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.

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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 sub­due primeval any­thing-goes ideas by wise­ly employ­ing our rea­son­ing skills. And it is only by such ratio­nal­ly wise life-enrich­ing work that we will ever become able to con­sis­tent­ly cul­ti­vate our pur­suits of happiness.

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 obser­va­tions 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.

I now 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 this book at Ama­zon (not there yet): 
  • A print­ed book.
  • A Kin­dle eBook. 
    • Free Kin­dle read­ers are avail­able for most devices.

A Brain is Free. A Mind is Earned.

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Eight-Parts in Eight-Pages is a self-imposed, one part per page, artis­tic con­straint that is imple­ment­ed in this 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.”
• Part 5 (The Page), in its mas­ter copy for­mat, can be viewed at the website.

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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 obser­va­tions 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 write this book 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 with an ear­li­er attempt to for­mu­late the best of my ideas into a one-page writ­ten text. Then, through­out my lat­er long writ­ing project, I worked con­sis­tent­ly to enrich and refine that text into a great­ly 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 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. Then, sprint back to us: unbur­dened and refreshed.

The Long Project: I began com­pos­ing this book 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 write it. 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 this book 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: Decem­ber 1st of 2020.)

• 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 this book 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 wise 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 be the choice. To ascend to the moun­tain top, or not: that 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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