those skills, and that work consumed considerable doses of time and effort.

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

For hundreds of days and hundreds of nights, no dry spell did I know.
For nearby did lay and hot for a swipe, a double mug of joe!
Now finally, finally, it’s show time!

The Parts: I began this composition with Part 5, composed Part 4 in parallel with it, 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, context, and tools. 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 full text 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 four-year attempt to formulate an utterly essential, one-page, incisive definition of Objectivism. I am confident that individuals who possess significant pre-knowledge of Objectivism will find Part 5’s definition to be extraordinarily accurate and valuable. However, in these respects, each Student of Objectivism must formulate their own judgments. Nevertheless, I am absolutely confident in asserting these three facts now:

  • Objectivism is the presently unsurpassed cultivator of fundamental rational knowledge.
  • The Page of Reason, coupled with The Great Persuasion, is the presently unsurpassed cultivator of Objectivism.
  • We can each choose to turbo-charge our own conceptual minds: to thereby cultivate our own pursuits of happiness.

The Emotions: Though I am most definitely not an emotionalist, I have never been able to read through this text once without experiencing significant emotions. I can therefore honestly testify that one’s consistently rational engagements with reason, reality, and knowledge are not cold, dry, and remote.

Well-integrated knowledge consistently causes appropriate, noble, well-informed, and well-nuanced emotions. Value judgments constitute a consequential subset of knowledge. It is preformed value judgments, whether consistent or contradictory, that, for better or for worse, cause all emotions (P5, S3, p10).

Should you choose to read the full text, then know that I will be engaging in a no holds barred effort to communicate to you: the essential facts and principles of non-contradictory fundamental rational knowledge—with all of the 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. Directly opposed to that, Objectivism incisively identifies, defines, and explains the only known full-set of non-contradictory rational principles that are absolutely necessary to establish rational order within each of our cultures and civilizations: for the life-enriching rational-self-interest of each individual.

Therefore, due to Objectivism’s unrivaled importance, amongst all possible earthly ideas, I absolutely intend that The Page of Reason become shared with each able individual, on Earth. Then, for each one, to read or not to read: that be the choice. To ascend to the mountain top or not: that also be a choice.

Section 6: Interregnum:
Reading and Reproduction Rights

All rights are reserved. Neither this, nor any other content on ThePageOfReason.com (the website), may be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in part, in any form or manner, without prior written authorization from Orrin Smith. The definitive authorization statements reside on the website’s Reprints page. Briefly:

  • $Free Reading: Enjoy reading the full text from the website: a font-size adjustable webpage or the Original as an embedded pdf.
  • Text Reproductions: Reproduce this text only from the website’s Reprints page. A small royalty prepayment will usually be required. On that page, you will discover the pdf files for unlimited reader published reprints of these texts on legal, letter, or A4 paper. The full text reprints are available in a 50% larger font.
    • Preface Flyers: $Free, single-page, title/preface page flyers are available for letter and A4 paper.
    • Part 1 Flyers: $10.00 for 100 ($0.10 each). These multi-page Part 1 flyers include the title/preface page.
    • The Full Text: $10.00 for 10 ($1.00 each). For many able individuals, an in-hand reprint can be necessary, or be much preferable to website reading.

 

Part 2: The Overview

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

  • 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: Contradictions, Consequences, and Resolution
    • Section 5: Understanding The Page of Reason
    • Section 6: Interregnum: Reading and Reproduction Rights
  • Part 3: 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
    • Section 3: Broadly Stated Intellectual Status: Just Another Guy (With a Light!)
    • Section 4: Middle Professional History: Adept, Productive, and Respected: Sharply Terminated
    • Section 5: April Fools’ Day of 2008: The Secret Plan: Blend a Batch of Tasty Lemonade
    • Section 6: The Accomplishments: Yes! Yes! and a Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress!
    • Section 7: Show Time! A Superbly Tasty Batch of Proud Lemonade!
  • 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: Table of Key Objectivist Literature (with brief comments)
    • Section 6: Further Comments on Key Objectivist Literature
  • Part 5: Orrin’s Razor: His One Page Definition of Objectivism
    • Section 1: A Rational Philosophy One: The Requirement: One Supremely Rational Concept
      • The Root: Reality: “What defines conceptual reality?” 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: Root: Rational Reality: “What Defines Conceptual Reality?”
      • Outline 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, sentences, 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. Plus: Objectivism’s Primacy of Existence Corollary.
    • Section 3: Root: Rational 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: Concepts pack evolving knowledge within files named by symbolic words, thereby empowering humans with gargantuan advantages.
      • 5. Progression: A brief integration of the preceding rational principles with important rational progressions: the genesis of rational knowledge.
      • 6. Validity: The roots of valid concepts reside exclusively within rationally observable, non-contradictory reality.
      • 7. Just Knowing: By spewing turbulent clouds of smoke and fog, memory factories subtly fuel alleged forms of “just knowing”.
      • 8. Language: Language is primarily a tool of reason, only secondarily of communication.
      • 9. Emotions 1: Their three functions: attachment, reporting, and motivation.
      • 10. Emotions 2: Their one cause: observations matched with preformed value judgments.
    • Section 4: Trunk: Rational Ethics: “What Defines Good Individual Judgment?”
      • 1. Judgment Errors: Irrationality is the principal root cause of human-generated-tragedies.
      • 2. Judgment Tree: Root: 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 moral values for good judgment guidance.
    • Section 5: Branch: Rational Politics: “What Defines Good Social Judgment?”
      • 1. Rights: The bridge to social interactions: individual rights to employ evil-force-free life-enriching actions. Plus: Delegated, restricted, group rights.
      • 2. Evil-Force: Any human-generated-force that is aimed towards abrogating any valid, non-self-abrogated, individual right is a strictly prohibited anti-right.
      • 3. Government: Its only source, purpose, and obligation: individual rights. Its only methods: civil adjudication and retaliatory force justice.
    • Section 6: Branch: Rational 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: A Rational Philosophy Two: The Delivery: One Supremely Rational Concept: Objectivism
      • Reality Integrated Incisive Reason: The only possible razor for validly cultivating knowledge, values, judgments, and actions.
      • Reality Integrated Objectivist Principles: The sublime, necessary, and easily understood rational principles for survival, prosperity, and happiness.
      • Objectivism: The only known indestructible map to rational human life.
  • Part 6: The Critical Analysis: Objectivism in Context
    • Section 1: Objectivism in Epistemological Context: About Concept Definitions
    • Section 2: Objectivism in Historic Context: Our Ever-Evolving Race of Fundamental Axiomatic Concepts
    • Section 3: Objectivism in Learning Context: How to Incisively Cognize Objectivism
  • Part 7: Rational Knowledge Resources
    • Section 1: Time and Choice
    • Section 2: Objectivism: Key Objectivist Literature
    • Section 3: Objectivism: Ayn Rand, The Philosopher, and the Ayn Rand Institute
    • Section 4: Objectivism: Dr. Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Chosen Heir
    • Section 5: Objectivism: The Objective Standard: Reason, Egoism, and Capitalism
    • Section 6: Objectivism: The Page of Reason
    • Section 7: The Great Courses: An Introduction to 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 in Just 48 Lectures
    • Section 11: Objectivism: A Brief Nomination of Additional Virtues
  • Part 8: In Agreement: John Galt, God, Jesus, Candide, and Naturally: 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—If You Should Choose to Earn It
    • Section 4: And Thank You for Reasoning
  • Supplement 1: The Great Persuasion
  • Supplement 2: The Afterword and The Postscripts

• • • What’s in your philosophy? • • •

 

The Supplement Overviews

Supplement 1: The Great Persuasion

  • Section 1: Introduction
  • Section 2: Apocalyptic Conclusions
  • Section 3: Context Keeping
  • Section 4: Capitalism and Politics
  • Section 5: Squawking with Great Parrots 1: A Jeremiad for Justice (squawks included)
  • Section 6: Squawking with Great Parrots 2: The Great Parrot High-Brow Squawks
  • Section 7: Squawking with Great Parrots 3: Our Middle-Brow Goldsmith Counter-Squawks
  • Section 8: Saturday Night Knockdown! Able Reason vs. Killer Cain! — Round XXX999
  • Section 9: Further Context: Our Big Cosmos Cause-and-Effect Reality
  • Section 10: The Mega-Legions of Middle-Brow Goldsmiths
  • Section 11: Our USA Project
  • Section 12: Our USA Sub-Projects
  • Section 13: Rational-Self-Interest Service Fee Payments
  • Section 14: Our Progressive Conquests of Evil
  • Section 15: Glimmering Pearls and Gems
  • Section 16: I Rest My Case

Supplement 2: The Afterword

  • Ayn Rand: The Philosopher
  • Dr. Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Chosen Heir
  • The Page of Reason: Three Important Seeds of Its Inception

Supplement 2: The Postscripts

The postscripts are one-sentence to one-paragraph definitions, commentaries, etc. on the following topics.

  • Objectivism and Objectivists
  • Objectivist Thunder
  • Abet
  • Abrogate
  • Action and Reason
  • Ad Hominem
  • Anchors
  • Archimedes
  • Autodidact
  • Bonus Benefits
  • Candides and Huckleberrys
  • Collective Knowledge
  • Collectivism
  • Concepts 1: Abstractions
  • Concepts 2: Evolution
  • Concepts 3: Pictures
  • Concepts 4: Power
  • Corruption
  • Definitions
  • Early Education
  • Egotism vs. Egoism
  • Emotions 2: Evidence
  • Evolve
  • Fire-and-Forget
  • Frauds
  • Government: Intellectual Discourse
  • Gray Knowledge
  • Historical and Historic
  • Human Products
  • Humans and Nature
  • Incisive
  • Initiate
  • Knowledge
  • Knowledge-Formation
  • Original Text
  • Parrots 1: Definitions
  • Parrots 2: Masks
  • Perpetrate
  • Politics 1: Ideologies
  • Politics 2: Pursuits of Happiness
  • Primeval 1
  • Primeval 2: Humans
  • Primeval 3: Languages
  • Punctuated Study
  • Sanction
  • Valid
  • Value
  • Vast Destitution, Destruction, and Death
  • Vibrant
  • Virtue
  • Wealth 1: Material
  • Wealth 2: Rational
  • Willful Evasions
  • Smoke and Fog

• • • Welcome to the Age of Persuasion. • • •