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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 accelerate 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 actually engaged in progressive, systematic 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 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 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 long and 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.

Enjoy reading the full text from the website: a font-size adjustable webpage, or the Original as an embedded pdf. ($$$. Logins. Distractions.)

The Page of Reason

Part 1 of 8: 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 from values, to integrate non-contradictory judgments and actions.

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

Section 4: Contradictions, Consequences, and Remediation

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 remedied by non-contradictory reason, not by employing further contradictions.

I present The Page of Reason, as a potent tool, for the remediation 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 size and form that would 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 attempt to formulate an utterly essential one-page 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 Accelerator of Fundamental Rational Knowledge.
The Page of Reason, coupled with The Great Persuasion, is the presently unsurpassed Accelerator of Objectivism.
We can each choose to turbo-charge our own conceptual minds: To Thereby Accelerate 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 consistent, 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 sub-set 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. And Objectivism does incisively identify, define, and explain 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. ($$$. Logins. Distractions.)
Paid Reproductions: Reproduce this text only from the website’s Reprints page. A small royalty payment will be required. On that page, you will discover the pdf files for unlimited, prepaid, reader published reprints of these texts on legal, letter, or A4 paper. The full text reprints are available in a 50% larger font.
- Part 1 Flyer: $10.00 for 100 ($0.10 each). The flyer includes the title page.
- The Full Text: $10.00 for 10 ($1.00 each). For many able individuals, an in-hand, printed copy can be necessary, or be much preferable to website reading.

The Page of Reason

Part 2 of 8: The Outline 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 Remediation
- 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: Brew 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 humanly observable, mutually integrated, and rationally irrefutable, 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 mind’s all-inclusive isolation to its potential turbo-charging from civilizations’ rich intellectual legacies.
  - 4. Concept Power: Rationality is a prodigiously powerful talent that can empower individual 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 in rationally observable, non-contradictory reality.
  - 7. Just Knowing: From within turbulent clouds of smoke and fog, a mind subtly fuels alleged forms of “just knowing”.
  - 8. Language: Language is primarily a tool of reason, only secondarily of communication.
  - 9. Emotions 1: Their three purposes: 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: The principal root causes of human-generated-tragedies.
  - 2. Judgment Tree: Root: individual human life; trunk: virtues; branches and leaves: subsequent values, laws, rules, and options.
  - 3. Virtues: The trunk of important, life-enriching, and root integrated principal 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 exclusive source, purpose, and obligation: individual rights. Its exclusive 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: A 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 from Part 4
- 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 Postscripts

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

The Page of Reason

Part 3 of 8: About Orrin Smith and The Page of Reason

Section 1: Early Work History:
Respect for End-to-End Evil-Force-Free Trade

Hello. My name is Orrin Smith. I became a very small individual in August of 1953 in Macon, Missouri, USA. My very first remembered experience was one of light (and shadow). Those who have known me from that first experience of light and shadow, and through my early college years, customarily call me “Hoke”.

In 1949, my parents established Missouri Oxygen Company (MO-OX). Over the subsequent forty years, they reasoned very carefully, worked very hard, and built their business into a generously successful industrial supply operation that served most of non-metropolitan Missouri. Starting at the age of five, at five cents per hour, and then well into my 34th year, I willfully traded large portions of my early life for gainful employments in various aspects of that business.

I there acquired my initial educations in responsibility, productivity, and self-respect. I also observed many other individuals who each worked hard for their own survival, prosperity, and happiness. From those and subsequent observations, I eventually acquired my knowledge that: By end-to-end evil-force-free trade (reason, labor, products, services, etc.), we can, each with each, engage in mutually enriching enterprises; and that evil-forced trade, of any nature, is never a better choice.

Section 2: Early Education History:
Moderate Achievements

Supplemented by church education, I acquired a non-religious, mostly public, early education. And then, by intermittent rational-work that eventually totaled to five years’ worth of private college study, I finally earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. That was a catch-all to finally escape degree title.

That education, in combination with the broader context of my early life experiences, supplied my mind with a large collection of hodgepodge ideas: many contradictory understandings of reason, reality, and knowledge. And within those times, I earned moderate scholastic scores (overall average: about a B-minus).

It might have been better, or worse, or different, but those are just the facts.

However, I did learn much that was rationally important. I imbibed what I could, and I acquired an abiding interest in knowledge, an interest which has continued to evolve throughout my life. However, until April 1st of 2008, my rational knowledge only evolved in fits and starts, in just dribs and drabs.

Section 3: Broadly Stated Intellectual Status:
Just Another Guy (With a Light!)

At wet birth, I became a wholly new individual (an undivided, indivisible entity). I possessed a mind that was devoid of concepts: it was tabula rasa (a blank slate); I was not yet able. All fundamental ideas that I have ever possessed, I acquired later in life, and I acquired them exclusively from other human individuals. Furthermore, except on a few rare and inconsequential occasions, I have never been an activist, an author, a teacher, or any other type of public intellectual or leader.

Within my life’s early periods, I experienced many of the same twists and turns common to other individuals of my times, culture, and background. From those experiences, my mind imbibed its early ideas, judgments, and attitudes. And from those imbibements, my mind evolved into a somewhat rational, somewhat irrational mind. My mind became substantially imbued with turbulent clouds of ever-contradictory, ever-evasive, anything-goes, smoke and fog.

Consequently, other than within various realms of highly specific rational ideas (common work, technologies, sciences, etc.), identifying the ultimate sources, meanings, truths, falsehoods, and consequences of complexly abstract ideas became a virtually impossible proposition. And I was most certainly not equipped to rationally evaluate fundamental irrational ideas, of any kind. Such thoughts became squelched by the requirements and influences of everyday life.

As it ever has been and ever will be for each individual, my mind constitutes the essential foundation of my self-identity. Unfortunately, within those early periods, my mind had come to constitute a self-identity that seemed impossible to rationally integrate—should I have ever then contemplated such a radical idea!

I had become a petty ruler within the small realm of a hodgepodge mind. (Hodgepodge: a heterogeneous mixture, a jumble, of unrelated ideas or parts.) However, I now know, for certain, that to be a petty ruler within the small realm of a hodgepodge mind is no longer necessary, for any able individual: anymore.

In January of 2012, I began participating in weekly meetings of a local Objectivism meetup group. Later in that year, one of our meetup organizers remarked to me: “At first, I thought that you were just another guy.” Her first thought was entirely accurate—but I had not “transmogrified” into some other “thing”. However, I had come to know that each able individual possesses the absolute right to become the sovereign ruler within their very own magnificent, important, and glorious, rationally integrated mind. Furthermore, I had already made my choice to perform the necessary work that is required to earn my own mind’s rational integration.

How? Well, from just anyone’s very first day, the only possible tool for that work is reason. Reason is the human light, and you will see that it is good: every! day.

Section 4: Middle Professional History:
Adept, Productive, and Respected: Sharply Terminated

In February of 1987, during my 34th year, I launched one more assault on higher education at DeVry University in Kansas City, Missouri. During most of that assault, I worked nights, full time, for a bank data-processing operation. Then, in October of 1989, by less than three years’ worth of hard work and study, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems, with Honors. That achievement launched me on a new and profitable career.

My career progressively bloomed. On April 1st of 1998, I began contracting my services to the information systems departments of major Wall Street financial firms. I worked with large, globally distributed teams to build, enhance, and repair, large and complex, financial data-processing systems. (April Fools? Not!)

Then, on March 31st of 2008, at four o’clock p.m., my hard earned, highly productive, and sharply honed career became sharply terminated. (April Fools? Not!)

Over 21 years, from 1987 to 2008, by intermittent rational-work, I gradually acquired new professional knowledge, and I progressively honed my reasoning skills. Within my work, I became progressively able to simultaneously exhibit the virtues of quality, speed, and focused purpose. Thereby, within my work, I progressively became ever-more adept, productive, and respected. And I eventually earned my very own place amongst that class of workers who are known to be most able.

Nevertheless, The Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 was A Rampaging Ravenous Bear. And all major financial firms elected to cut their expenses, as rapidly as possible and by any feasible method. As a direct consequence, my knowledge and skills contract became terminated. My kind of hero had become passé.

However, that termination had not come as a surprise. For quite some time, off-shoring and H1B Visa holders’ desperate on the job training had been progressing. And on about January 2nd, I had received an informal termination notice. During the ensuing three months, several continued employment options were offered, each of which I rejected. My final reason for rejecting those offers was that I had already conceived for myself: The Greatest Ever Possible Radical Offer!

Sharp termination day sprouted a sharply clear, warm, spring afternoon. I said goodbye to good friends, many of whom I might never see again. Nevertheless, it was with a light heart and a pocket full of change that, at four o’clock p.m., I stepped out onto the sidewalk at 24th and Park. I reckoned to light out for the territory ahead of the rest. They had tried to sivilize me one more time, but I just could not stand it anymore. I had been there, been there, been there before!

By careful reasoning and good jackrabbit sense, I had made my choice. On the very next day, I would embark upon: The Greatest Ever Possible Adventure!

Section 5: April Fools’ Day of 2008:
The Secret Plan: Brew a Batch of Tasty Lemonade

On April 1st of 2008, I was in my 55th year. In my own language of that time, I had finally come to understand that: “My entire life experience resides behind my eyes and between my ears.” I had also finally come to understand that to be an irrefutable fact for each other individual.

Concurrent with the development of those explicit understandings, I had conceived two knowledge goals. And then, following some periods of careful reasoning, I finally concluded that working towards their achievements was crucial to my own continued pursuits of happiness. In evolved language, here are those two goals:

Knowledge Goal #1: To acquire and reasonably assimilate a very broad knowledge context.
Knowledge Goal #2: If ever, ever possible, to discover and employ a method by which to rationally integrate my knowledge.

Though I might never discover a method by which to rationally integrate my knowledge, I judged it wise to begin by acquiring the very best quality knowledge available, and in the most effective manner possible. Since early 2007, while working full time, I had already completed 43 of The Great Courses. Therefore, identifying an effective method by which to achieve Knowledge Goal #1 was a knock-down cinch: The Great Courses fit that bill to a T.

It has been said: “When handed lemons, make lemonade!” I heard! I heard! Therefore, on that April Fools’ Day, I resolved to bootstrap my mind, to start all over again, to begin an aggressive exploration of knowledge. And I did secretly reason that someday, just possibly, I might become able brew a batch of tasty lemonade.

As trepidation and wonder beset me, and curiosity overwhelmed me, I chose to risk all, to follow reason, to see just where it might take me.
And though April Fools’ Day might sometimes be funny, it isn’t necessarily always stupid, or at least now, on the wings of a dove, I do so judge. (~Psalm 55.)

Section 6: The Accomplishments:
Yes! Yes! And a Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress!

Goal #1: High Expectations Greatly Exceeded: By the end of 2014, I had completed 330, plus 48 repeats, of The Great Courses. I studied most courses on DVDs, which usually contained 6 30-minute lectures each. That comprised a convenient study unit, so on many days, I studied 6 or 12 lectures, and on some days, I studied 18.

Because I did not know where my studies would eventually take me, I employed that extravagant approach. If someone has sufficient desire and time, a version of that same sort of study work could be both valuable and pleasurable. However, it is not necessary, and I do not recommend it to everyone. We will discuss this issue further, along with some well-considered advice, in Part 7: Rational Knowledge Resources. (The Great Courses provision a most excellent knowledge resource.)

Goal #2: Virtually Impossible Goal Superlatively Exceeded: For evidence of this accomplishment, I refer you to The Page of Reason Part 5. That part, well-informed by the critical work of Part 4, was primarily composed, as a potent tool, to rationally integrate my own conceptual mind.

Subsequent to achieving substantial progress towards Goal #2, I re-conceived from memory, and exploded with prodigious purpose, a third knowledge goal:

Knowledge Goal #3: To propagate Objectivist Principles to each able individual, on Earth.

Goal #3: A Vibrant Sprint-In-Progress: The Page of Reason, all-inclusive, was secondarily composed, as a potent tool, for any able individual who might choose to pursue their own progressive mastery of rational knowledge. For valid evidence of Goal #3’s vibrant sprint-in-progress, I refer you to the website’s full content.

Section 7: Show Time!
• • • A Superbly Tasty Batch of Proud Lemonade! • • •

My “foolish, little, hobgoblin mind” has done its utter best to honestly investigate the faint glow of reason, and to produce a magnificent work of fundamental rational knowledge. Therefore, I am now magnificently proud to be sharing with you: This Superbly Tasty Batch of Proud Lemonade!

The Page of Reason

Part 4 of 8: The Critical Introduction: A Discovery of Objectivism

Section 1: Objectivism and The Page

Objectivism: Objectivism is exclusively presented in the works of Ayn Rand, or in material that she endorsed. Though no one has authority to speak on her behalf, Dr. Leonard Peikoff, her thirty-year friend, associate, best student, and chosen heir, is today’s foremost authority on her philosophy.

The Page: Well-armed by close readings of their literature, well-informed by a very broad knowledge context, wholly engaging a carefully selective sense of purpose, and incisively polishing my own concept definitions and word choices as I composed, I strove to formulate an utterly essential one-page definition of Objectivism.

Section 2: Mastering Any Subject

Our Requirement: Should any individual desire to acquire a degree of mastery over any subject, then they must earn that mastery. To the degree of mastery desired, one must chew, digest, understand, and practice that subject’s rational content, one must perform one’s own root-to-branch reconstruction of its rational ideas.

Our Voluntary Skills: Each integrated body and consciousness incorporates a spectacularly prodigious abundance of automatic processes. Amongst these automatic processes, it is only perception functions that deliver all of the original raw data (percepts) that are chewed within all individual minds. However, reason (logical reason!) is not an automatic process. Reason is: a set of voluntary skills that only we humans can develop to abstract conceptual knowledge from that raw data.

Our Attribute, Virtue, and Talent: Over 2300 years ago, Aristotle of Athens (384–322 BCE) correctly concluded that rationality is: our distinctive human attribute. Rationality is one of our evolutionarily endowed attributes, and reason is its method of performing work. And it is an irrefutable fact that reason has become our essential tool for survival, prosperity, and happiness. By observations and reason, we can further correctly conclude that rationality is: our principal virtue, and that it is: the fundamental talent for every form of our life-enriching work. Bereft of these conclusions, life becomes a buzzing confusion.

Our Mastering of Any Subject: By focusing our perception functions and rational skills upon the best communications of our generous knowledge predecessors, we can gain enormous and necessary advantages within this earthly life. We initially borrow their words and examples. Then, by punctuated employments of variously mixed learning skills (listening, observing, reading, reasoning, etc.), within our previously acquired conceptual contexts, we can progressively master any subject.

Section 3: Mastering the Subject of Rational Philosophy

Our Sufferings: Whether explicitly or implicitly, each day, each individual engages their mind with sub-forms of the five fundamental human questions: “What is reality? What is knowledge? What is good individual judgment? What is good social judgment? What is beautiful, worthy of admiration, worthy of emulation?” This ever has been and ever will be our quintessential human attempt to get a rational grip on this earthly life.

However, many of our variously learned ideas had previously become entangled with befuddling, anything-goes, irrational ideas—which altogether became subconsciously automated within our minds. And by such befuddling subconscious automations, our pursuits to get that rational grip have become virtually impossible to wholly conclude. In succinct language: our pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness suffer.

Our Conclusions: Within one’s own mind, one’s own judgments always are the final arbiters of truth. One does independently incorporate one’s own conclusions into one’s own mind. Then, for better or for worse, by the necessary and inevitable consequences of one’s conclusions, one will live or die: bit by tiny bit. Therefore, if one sincerely values one’s life, then one must incisively understand that: Whereas the past consequences of conclusions cannot be revised, conclusions can be.

Our Repairs: To repair a thing is to re-pair it with its distinctive nature. To repair a conceptual mind is to re-pair it with its rationality. If any able individual chooses to work for their own mind’s re-pair, then they can most certainly expect to earn its progressive rational integration. By one’s own punctuated rational-work, one’s own understandings of rational philosophy will soon, soon subconsciously stabilize, and its practices will thereby become semi-automated. It is only by incisive rational-work that such outcomes can substantially occur. For the accomplishment of such heroic feats, exquisite models have been well–provided.

Our Rational Philosophy: By my life experiences and persistent investigations, I have discovered that: Objectivism is The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason.

Section 4: The Sweat of His Brow: Orrin’s Great Big Rational Chew

Apr. 1, 2008: With no knowledge of where it would eventually take me, I began an earnestly aggressive re-education of my mind with The Great Courses from The Teaching Company. By the end of 2014, I had completed 330, plus 48 repeats, of these university level lecture courses: 10,810 lectures, 5,487 hours. Those lectures were digitally delivered to me by 204 diverse and highly distinguished professors. By employing those professors, I infused my mind with a reasonably assimilated, very broad knowledge context. Thereby, I generously over-met my Knowledge Goal #1. My course study record is linked to the website’s Great Courses menu.

Oct. 28, 2011: I had initially judged that my Knowledge Goal #2 would be virtually impossible to achieve. Nevertheless, upon befriending Mr. Howard Roark, my well-prepared mind promptly identified, in then loosely defined language, that: Reason is The Essential Tool for Integrating All Knowledge. It seemed to me that underlying Mr. Roark’s noble character was a crucially important life secret, and I felt purposefully compelled to discover the nature of that secret.

Oct. 29, 2011: I proceeded to repeat close readings of the below tabled key objectivist literature. And then, with about six references to external sources, drawing exclusively from my own mind, I worked intensively for three solid months and composed Objectivism On One Page. I finalized that work on April 13th of 2013.

Apr. 14, 2013: I then engaged in further close readings of key objectivist literature. By the end of 2014, I had completed, in total, the below tabled reads.

Oct. 15, 2015: For three and one-half years, by just word, grammar, and introspective research, I meticulously composed The Page of Reason. And minute by careful minute, bit by tiny bit, The Page of Reason unfolded. Thank! Goodness! for word processors, for each life-enriching technology and idea, and for each individual who, within the prodigiously long duration of human history, by careful rational-work, against insurmountable odds, meticulously produced them: bit by tiny bit.

Apr. 26, 2019: Thus, I have earned a wealth of wisdom. And Part 5 now objectifies the quintessential value of that entire, GREAT BIG, bit by tiny bit, rational chew.

Section 5: Table of Key Objectivist Literature

Publication Title	Author/Editor	Ph. Genre	Pub. Year	Brief Comment	Reads
We The Living (reference P7, S2.)	Ayn Rand	Fiction	1936/1959	Individualism vs. Collectivism	3
Anthem*	Ayn Rand	Fiction	1938/1946	A mental State of Nature tale	3
The Fountainhead*	Ayn Rand	Fiction	1943	Here, I befriended Mr. Howard Roark.	3
Atlas Shrugged*	Ayn Rand	Fiction	1957	The Premier Objectivist Work of Art	2
For the New Intellectual	Ayn Rand	Essays	1961	Escape reason? Not possible!	2
The Virtue of Selfishness	Ayn Rand	Essays	1964	Rational-Self-Interest	2
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal	Ayn Rand	Essays	1966/1967	Its roots are embedded in rationality.	2
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology*	Ayn Rand	Philosophy	1966/1990	Concepts Mastered	7
The Romantic Manifesto	Ayn Rand	Essays	1969/1971	Objectivist Art = Romantic Realism	2
Return of the Primitive	Ayn Rand	Essays	1971/1999	Primeval Wobble or Vibrant Sprint?	2
Philosophy: Who Needs It	Ayn Rand	Essays	1982	We've all got some, but what is it?	2
The Ominous Parallels*	Leonard Peikoff	Philosophy	1982	Roots of Human-Generated-Tragedies	3
Understanding Objectivism*	Leonard Peikoff	Philosophy	1983/2012	Important Objectivist Learning Guide	2
Teaching Johnny to Think	Leonard Peikoff	Philosophy	1985/2014	Rational Youth Education (adults too!)	2
The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z	Harry Binswanger, Ed.	Reference	1986	The Ayn Rand “Encyclopedia”	Ref.
The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought	Ayn Rand	Essays	1989	The coda of Ayn Rand’s essays	2
*Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (OPAR)**	Leonard Peikoff	Philosophy	1991/1993	Definitive Statement of Objectivism	10
The Objective Standard: Reason, Egoism, and Capitalism	Craig Biddle, Ed.	Journal	2013–2015	Rational Quarterly Journal (2006 …)	10

Section 6: Further Comments on Key Objectivist Literature

Ayn Rand’s rational fiction works are chock-full of romantic tension, dramatic interplay, and tragic consequences. Her incisive depictions of rational heroes and despicable villains (collectivists, second-handers, moochers, and looters), within vibrantly arrayed panoramas of human life, delightfully entertain and rationally inform her readers. Most particularly, Ayn Rand identified the speech in Atlas Shrugged, “This is John Galt Speaking”, as the “briefest summary” of Objectivism.

What are the intellectual roots of our rational knowledge? Concepts. What are concepts, and exactly how do our individual minds form them? This Problem of Universals has been the most fundamental question underlying 2600 years of diligent philosophical investigations. Within Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Ayn Rand eloquently and decisively resolves this Problem of Universals. Her key discovery is: the “essential connection between concept-formation and mathematics.” (Peikoff, OPAR, p. 81). Her easily understood 87-pages define the master keys to rational concept-formation—not what to think, but how to think: rationally.

Thoroughly imbued with rationality, The Ominous Parallels brilliantly illuminates the incendiary roles played by irrational ideas as the principal root causes of human-generated-tragedies. Rationally explaining irrationality is a daunting challenge. Here, Dr. Leonard Peikoff superlatively meets that challenge.

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand is the most systematically unified, exclusively philosophical, definitive statement of Objectivism. For an incisively lucid and logical, cause-and-effect, principled understanding of Objectivism, this work is most certainly a most important must read. Dr. Peikoff: superlative again!

The essays, The Ayn Rand Lexicon (Rand excerpted and indexed), and The Objective Standard all present excellent examples of highly productive rational-work.

Most individuals first discover Objectivism within Ayn Rand’s rational fiction works, which incorporate some delightfully unique characters. Many able individuals find these romantic realism works sufficient for their personal needs. Atlas Shrugged is the most popular read, and it is regarded as the premier objectivist work of art. My first read was The Fountainhead. I there befriended Howard Roark, the protagonist, an orange coiffed architect who possesses an extraordinarily independent, intelligent, productive, pleasant, and happy character. Howard grip, grip, gripped my curiosity and inspired me to initiate my objectivist explorations.

• • • Now gently squeeze your conceptual triggers. Bullseyes in Part 5 are highly condensed. • • •

The Page of Reason

Part 5 of 8: Orrin’s Razor: His One Page Definition of Objectivism

Section 1: A Rational Philosophy One:
The Requirement: One Supremely Rational Concept

Rational Philosophy: To be rational, a philosophy must mutually integrate, mutually correlate, the essential facts and principles of five hierarchical sub-concepts:

The Root: Reality: “What defines conceptual reality?” Plus: Knowledge: “What defines conceptual knowledge?” These constitute an inextricably intertwined pair.
The Trunk: Ethics: “What defines good individual judgment?” The corollary principles of Ethics must each be rationally derived exclusively from the root principles.
The Branches: Politics: “What defines good social judgment?” And: Esthetics: “What is beautiful, worthy of admiration, worthy of emulation?” The corollary principles of both Politics and Esthetics must each be rationally derived exclusively from the root principles and the trunk principles.

Section 2: Root: Rational Reality:
“What Defines Conceptual Reality?”

Objectivism’s Three Axiomatic Concepts: Observe that: Existence, Identity, and Consciousness are our three most utterly essential observably knowable realities. And any able individual can easily, immediately, directly observe these three axiomatic facts: existence exists; existents possess identity; consciousness identifies existents. Discover that: It is not possible to rationally refute these three mutually integrated axiomatic concepts: judge the facts and principles of the “Root:” sections.

Existence: Existence Exists. Non-existence does not exist. Observe that: Existence, reality, is all-inclusive, fully integrated, persistent, and progressively knowable.
Identity 1: Identity Is Existence, but viewed from a differentiating perspective. Observe that: Each existent possesses a unique identity that differentiates it from each other existent: from existence and non-existence are distinctly different to any two (often similar) experiences of an individual human are distinctly different.
Identity 2: Cause-and-Effect Is Identity-in-Action. Observe that: Effects can only be caused by existents, and particular kinds of effects can only be caused by particular kinds of existents: from only fundamental force existents can cause the coherence of Our Big Cosmos Reality to only human minds can cause concepts.
Consciousness: Consciousness Is Identification. Observe that: Consciousness, lively awareness, exists only within living organisms. It first functions to identify existents. Then, through an organism’s integrated body and consciousness, it is able to cause rearrangements of fundamental natural existents, but is unable! to ever cause them to exist. Also, within natural limits and when rationally applied (by humans), consciousness functions only to support the organism’s life. Thus, consciousness resides within, and therefore is subordinate to: existence. These rationally irrefutable facts validate Objectivism’s Primacy of Existence Corollary.

Section 3: Root: Rational Knowledge:
“What Defines Conceptual Knowledge?”

1. Percepts: Percepts are the exclusive type of original raw data presented to consciousness. Percepts are identifications of extra-conscious existents that are generated by automated perception functions. Emotions, localized sensations (pains to pleasures), and diffuse sensations (hunger to satiety, lethargy to vitality, agitation to tranquility, etc.) are automatically identified, and presented to consciousness, for observations and evaluations, by internal perception functions. Therefore, these and other such types are also perceptible extra-conscious existents. Percepts, a mind’s exclusive view into extra-conscious reality, are not valid, invalid, or arbitrary: while immediately raw, they just are, and they do not have names. Other higher-animals also experience and rearrange percepts, but not concepts.

2. Concepts: Rational-work identifies differences and similarities amongst any percepts, post-percept mind-process observations, or preformed concepts. That work might then integrate certain similarities into a category, define it, and name it with a word. A new concept is formed. Formulated exclusively from percepts, a concept is simple; otherwise, it is complex, and might identify a vast conceptual hierarchy. Concepts are stable and intermingle. Definitions evolve. Words morph.

3. Percept Range: A mind, all-inclusive, exists in isolation. Percepts are its exclusive type of extra-conscious data. Sound and gesture percepts are the primary tools for immediate local communications. Written languages can transmit knowledge across space and time. Other technologies, from primeval to modern, can also variously do so. Crucially, an individual human mind can be profitably turbo-charged from civilizations’ rich intellectual legacies of knowledge communications.

4. Concept Power: Percepts identify complex existents in specific times and places, thereby placing severe limits on each higher-animal’s ability to experience, rearrange, and communicate percepts. Concepts abstract away time, place, and immediately non-relevant complexity. Nevertheless, concepts must integrate, within degrees of certainty, all presently known facts, and remain open to new discoveries. Thus, concepts can pack and file evolving knowledge under the knowledge symbol of a single word. And thus, rationality is a prodigiously powerful talent that can empower individual humans with gargantuan advantages.

5. Progression: We develop our knowledge by intermittent processes of logical and hierarchical differentiations and integrations (rearrangements) of observations and concepts. We selectively direct and focus our percept and introspective observations. We likewise engage and direct our rational skills. Our observations can be direct or, if rationally trusted, indirect, which is a crucial learning tool. All of that is naturally limited, can be willfully evaded, and makes concept errors both possible and absolutely probable. And all of that also embodies our exclusive source of free-will (conceptual choice: our uniquely human method of cause-and-effect). Our preformed concepts constitute our present conceptual contexts. Crucially, we can each choose to turbo-charge our own rational knowledge and skills.

6. Validity: A concept is valid if directly integrated (rare) from, or honestly back-traced (common) to, non-contradictory observations. A concept will be certainly valid within a well-defined context (~rare), provisionally valid within degrees of certainty (common), or invalid (often). A concept that evades rational knowledge, if such evasion is understood, will be valid, and might be valuable (fantasy, fiction, humor, speculation, etc.). A concept might be valid within another’s context, but if borrowed, honest validation is evaded, and it becomes advocated, then it just constitutes Arbitrary Parrot Talk (often manifested in batches of undefined squawks).

7. Just Knowing: A mind chews information within turbulent clouds of smoke and fog: anxieties, concept and judgment anchors, culture, expectations, desires, distractions, fears, hopes, traditions, undefined squawks, etc. Thereby, a mind subtly fuels alleged forms of “just knowing” (instincts, intuitions, revelations, etc.).

8. Language: Rational-work is performed exclusively in introspective language. Language is primarily a tool of reason, only secondarily of communication. Try this reason experiment: count words that you think vs. ones that you speak, hear, or read. If assigned to identify specific existents, words only constitute proper names.

9. Emotions 1: Emotions’ three purposes are attachment, reporting, and motivation. Employing reason, we sow, cultivate, harvest, process, and eat grub. Then our words might voice our emotions as follows. Attachment: “Lub! Lub! Lub! Grub!” Reporting: “Belly Bulges.” Motivation: “Gobble! Gobs! Grub! Blater!” However, we can never just project the concept “no-hunger!” into our emotions, and thereby gain nutrition. If we persist exclusively in that attempt, no matter how ingenious our methods, we soon die! Emotions do! embody important information, but they absolutely lack reason, concepts, knowledge, and words! Emotions are one of our evolutionarily endowed primeval attributes. And if carelessly allowed, these raw, immediate fEElinGs can become Cains: Killers of Able Reason.

10. Emotions 2: 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. Our observations might be fresh or drawn from memory. Our preformed value judgments, a sub-set of our knowledge, can likewise become turbo-charged. Emotions are caused by observations/judgments, can be subjected to both observation and rational evaluation, vitally fuel the functions of reason, but are unable! to ever function as rational tools. Emotions are not tools of cognition. Reason is the essential tool of knowledge.

Section 4: Trunk: Rational Ethics:
“What Defines Good Individual Judgment?”

1. Judgment Errors: Primacy of Consciousness Axioms are fundamentally irrational. Simple ignorance, not inherently irrational, can enable irrationality. Sacrifice, the willful trade of greater-value for lesser-value, is a BIG judgment error. (In conflicts, evil-enemies enact the sacrifices.) Altruism = willful self-sacrifice. Ignorance of professed influential knowledge is also a BIG error. Willful evasion, the refusal to observe and reason, is the root of evil. From judgment errors, tragedies ensue.

2. Judgment Tree: By observations and reason: individual human life emerges as our judgment tree’s root standard of value. Virtues are principal judgment values that identify important, life-enriching, and integrated aspects of that root. Virtues constitute the trunk of our judgment tree. As we conceptualize them, subsequent values, laws, rules, and options constitute our progressively numerous and conditional branches and leaves. Then, within our present contexts, we chew our judgment tree, in well-judged degrees from-root-to-leaf, for good judgment guidance: “What is the value of this or that? What shall I think about or do? Whom shall I associate with, befriend, or love? What, why, and how shall I communicate? Why am I doing this now? Shall I persuade? Or shall I just bury my head? Etc.”

3. Virtues: By observations and reason, our valid virtues emerge as: rationality (our fundamental talent), honesty, independence, integrity, justice, pride, productiveness, purpose, and self-esteem—a non-exhaustive, alphabetical list. If directly integrated or honestly back-traced, additional virtues can become conceptualized.

Section 5: Branch: Rational Politics:
“What Defines Good Social Judgment?”

1. Rights: Rights bridge ethics and actions within social contexts. A valid right is: a non–contradictory individual human right that identifies an integrated aspect of each individual’s right to live. By observations and reason, our valid rights emerge as: evil-force-free rights to act or not to act: to think, communicate, move-about, and associate; to produce, possess, trade, and dispose. Group rights are derived exclusively from individual rights that have been voluntarily delegated, always with restrictions, by individuals who must possess them. In just proportions, one self-abrogates one’s own rights by abrogating others’ rights.

2. Evil-Force: Evil-force is any direct or indirect force initiation, perpetration, and/or abetment that abrogates any individual right of any other. Evil-force includes: significant conspiracies, incitements, seditions, threats, etc. Only evil-force is capable of abrogating rights, and only individual humans can enact evil-force—often enacting via agents: groups, organizations, governments, other individuals, etc. However, force is unable! to ever abrogate The Law of Identity: A=A; a rose is a rose; a fact is a fact. All evil-force-actions are strictly prohibited anti-rights, and each evil-force-actor becomes subject to just retaliations. In just proportions, each such actor is responsible for all direct and indirect damages caused: life and property damages, collateral enforcement damages, disruptions of others’ rights, etc.

3. Government: A government presides over a specific territory. It must be resolutely established upon an openly published rational constitution, but it is restricted from engaging in intellectual discourse and evil-force. Its exclusive purpose is to enforce individual rights through justice enforcement institutions: types for retaliations against emerging and concluded evil-forces, and types for final civil adjudications. Each individual possesses the right of just defense against otherwise unshielded evil-force. Those not encumbered by enforcement restrictions are free to voluntarily depart; otherwise, a government’s judgments stand. A government is constituted from voluntary delegations of individual rights, and it is restricted in both purpose and methods. It is also a necessary tool for our survival.

Section 6: Branch: Rational Esthetics:
“What Is Beautiful, Worthy of Admiration, Worthy of Emulation?”

Artistic Purpose: A fine artist selects, emphasizes, elaborates, and weaves artistic insights, with optional contrasts, into perceptible and understandable objects of beauty. The sublime purpose of a rational fine artist is to objectify heroic values that affirm, inspire, and/or motivate individuals within their own boundless, evil-force-free pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness. The individual human mind is the fundamental artistic canvas of human life.

Section 7: A Rational Philosophy Two:
The Delivery: One Supremely Rational Concept: Objectivism

Reality Integrated Incisive Reason is the only possible razor for validly cultivating knowledge, values, judgments, and actions. Lazy reason razors almost nothing.
Reality Integrated Objectivist Principles identify the valid conceptual roots of reality, knowledge, ethics, politics, and esthetics. Their purpose is human life: boundless, evil-force-free pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness. They are beautiful, incisive, integrated, noble, stable, valid, and can be easily understood by any able individual. Within all of human knowledge, no other such rational philosophy exists. For these reasons, Objectivism is both necessary and sublime.
Objectivism incisively identifies, defines, and explains the only known indestructible map to rational human life.

The Page of Reason

Part 6 of 8: A Critical Analysis: Objectivism in Context

Section 1: Objectivism in Epistemological Context:
About Concept Definitions

The BIG word epistemology names The Science of Knowledge: “What can we know, and how can we know it?” Objectivist Epistemology wields an obsidian-sharp razor to excise, from-root-to-leaf, irrationally rotten, despicably destructive, intellectual weeds. Bring along your hoe, or your razor. Either will do!

5, 3, 3: Concepts must integrate, within degrees of certainty, all presently known facts, and remain open to new discoveries.

If the known fact natural forces were willfully disintegrated from the hierarchical concept physics, or if the known fact wheel were willfully disintegrated from the hierarchical concept automobile, or if the known fact flour were willfully disintegrated from the hierarchical concept bread, then the disintegrated valid concept would become corrupted, destroyed, invalidated. It would become a hodgepodge (a heterogeneous mixture, a jumble, of unrelated ideas or parts).

The word “Objectivism” names a valid hierarchical concept. If any known fact that is subsumed under Objectivism is willfully disintegrated, is willfully evaded, then this valid concept likewise becomes corrupted, destroyed, invalidated. It becomes a hodgepodge (a heterogeneous mixture, a jumble, of unrelated ideas or parts).

5, 3, 2: Concepts are stable and intermingle. Definitions evolve. Words morph. (Word morphing is a key aspect of linguistics: follow the reference in P7, S8.)

A valid definition of a valid concept can be acquired at almost any time, and then its definition can evolve. Example: Whereas one’s first definition of “Objectivism” might be: “What somebody named Rand wrote in a book named Atlas Shrugged,” their progressively informed definition might be: “The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason, from which to embark upon The Greatest Ever Possible Adventure, and that is well-elucidated within a grand-essay named The Page of Reason.”

However, to the degree that a concept is invalid, attempts to rationally define it become characterized by ever-contradictory, ever-evasive, smoke and fog.
Moreover, to be employable, concept definitions must first reside within one’s own mind. And then, by one’s definitions, one will live or die: bit by tiny bit.

5, 3, 7: A concept will be certainly valid within a well-defined context (~rare), provisionally valid within degrees of certainty (common), or invalid (often).

One cannot incisively define a valid, complexly abstract, hierarchical concept in just one, or two, or three cognitions, etc. Incisive definitions of such concepts require punctuated step-by-step processes of rational concept-formation. This ever has required and ever will require explicit expenditures of rational-work.

Witness the many years’ worth of explicit rational-work that is necessary to acquire valuable definition sets within scientific subjects. And when properly employed within those subjects, except as a known contrary, the process of rational concept-formation does not sanction any zero degree of certainty. However, by their own explicit rational-work, numerous able individuals have most certainly acquired huge quantities of variously valid certainties within those intermingled subjects.

Should epistemology and rationality ever become incisively integrated, then epistemology would absolutely become a sharply delimited subject, with an incisively definable fundamental conceptual root. By just such an integration, and by employing only a few precious moments of our own explicit rational-work, we will discover that incisively defining the fundamental conceptual root of Objectivist Epistemology is an extraordinarily simple and easy process. Let’s go there now …

5, 2, 5: These rationally irrefutable facts validate Objectivism’s Primacy of Existence Corollary. (Primacy of Existence Axioms exist in one mutually integrated form.)

5, 4, 1: Primacy of Consciousness Axioms are fundamentally irrational. (Primacy of Consciousness Axioms exist in multitudes of ever-contradictory forms.)

An axiom is a premise, a foundation, a root upon which valid knowledge might become formulated.

Objectivism’s Primacy of Existence Axioms declare that the exclusive root of valid knowledge is: non–contradictory integrations of observations and concepts. That’s it! That’s the simple, easy, and incisive, epistemological root definition of Objectivism, the root definition of valid knowledge. Get it? Got it? Good! Think it.

On the other hand, on the sinister left hand, by willful refusals to observe and reason, Primacy of Consciousness Axioms declare that: there exist one to multitudes of ineffable “knowledge sources” that, in various manners, are free to willfully evade just any aspect of that valid knowledge definition: Anything–Goes!

For incisive pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness, one must incisively understand that: These two axiomatic forms are mutually exclusive and utterly non-reconcilable. Therefore: Choose Existence Axioms. But more exactly, more explicitly: Why should such a choice ever become necessary? Answers, more cometh …

Section 2: Objectivism in Historic Context:
Our Ever-Evolving Race of Fundamental Axiomatic Concepts

5, 3, 10: Emotions are not tools of cognition. Reason is the essential tool of knowledge. (Anything-goes ideas inevitably become hodgepodged with emotions.)

Since the advent of primeval languages, and directly into our present times, anything-goes ideas, in multitudes of forms, have dominated our human minds. Those ideas often “promise” forms of effort-less “knowledge reception”. Such “knowledge” is “acquired” by various ineffable methods that traced to their roots, always do reduce to emotions, as follows. Directly: “I know!” How? “I just feel that it is true!” Or as a second-hander: “Some bloke said it, so I just feel that it must be true!”

It is knowledge deficits, willful evasions, and/or evil-forces that set-up a mind to willfully choose anything-goes ideas. And on countless occasions throughout the ages, in regards to issues from small to great, willfully chosen anything-goes ideas have caused vast destitution, destruction, and death. BIG answer!

It is an incisively demonstrated fact that: Rational-work is our only valid method of knowledge-formation. Racing forward in a steady vibrant sprint, rational philosophy has already trounced multitudes of Wobbling Primeval Anything-Goes Misfit Ideas. But why do misfit ideas endeavor to persevere? For two primary reasons:

Whereas our emotions occur implicitly (rapidly automatic and essentially effortless), rational skills are voluntary skills that require our explicit rational-work.
Whereas primeval humans emerged circa 2.6 million years ago, historic rational-work emerged circa 2600 years ago: evolving for only the most recent 0.1%.
- Well-chewed science informs us of the 2.6 million. And Thales of Miletus (624–546 BCE) is broadly regarded as the historic initiator of Western Philosophy.

Very briefly: within Historic Western Philosophy: Plato of Athens (d. 347 BCE), Augustine of Hippo and The Early Roman Church (d. 430 CE), and Immanuel Kant of Königsberg (d. 1804 CE) are the primary perpetrators of death-seeking anything-goes ideas; (long lost) Aristotle of Athens (d. 322 BCE), (revived by) Thomas Aquinas of The Late Mediaeval Roman Church (d. 1274 CE), and Ayn Rand of The United States (d. 1982 CE) are the primary producers of life-seeking rational philosophy. Carefully notice the chronological effect of anything-goes’ primeval head-start. Choose Rational Philosophy. Why? Again, answers, more cometh …

It is prodigiously rare for any individual to originate a durable, widely held, fundamental idea. With precious little knowledge of the fact, we have inherited such ideas from influential philosophers, and through them, from both their literate and preliterate precursors. Those ideas have become elucidated/obfuscated, elaborated/attenuated, glorified/scorned, etc. by subsequent philosophers, and by copious-cadres of variously influential cultural, intellectual, and political leaders.

From within their turbulent clouds of smoke and fog, ideas have thundered down upon the rest of us in numerous, variously mixed: Hodgepodge Collections.

And for better or for worse, those philosophers who have advocated the most fundamental, most broadly abstract, and most widely published ideas have always been the long-term pacers in Our Fundamental Life or Death Race. As regards the principal root causes of human-generated-tragedies, are you acquiring knowledge?

Non-western philosophers have produced no significant historic philosophy that supports fundamental rational knowledge-formation. Therefore, individuals of their cultures have inherited from western philosophers virtually all rational philosophy that they presently employ. Go! Go! Go! Come!! Come!! Welcome!!! Here.

Today, most individuals, on Earth, in variously mixed, explicit and implicit forms, harbor and employ an inconsistent, contradictory mixture of these two axiomatic concept forms: with anything-goes ideas often possessing an anything-goes childish edge. However, all over the Earth, in ever-increasing numbers, individuals are vibrantly maturing into rational adults: witness their glorious rearrangements, within modern history, of rational life-enriching technologies and ideas.

The Declaration of Independence and The US Constitution represent the first explicit historic effort to establish a government based upon rational philosophy. The direct consequence has been: the greatest government, prosperity, and happiness that any human society has ever experienced! Thank The Founding Fathers!

However, that extraordinarily successful effort was not assiduously, comprehensively rooted in rational philosophy. Concurrently and subsequently, copious-cadres of anything-goes misfits have extensively exploited pre-existing fissures from which to perpetrate their anything-goes misfit ideas. That! they! most certainly! have! done! And now, as a direct consequence and observable by each able individual: We the People’s government, prosperity, and happiness are in intermittent, progressively eroding, states-of-decay. Without a worthy clarification of fundamental philosophical principles, these decay processes will continue: unabated!

Objectivism, The Incisively Clarified Rational Philosophy, presently embodies the only known worthy clarification of We the People’s fundamental philosophical principles. Furthermore, each able individual, on Earth, would most certainly benefit from an incisive understanding of Objectivism. Alternatively, …

Of presently ubiquitous but very stealthy influence, Kant of Königsberg tells us that valid knowledge of reality is impossible. He says: “Because you are not omniscient: Give up! Be a zombie!! Obey!!!” Karl Marx of Kantian Hell (d. 1883 CE) is Kant’s evil-spawn (intellectual descendent). Reviling reason, he foments force. His evil-spawns, Communism, by direct evil-force, and Socialism, by indirect evil-force, in ubiquitous mixtures and spawns, seek destitution, destruction, and death.

With our zombie blinders on, within our global age, our minds are being assaulted ever-more, ever-various, ever-contradictory, death-seeking, misfit ideas.

Section 3: Objectivism in Learning Context:
How to Incisively Cognize Objectivism

4, 3, 5: Objectivism is The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason. (Today, by any rationally comprehensive definition, it is the only one.)

Objectivism does not advocate dogmas, catechisms, creeds, etc. that are to become emotionally adopted, lazily borrowed from others, and that become entangled with emotionally hodgepodged destructions of rational knowledge. Objectivism advocates the radical principle that valid knowledge can only become acquired by one’s own independent and incisively honest rational-work: bit by tiny bit.

Within rational-work, it is necessary that one incisively argues with acquired ideas within a careful effort to extract value from them. And throughout this entire progressive knowledge-formation process, one can only reason, can only incisively argue, within one’s own mind: no two minds ever reason, ever incisively argue, within one mind. Furthermore, it is also a fact that a valid concept is a whole thing that cannot be willfully sundered: without consequences.

One might naturally harbor doubts concerning this knowledge, but desire to acquire a more thorough understanding of it. Useful in any case, there exists a well-known and crucially effective rational technique that has proven itself over, and over, and over again, within the conceptualizations of valid knowledge.

That rational technique is to approach objectivist explorations as reason experiments. Within reason experiments, what if? questions are asked, and final judgments are reserved until well-reasoned, incisive judgments can become observationally validated: bit by tiny bit.

The Page of Reason

Part 7 of 8: Rational Knowledge Resources

Section 1: Time and Choice

We each do possess an integrated body and consciousness. Thus, we have each become endowed with an irrevocable nature that exists as a precondition to our knowledge, our values, our judgments, and our actions. And thus, it is also an irrevocable precondition to each of our pursuits of happiness. Therefore, for incisive pursuits of happiness, we must strive to acquire and to fruitfully employ knowledge of our distinctive human nature.

It is a broadly agreed upon observation that, within any few brief conscious moments, our minds can only chew about four to seven distinct units of information within their working memory factories, while simultaneously working towards two purposes and performing two actions. Thus, time is a fundamental key resource for our rational-work. Within precious time, only voluntary choices, for rational integrations of observations and concepts, can engender valid knowledge.

From earliest childhood, many such choices, and various other guidance, are provided to unable dependents by various others. Then, as their minds mature, unable dependents become progressively able to choose for themselves. At about the age of 25, our human nervous systems become fully mature. Consequently, mature adults possess the greatest abilities to make rational choices. You and I have become considerably able! Prodigiously few adults are ever thoroughly unable.

Section 2: Objectivism:
Key Objectivist Literature from Part 4

All literature tabled in Part 4 can be purchased through the website’s Bookstore page. Should you choose to engage in your own objectivist explorations, you will then most certainly discover many other able objectivist educators. Nevertheless, I emphatically recommend that each able individual first acquire a substantial grounding in the literature of Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff. For initial, immediate reads, I recommend, in both published and reading order: We the Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Ominous Parallels, Understanding Objectivism, and Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. If you follow this optional sequence, then, along with its principal philosophers, you can usefully reason through the evolution of Objectivism’s definition.

Section 3: Objectivism:
Ayn Rand, The Philosopher, and the Ayn Rand Institute

ARI is the official Ayn Rand organization. At the ARI websites, you can discover authoritative information about Ayn Rand: her life, her work, and her philosophy.

Links to the Ayn Rand Institute’s websites reside on the website’s Links page.

Section 4: Objectivism:
Dr. Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Chosen Heir

Dr. Leonard Peikoff is today’s foremost authority on Objectivism. His book, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (OPAR), “is the definitive statement of Ayn Rand’s philosophy—as interpreted by her best student and chosen heir.” (Peikoff, OPAR, p. xv). Dr. Peikoff has engaged in a vibrant career as a professor, an independent lecturer, and an author. You can discover Dr. Peikoff’s numerous rational works at the ARI e-Store and/or at his own website.

Links to Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s website reside on the website’s Links page.
In regards to both Ayn Rand and Dr. Peikoff, further notes reside in The Afterword.

Section 5: Objectivism:
The Objective Standard: Reason, Egoism, and Capitalism

Vibrantly nurturing rational knowledge into the irrationally anchored BIG issues of today is tough work: complexities explode; difficulties abound; dangers lurk; opinions multiply. Nevertheless, Editor Craig Biddle and his Superb TOS Contributor Team perform diligent, intelligent work to vibrantly integrate rational principles and opinions within various aspects of our current cultural debates. Example: Sarah and Craig Biddle have co-authored a set of excellent essays on rational parenting. The Objective Standard is a quarterly journal and an online blog. You can explore some of TOS’s rational products at TOS’s website.

Links to The Objective Standard’s website reside on the website’s Bookstore and Links pages.

Section 6: Objectivism:
The Page of Reason

This text was produced for our mutually beneficial pursuits of happiness. It is the product of three and one-half years’ worth of refinements—progressive trades of lesser-value for greater-value: bit by tiny bit. I recommend re-reads of The Page of Reason. I most especially recommend vibrantly reasoned re-reads of Part 5.

If you must settle for dribs and drabs of knowledge, then I offer The Page of Reason as one of your dribs or drabs. Either will do.
Otherwise, for an excellent objectivist education, I recommend Part 7: Section 2, interspersed with frequent re-visits to The Page of Reason.

Section 7: The Great Courses:
An Introduction to the Deep Well-Chewed News

Each Great Professor owns many years’ worth of vibrant learning and teaching experience. And The Great Courses encompass a nearly all-inclusive range of important knowledge. Objectivism excepted, these courses offer the deepest well-chewed news of Our Big Cosmos Reality that is conveniently available, to us, today.

Though these university level courses could enrich any specialist’s knowledge, they were not produced for specialist training. They were produced for adult self-education. And virtually all of them are readily understandable by anyone who possesses a moderate education and a basic understanding of English.

Many high school level individuals could benefit from these courses. They could certainly supplement anyone’s higher education. And for many able individuals who do not require a degree, they could entirely supplant such an education. Therefore, whether you long ago acquired, have never acquired, never intend to acquire, or even just recently acquired, a formal, higher education, and regardless of your age, The Great Professors can greatly inform your mind.

Cultural, intellectual, and political leaders of any age, type, or experience level, could also derive great value from The Great Professors.

5, 2, 2: Existence, reality, is all-inclusive, fully integrated, persistent, and progressively knowable. (True, according to all presently known rational knowledge.)

In a subordinate and partial manner, so is human knowledge. And exactly like each other human, each Great Professor does possess a unique conceptual context. Consequently, regardless of stated subject, important knowledge is often re-presented and re-evaluated, in diverse contexts, in diverse styles, by diverse professors who possess diverse knowledge and diverse opinions. Such quality knowledge diversity can be highly conducive to rational exercise and pleasurable learning.

And it is neither necessary for us to entirely understand, nor to always agree with, each idea as we acquire it. We only need to focus our observations, engage our rational skills, and keep on progressing: at a pleasurable pace. Pause, rewind, and repeat are highly useful, and whole course repetitions can sometimes be valuable. These are the methods that I have employed, and by these methods your knowledge and understandings can easily multiply and mature. Knowing is good.

Within one’s own self-education program, one can find original source readings to be very informative and very enjoyable. I certainly found that to be the case. However, I also found that such readings seriously slowed my quest for a broad knowledge context. Furthermore, the “live” professors do employ that generously engaging “live” method. Moreover, they also provide substantial context and commentary that would otherwise, for most of us, be virtually impossible to acquire. Therefore, by careful selections, I limited such associated readings, and relied upon The Great Professors to generously inform my mind.

Links to The Great Courses’ websites reside on the website’s Great Courses and Links pages.
In order to vibrantly exercise one’s voluntary rational skills, a variety of valuable knowledge content is necessary.
In regards to this necessary variety, Sections 8–10 express concurrent values. Proceed at-will. Choose your own steps: bit by tiny bit.

Section 8: The Great Courses:
A Vibrant Foundational Enrichment

In an honest best-effort, I have constructed a non-exhaustive list of 50 courses that directly pertain to The Page of Reason’s core subject. A reasonable sampling of these courses can engender substantial rational knowledge, can serve to vibrantly enrich your objectivist foundations.

19 courses pertaining to Consciousness: How our nervous systems and our minds function, from the latest knowledge of modern sciences.
18 courses pertaining to Reason: Examples of rational-work, with valuable explanations, from our exceedingly brief history of rational knowledge-formation.
13 courses pertaining to Words, Language, and Linguistics: Words name concepts, language is primarily a tool of reason, and linguistics studies their essentials.
The Page’s Short Course List is linked to the website’s Great Courses menu. (Go to the Great Courses page to discover a most excellent knowledge resource.)

Section 9: The Great Courses:
A Broad Knowledge Context

A broad knowledge context is a vitally important, but egregiously neglected, value. Should you desire to acquire a broad knowledge context, then I recommend that you direct your focus towards the broadest survey courses, across all important subjects. Such courses can be identified by their titles, lecture counts, content time coverages, and/or by readings of their website summaries. And in contexts that are meaningful, chronological approaches to knowledge can be useful.

However, it doesn’t absolutely matter how you proceed. If any course particularly strikes your interest, then enjoy it, in any order: a change of subject and/or intensity can be pleasurably refreshing. The following list is well-organized and provides some useful aids for making intelligent course selections.

The Page’s Long Course List is linked to the website’s Great Courses menu. (Go to the Great Courses page to discover a most excellent knowledge resource.)

Section 10: The Great Courses:
A Vast Conceptual Hierarchy of History in Just 48 Lectures

Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity
by Professor David Christian, D.Phil.

Big History provides an excellent example of how well-conceived conceptual hierarchies can provide substantial understandings of vast, complex subjects.
Big History’s time coverage ranges from 13.7 billion years in the past to a briefly addressed trillions of years into the future. And it employs up to date knowledge from a wide range of modern subject areas. Thus, presently, Big History incorporates a broader time and knowledge expanse than any other Great Course.
Big History is an amazing accomplishment, a favorite of many, and can provide an excellent first course for one’s acquisition of a broad knowledge context.
Big History’s companion book, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, can be purchased through the website’s Bookstore page.

Section 11: Objectivism:
A Brief Nomination of Additional Virtues

5, 4, 3: If directly integrated or honestly back-traced, additional virtues can become conceptualized.

For your rational evaluations, I nominate: self-trust, enduring-persistence, punctuated-work, careful-selectivity, experimental-reason, and strategic-reason.

If the cultural contexts that we were born into and that have dominated our minds had been imbued with sufficient degrees of rationality, then substantial self-re-education necessities might seldom arise. However, rationality has never dominated any human cultural context to that sufficient degree.

The Page of Reason

Part 8 of 8: In Agreement:
John Galt, God, Jesus, Candide, and Naturally: The Huckleberrys!

Section 1: The Irrational Nightmare:
Ghosts and Zombies Galore!

7, 1, 1: We each do possess an integrated body and consciousness.

They have cut man in two, setting one half against the other. They have taught him that his body and his consciousness are two enemies engaged in deadly conflict, two antagonists of opposite natures, contradictory claims, incompatible needs, that to benefit one is to injure the other, that his soul belongs to a supernatural realm, but his body is an evil prison holding it in bondage to this earth—and that the good is to defeat his body, to undermine it by years of patient struggle, digging his way to that glorious jail break which leads into the freedom of the grave.

They have taught man that he is a hopeless misfit made of two elements, both symbols of death. A body without a soul is a corpse, a soul without a body is a ghost—yet such is their image of man’s nature: the battleground of a struggle between a corpse and a ghost, a corpse endowed with some evil volition of its own and a ghost endowed with the knowledge that everything known to man is non-existent, that only the unknowable exists.

Rand, Ayn. Part 3, Chapter 7, “This is John Galt Speaking.” Atlas Shrugged, 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Signet, 1996. Page 939.

It is worse than an utterly abysmal, crying shame that any human should ever agitate our emotions to dupe us into anything-goes misfit conclusions that our lives, on Earth, are utterly worthless—except that we must struggle to defeat our evil bodies, and that we must judge our minds unable! to reason truthfully, most especially in regards to those ideas that matter most. And utterly, abjectly, worse than even that is that any human should ever consciously employ their “superior intellect” to voraciously inscribe “tomes of knowledge” with the explicit purpose of endowing the whole subsequent human race with such manners of thought.

Waving Smoke and Mirrors to build Castles in the Air, such anything-goes philosophers have subtly portrayed themselves as “Omniscient Mystical Ghosts”. To those “Mystical Ghosts”, and willfully parroting their evasions, copious-cadres of subsequent High-Brow Intellectual and Low-Brow Authoritarian and Totalitarian Servile-Minions have Bent the Knee, and in countless conscious collusions, have conspired to subdue all “foolish, little, hobgoblin minds” as their very own zombie slaves.

But: because their minds were never well-rooted within fundamental rational principles, the purposes of those anything-goes misfit servile-minions could never become finally concluded by rational persuasions. Thus, evil-forces became the only means by which they might possibly conclude their ghoulish goals. However, by the inevitable consequences of cause-and-effect (the law of identity in action), by their willful employments of evil-forces, those Wobbling Primeval Anything-Goes Misfit Servile-Minions have willfully herded multitudes of “foolish, little, hobgoblin humans” into stinking swamps of destitution, destruction, and death.

What an utterly grotesque nightmare! Should any knee ever bend to those self-styled “Omniscient Mystical Ghosts”? For an incisively lucid and logical, cause-and-effect, principled understanding of how their anything-goes ideas have wreaked havoc in historic reality, I refer you to Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s The Ominous Parallels.

But who? who? are today becoming the dirty dastards’ zealous zombie recalcitrant recruits? Not us! Not us!

Not us? Are we incisively certain? We might first carefully consider this well–kept smoke and fog secret: Without radical rearrangements within mega-legions of “foolish, little, hobgoblin minds”, further multitudes will certainly wallow, slowly rot, and then die within those same old stinking ghost and zombie swamps.

Section 2: Interregnum:
Betwixt the Nightmare and the Dream

Incisive Common Sense: Regardless of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) cemented into their minds from an early age, and then from continuing lives within Primacy of Consciousness Cultures: from the very acts of rising in the morning, dressing, eating, and engaging in the common work necessary for survival, each able individual, of the past, has known, from their very own direct experiences, in conclusions either explicit or (mostly) implicit, that reason was their essential tool.

Likewise, today, for each and every able individual, on Earth.

Incisive Common Sense: From an early human oral tradition, this rational wisdom statement has been bequeathed to us:

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

“God”. Genesis 3:19. The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988. Page 4.

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.

Incisive Common Sense: From a later human oral tradition, this rational wisdom statement has likewise been bequeathed to us:

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

“Jesus”. 1 Corinthians 13:11. The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988. Page 1114.

My childish ways are now behind me. But why? oh why? so very, very late? Early on, I imbibed copious volumes of Wobbling Primeval Anything-Goes Misfit Ideas!

Incisive Common Sense: Evil-force is never, never a chosen method of rational adults. Rational persuasion is always our freely chosen method of human interactions. However, just retaliations against evil-forces is an absolute requirement of reason. Just retaliations finally become the only methods for justly securing the valid evil-force-free living rights of individual rational humans who become forcibly engaged with death-worshiping, death-dealing, anything-goes misfits. Nevertheless, whenever threats to our survival are not immediately present or threatening to soon arrive:

Rational Persuasion is always Weapon One! Weapon One!

Incisive Common Sense: Sadly, present populations, to the degrees crippled by knowledge deficits, willful evasions, and/or evil-forces, demand from, grant sanctions to, or otherwise abet their governments’ ever-various, ever-contradictory, force-backed, rights-abrogating judgments, laws, and edicts. Consequently, material values, ethical values, and lives become sadly sacrificed. Our earthly conceptual garden has been well-seeded with rationality:

“but we must cultivate our garden.” (Voltaire. Candide. Final conclusion.)

Incisive Common Sense: No form or manner of Smoke and Mirrors thought, discussion, or argument will ever, ever incisively define the vital solutions that are necessary for the vibrant survival, prosperity, and happiness of the human race.

It is only by incisively defining our fundamental rational knowledge that we will ever become able to consistently accelerate our pursuits of happiness.

Incisive Common Sense: Philosophies do constitute the frameworks for all concepts. To think conceptually is the mental act that undergirds all physical acts. And one’s philosophy does exist, and it is not an intellectual bauble. If that philosophy is not incisively rooted in rationally observable, non-contradictory reality, then its subsequent physical acts can never be so rooted. Conceptual contradictions do skew pursuits of happiness.

Hark! Hark! Hark! Your Greatest Ever Possible Adventure beckons!

Section 3: The Rational Dream:
Your Very Own Noble Prize—If You Should Choose to Earn It

In his parting shot, Huckleberry Finn vibrantly elocuted: “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Final conclusions.)

Huckleberry Smith, also reared up yonder in Northeast Missouri, vibrantly concurs: “Yep and Yahoo! Jackrabbit as fer, fer beyont sivilization as yoo kin passable git!”

5, 6, 1: The individual human mind is the fundamental artistic canvas of human life.

From that, the rational question simply reduces to this: “Who? should be the artist?” … Who? … Who? … The rational answer is: “You! should be the artist!”

Nothing can be rationally known to exist that is more magnificent, more important, or more glorious than one’s own conceptual mind. And we now know that it is only by reason, not emotions, that we can vibrantly live! its magnificence, its importance, and its glory. We also now know that a progressive mastery of rational knowledge does require punctuated rational-work: to honestly validate, and subconsciously automate, for pursuits of happiness, its essential facts and principles.

Most Magnificently: We can each choose to turbo-charge our own conceptual minds: To Thereby Accelerate Our Own Pursuits of Happiness.

Most Importantly: We are able to do what we can with what we have. We can each begin with our own simple, easy, ongoing attentions to observations, reason, and knowledge. Then, within extraordinarily enormous, spherical, natural limits, our conceptual minds allow us to easily rearrange them in any fashion that we might choose. However, if we do not choose for ourselves, then it is a foregone conclusion that others, by direct education and/or indirect influence, will choose or have already chosen for us. And whatever this case may be, by the necessary and inevitable consequences of these choices, we will live or die: bit by tiny bit.

Most Gloriously: We are each, always, every day, able to make this one simple fundamental choice: To willfully evade rationality or to willfully embrace rationality. To embrace rationality is The American Dream. And it is The Proper Dream for each individual human, on Earth.

We now finally possess the necessary fundamental rational knowledge for enriching rationality within all cultures and civilizations all around the Earth. Together, we can become Able Leaders of The Great Persuasion. Details follow within Supplement 1.

Whereas primeval humans emerged circa 2.6 million years ago, historic rational-work emerged circa 2600 years ago: evolving for only the most recent 0.1%.
Whereas Primeval Anything-Goes Emotionalist Children Decrepitly Wobble, Modern Rational Adults Vibrantly Sprint!
Whereas the past consequences of conclusions cannot be revised, conclusions can be.

• • • Section 4: And Thank You for Reasoning • • •

I trust that your conceptual mind has hereby been well-vibrated in a rational manner. Thank you for reasoning, along with me, through these eight-parts.

Finite mind, is where brow did chew.
Finite pages, thousands brow did hew.
True ‘cepts, brow honed for me and you.
True sweats, our brows have yet to do.

A Brain is Free. A Mind is Earned.
Neither Ghost nor Zombie Be!

The Page of Reason

Supplement 1: The Great Persuasion

Section 1: Introduction

The Great Persuasion is a participatory project to enrich rationality within all cultures and civilizations all around the Earth.

I have come to the absolute conclusion that it is in my rational-self-interest to live, upon the Earth, within and amongst cultures and civilizations that are becoming gloriously enriched by other rational individuals. That was my final purpose for producing The Page of Reason, and for inventing The Great Persuasion.

If, within any degree, you do share my rational-self-interest conclusion, then know that I have arranged resource-light, incisive methods by which you can participate as an Able Leader of The Great Persuasion. On the website pages, you can discover examples of Great Persuasion methods that are worthy of emulation:

From the Reprints page: Discover how The Page of Reason can be immediately and economically reprinted and distributed, by any Able Leader, at any time.
- For many able individuals, an in-hand, printed copy can be necessary, or be much preferable to website reading. A variety of printable formats are available.
From the GP Causes: Core Projects page:
- Discover how the GP Core Team works to energize The Great Persuasion Project.
- Discover how Able Leaders propagate Objectivist Principles to mega-legions of able minds.
From the Contribute page: Discover several methods by which Able Leaders can make small to large financial contributions for The Great Persuasion Project.
Furthermore, from GP Effects pages: Discover substantial evidence that, together, we are effectively propagating Objectivist Principles.

By whatever methods that you may choose, I urge you to participate in The Great Persuasion Project. You can thereby be justifiably proud to self-identify yourself as an Able Leader of The Great Persuasion. Basic Able Leadership status is defined as a personal, self-identified status: no such official status exists. It is only by our own independent, voluntary and honest, bit by tiny bit rational-work that we can earn, live, and enjoy this glorious status: as independent trading individuals.

• • • Together: We be takin’ it to the street! • • •

Section 2: The Outline Overview

Section 1: Introduction
Section 3: Apocalyptic Conclusions
Section 4: Context Keeping: 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: The EDDM Page
Section 14: Our Progressive Conquests of Evil
Section 15: The Seasons That Do! Wax and Wane
Section 16: I Rest My Case

Section 3: Apocalyptic Conclusions

Some individuals who are substantially wise to the full context of our present conceptual reality have concluded that it is already too late to defy a coming cultural apocalypse. Unfortunately, they do have substantial reasons for their conclusions. And sadly, their conclusions just might soon become our reality.

We do not embrace those apocalyptic conclusions. Further along, we will define just how such an apocalypse can most probably become prevented from soon becoming our reality. However, let’s first engage in a few further cause-and-effect explanations concerning our presently sordid state-of-affairs.

It is extraordinary just how many of our influential cultural, intellectual, and political leaders are unwilling or unable to defend us against such an oncoming apocalypse. It is their willfully chosen obligation to do just this. Unfortunately, it is a fact that many of those “leaders” are just fiddling away: while Our Rome burns!

Section 4: Context Keeping: Capitalism and Politics

Context Keeping: Never, never (willfully) drop context! This is a fundamentally important reality integrated rational principle that deserves careful consideration.

Context dropping is an extraordinarily common type of conceptual error, examples of which can be frequently observed. When context is dropped, most often it is due to a memory lapse or to simple carelessness. However, when context is willfully dropped in support of strongly advocated irrationalism, then it can always be back-traced to primeval emotionalism. Once primeval emotionalism slithers its way into thought, then the conceptual context of rational definitions becomes dropped, and thereby rational virtues become corrupted. Rational definitions are keys to context keeping. Let’s see just where this might take us …

It is an irrefutable fact that our present international political context is deeply imbued with multitudes of evil-force-actions of multifarious kinds. Consequently, amongst nations within this context, incisively honest, end-to-end evil-force-free trades and relationships have become virtually impossible to achieve.

Within this context, if a nation values rational definition amongst its first principles, then the rational-work of its government to control inbound migrations, external trade, relationships with foreign nations, entities, individuals, etc. would be absolutely correct, justified, and necessary. Fundamentally, this would be about the survival of that nation’s legitimate inhabitants—and for the flourishing of their lives and cultures. Does such a nation actually exist? Does it actually hear context dropping squawks that ballyhoo wide-open borders? If so, then such squawks would be Apocalyptic Squawks from Hearts of Darkness!

Until such time that we have made sufficient progress towards enriching rationality within all cultures and civilizations all around the Earth, then unfortunately, many effective barriers and defenses must become aggressively employed.

Capitalism and Politics: The rational definition of Capitalism is: a social system built upon a foundation of rational non–contradictory individual rights.

Capitalism is most definitely a root integrated aspect of fundamental rational principles. However, along with those principles, Capitalism has never been practiced in a pure broad-scale form. By dropping rational definitions, virtually all presently existing definitions of Capitalism have become entangled with variously correlated facts—which bear no cause-and-effect relationship to it. Thereby, all squawks that denigrate Capitalism have become entirely devoid of rational virtue.

5, 4, 2: Then, within our present contexts, we chew our judgment tree, in well-judged degrees from-root-to-leaf, for good judgment guidance.

To the degree that a political context is irrational, context keeping within it might require that practical implementations of rational definitions become carefully enacted: bit by tiny bit. However, this is never, never an excuse for compromising one’s own individual rational definitions.

5, 3, 4: A mind, all-inclusive, exists in isolation. (This statement is an excellent example of carving nature at its conceptual joints.)

Therefore, it is important to remember that: Within an individual conceptual context, only prodigiously weak barriers to rationality exist. To the degrees that we are able to keep the context of rational definitions, we will be able to effectively project our rational definitions into political contexts.

Section 5: Squawking with Great Parrots 1:
A Jeremiad for Justice (squawks included)

It is virtually impossible to prejudge just which individuals might become receptive to fundamental rationality. Nevertheless, one might reasonably presume that the influential cultural, intellectual, and political leaders of our present cultures and civilizations should become receptive. However, for 170 years, copious-cadres of Marxists, and for ages, copious-cadres of other misfits, by countless, conscious collusions, have conspired to corrupt all minds—earthwide.

Marxism (Communism, Socialism, and their various evil-spawns) is a very dangerous, hateful, hodgepodge collection of misfit ideas that ultimately seek destitution, destruction, and death. And it is exceedingly unfortunate that many individuals have become inadvertently duped by Marxist ideas, without ever acquiring any knowledge of their actual sources, factual meanings, or ultimate consequences. Likewise, for Altruism, and for a veritable parade of other hodgepodge collections.

“Inadvertently Duped?”
“Weuns Great Parrots jus luvit! luvit! luvit! Jus caint git nuf a dem inadvertently duped liddle parrots! Scrumpulus! Squawk!”

Marxism, Altruism, and other such hodgepodge collections of misfit ideas form the wobbly foundations of what today is commonly referred to as “politically correct”. In fact, these sorts of “politically correct” unkind condemnations are seldom philosophically correct. In actual effect, by dropping rational definitions, they become character assassinations by murders of parrots. Most correctly understood, they are emotionally stupid! Altogether, most often, these sorts of condemnations comprise just one example of childish emotionalists seeking to stomp down honest efforts at adult reason.

“Adult Reason?”
“We aint got none so you caint have none neither! Squawk! Squaawk!”

It is an irrefutable fact that: Without rational principles, without their life-enriching fruits, no individual can survive for much more than a few days—as a human. But the dirty dastards think that they can just willy-nilly pick and choose just any-old-ideas, and then just willy-nilly corrupt them according to just any-old-whims. Most stupidly, most emotionally, they pick and choose fundamental rational principles, and then work arduously to corrupt them. Concurrently, in ubiquitous, stark contradictions, they work very, very hard to live by commonplace rational principles (everyday common sense).

“Fundamental Rational Principles?”
“We aint got none so you caint have none neither! Squawk! Squaawk!”

These last efforts, their self-contradicting attempts to apply everyday common sense to their very own daily lives, they cannot avoid; otherwise, they would soon die! However, at the very same time, by attacking fundamental rational principles, they are absolutely attacking their very own distinctive human attribute, their very own principal virtue, and their very own fundamental talent. This is the contradiction that cripples their own rational pursuits of happiness. But for them, crippling their own rational pursuits of happiness is just not sufficient: they “feel” the need to give us each a “loving”, “helpful” hand.

“Rational Pursuits of Happiness?”
“We aint got none so you caint have none neither! Squawk! Squaawk!”

They tell us that government is: “Our Father who art on Earth”. They then seek to subjugate this necessary tool for our survival. And then further, by rights-abrogating judgments, laws, and edicts; by over-the-top, legally obligatory, socialist, communist, collectivist pogroms; by lies, deceits, and frauds; by threats, mob incitements, assaults, assassinations, and genocides: they seek to collectivize us, to subject us each to the will of their group, to just any little tyrant’s whimsical, arbitrary decision, to anything, just anything, just so long as it is not to our own individuality, to our own rational-self-interest.

“Rational-Self-Interest?”
“We aint got none so you caint have none neither! Squawk! Squaawk!”

They seek to deep freeze our hearts into dead lumps of solid blue ice, starved of life-sustaining oxygen. They seek to drag us into heretofore seldom ever known, disintegrated, tiny, heartless cultures of all against all, wherein each individual seeks unremitting cold-hearted advantages over each other one. They seek to drag, drag, drag us into becoming their fellow travelers, to slump right along with their very own little, sad, lonely, contradicted, ice-hearted selves.

But by what means, and to where, do they seek to finally drag us? By evil-force-actions, of multifarious kinds, whether government sanctioned or otherwise, they seek, seek, seek to finally drag, drag, drag us into perdition, into hell, into stinking swamps of destitution, destruction, and death!

“Destitution, Destruction, and Death?”
“Hay! Weuns Great Parrots gots grate gobs a dem dere drecks! We gonna hang em round yer nekes! Squawk! Squaawk! Squaaawk!”

Such are their willful corruptions of rational ideas, their inglorious means of confusing the confused, and thereby inciting destructive mobs of zombie slaves.

It has been said: “They know not what they do.” But we say to them all: “You do know now!” Therefore, no longer do any of their lazy, time worn, moldy excuses, for their anything-goes misfit ideas, heft any weight: no weight whatsoever—not even the weight of one tiny “angel” standing on the point of an itsy-bitsy needle.

Rationality is our one fundamental talent! It is! It is! But with it, what shall we do? Shall we persuade? Or shall we just bury our heads?

But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

Matthew 25:14. The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988. Page 961.

Not everything that humans have written is wise. However, by rational-work, much wisdom can become detected.
By one’s own fundamental talent, one can bootstrap one’s own life from glorious little into glorious much.

Section 6: Squawking with Great Parrots 2:
The Great Parrot High-Brow Squawks

Knowledge of reality, of truth, is utterly beyond the ability of any human to ever know, to ever understand.
We are Omniscient Mystical Ghosts, and we are the duly appointed representatives of reality, of knowledge, of truth, on Earth.
That which we do not explicitly allow, is forbidden:
- Not explicitly allowed; therefore, forbidden, forbidden, forbidden: individual rationality!
  - It is obligatory that all individuals parrot all others in thoughts, words, and deeds.
  - Thereby, a buzzing confusion of ignorance is perpetrated upon which we Great Parrots dearly love to engorge. Squawk! Squaawk!
- Not explicitly allowed; therefore, forbidden, forbidden, forbidden: the fruits of one’s own work!
  - The hard-earned fruits of anyone’s work, by mystical right, are ours, just for the taking.
  - And your hard-earned fruits are graciously filched for us by our Low-Brow Servile-Minions.
- By the very fact of your birth, by the very fact of your existence, you have an unchosen obligation, an irrevocable duty, to OBEY US!! Squawk! Squaawk!

Section 7: Squawking with Great Parrots 3:
Our Middle-Brow Goldsmith Counter-Squawks

Those Great Parrot High-Brows do! sorely beg a BIG, BIG question: OBEY US??
- Says who? Says what?
  - Upside-Down Low-Brow Servile-Minions?
  - Wobbling Low–Bow Several–Minimums?
  - Turbulent clouds of smoke and fog?
- Who? What?
There exist no such things as “Omniscient Mystical Ghosts”.
There exist no duly appointed representatives, anywhere, of reality, of knowledge, of truth, on Earth:
- Knowledge of reality and truth can become progressively acquired by any able individual, by their own rational-work.
There exist no such things as unchosen obligations, irrevocable duties:
- Only chosen obligations exist.
- If evil-force-actions become chosen, then their just cause-and-effect consequences (just force retaliations) also become chosen.
That which is not explicitly forbidden, is allowed:
- Not forbidden; therefore, allowed: individual rationality:
  - In fact, rationality is our distinctive human attribute, our principal virtue, and our fundamental talent.
  - Forbid reality? Not possible!
- Not forbidden; therefore, allowed: the fruits of one’s own evil-force-free trades:
  - Each able individual possesses an absolute sovereign right to the fruits of their own evil-force-free trades, and to all evil-force-free gifts received.
  - Each one also possesses an absolute sovereign right to dispose of their rightful possessions, in any evil-force-free manner that they might choose.
Great Parrots?
- It is known that Great Parrots array themselves in magnificent garments of glorious colors. It is known! It is known!
- However, beneath it all, a Great Parrot is just another parrot. Another parrot! Parrot! Parrot! Parrot! Squawk! Squaawk! Squaaawk!

Section 8: Saturday Night Knockdown!
Able Reason vs. Killer Cain! — Round XXX⁹⁹⁹

Throughout the ages, Killer Cain has most certainly been launching assault, after assault, after assault against Able Reason!
It is now high time, high time for Able Reason to launch a decisive counter-assault against Killer Cain! High time! High time!

• • • Go Able! Go Able! Go! Go! Go! • • •

Section 9: Further Context:
Our Big Cosmos Cause-and-Effect Reality

Time, after time, after time, rational investigations have concluded that reality is, in fact, cause-and-effect integrated. By observations and reason, we can further conclude that human free-will (conceptual choice: our uniquely human method of cause-and-effect) is also an integrated fact of our reality. Therefore, all forms of our valid concepts, invalid concepts, human-generated-tragedies, etc. are integrated facts of the Big Cosmos Cause-and-Effect Reality that we inhabit. Absolutely.

Furthermore, it is absolutely not possible to ever abrogate The Law of Identity. (Free-will is unable! to ever abrogate The Law of Identity.)
- Any possible assertion notwithstanding, it is absolutely not possible for any entity to ever exist outside of existence in order to cause existence.
  - An incisive explication of this identity principle resides within Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Chapter 1, “Reality.”
- We are what we are, and that’s all that we can be. Most importantly, we are minds. We are minds that possess turbulent clouds of smoke and fog—turbulent clouds that profess knowledge of many possible and many impossible things.

Big Cosmos
Big Cosmos is fat, round, wide, and tall.
Space, time, and orbs be its major all.
Some think us folks be so very small.
Yet, when peer within, we venture all,
Big Cosmos, to us, seems tiny small.
And Big Cosmos sees us: not, at, all!

Humanly understandable reality and knowledge do constitute an inextricably intertwined pair. Consequently, the production of our present valid knowledge of reality has been a “bootstrap” operation. And it has been a “bootstrap” operation that has been “engineered” over a very long period of time—for at least 2600 years. Prior to that, its antecedents evolved over an extraordinarily long period of time and at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Thus, each of us have come into possession our own unique conceptual context. Within our ever-evolving conceptual contexts, our views of reality, knowledge, and values have become infused with various shades of conceptual gray. Nevertheless, just as reason is employed to extract pure gold from its antecedent, variously mixed, gray, earthly ores, we can each employ reason to extract pure gold from our antecedent, variously mixed, gray, conceptual ores.

Middle-Brow Goldsmiths
As miners, we dig,
As goldsmiths, we smelt:
That reason may jig,
That hearts may soon melt.

Individuals make choices. And each of our cultural ideas, social institutions, material products, etc. are direct consequences of individual choices. In fact, each of our own conceptual contexts do! derive from an utterly unfathomable, barely imaginable, precisely detailed web that has been composed from myriad choices that have been made, within the prodigiously long duration of human history, by others—and by ourselves, from all of our yesterdays, right through to this very moment.

Nevertheless, though this precisely detailed conceptual web is utterly unfathomable in detail, it can most certainly become profitably fathomed by principles. And without principles that embody at least some minimum modicum of rational virtue, a human cannot survive: for long.

Principles are a special class of conceptual ideas. Principles are derived from incisive integrations of the widest possible range of presently available facts—within any given subject of inquiry. Thereby, principles seek to define “universal” truths. However, as new facts become progressively discovered, it then becomes progressively necessary for these “universal” truths to become progressively redefined. Definitions evolve.

Within our own times, we are prodigiously fortunate that Objectivism has fathomed and defined the most incisive fundamental rational principles of our human conceptual reality. Most importantly, Objectivism does not advocate “ineffable mystical truths” that are to become emotionally adopted, lazily borrowed from others, and that become entangled with emotionally hodgepodged destructions of rational knowledge. To the contrary, Objectivism advocates rational principles that can be easily validated by any able individual, by employing rational observation methods—but only if one chooses to rationally observe.

These principles are not proven; they are validated. Proof requires evidence that must first be validated by direct, or by rationally trusted indirect, non-contradictory observations. Thus, validation is the precursor of proof. Then, by rational-work, valid conceptual knowledge can become formulated and communicated.

And as any able individual can easily discern, Objectivist Principles provide us with the most incisive principles, to date, for the vibrant survival, prosperity, and happiness of the entire human race.

The only method by which to nourish enduring changes within human institutions is to nourish enduring changes within individual minds. Enduring changes cannot be enacted by nourishing branches and leaves. Such changes can only be enacted by nourishing roots. Individual minds constitute the roots of our institutions: from private to public, from families to governments, etc. Human institutions are defined, and their definitions evolve. And for better or for worse, the gray conceptual mixtures of rational and irrational ideas that dominate within a population do! ultimately define that population’s institutions.

And whenever threats to our survival are not immediately present or threatening to soon arrive: Rational Persuasion is always Weapon One! Weapon One! Our conceptual contexts allow each of us an enormous range of possibilities for rational persuasion work, but such possibilities can engender value—only if we choose to engage in such work. The utter sadness of all presently known alternatives has already been very well-demonstrated and very well-documented.

It most certainly will not be possible to entirely eliminate all future human-generated-tragedies. However, by rational persuasion work, it most certainly will be possible to cause, cause, cause human-generated-tragedies to become the nearly inconsequential occurrences that they most certainly should become.

Section 10: The Mega-Legions of Middle-Brow Goldsmiths

What is a Middle-Brow Goldsmith? A Middle-Brow Goldsmith is one who values rational knowledge. And Goldsmiths do know that knowing much is not the key to knowledge. Many individuals know much, but know much that just aint so. But that aint Goldsmiths. Goldsmiths integrate whatever facts that they presently possess to formulate principles. At minimum, each day, each Goldsmith formulates and re-formulates concepts and ideas, each of which can be correctly understood as a “micro-principle”. This is how each individual actually does think—but only if one chooses to think. Nevertheless, whatever this case may be, for incisive pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness, it is absolutely necessary that one possess a solid foundation of fundamental rational principles.

Presently, fundamental rational principles are being well-propagated by the able objectivist educators of the Ayn Rand Institute, and by many other able objectivist educators. However, the irrational attacks against rationality have most certainly been very, very substantial, and far, far too damaging. And the work to communicate fundamental rational principles to the mega-legions of Middle-Brow Goldsmiths has been a long, arduous, and resource intensive task. Consequently, much rational persuasion work remains to become accomplished.

Mega-legions of Middle-Brow Goldsmiths do exist, who do greatly value life, on Earth, but who have not yet acquired their own personal opportunity to evaluate and judge fundamental rational knowledge. If we could discover and implement a method, by which substantially greater numbers of such Goldsmiths could acquire such an important opportunity, then work of great importance would be accomplished.

And I am absolutely certain that mega-legions of such Goldsmiths would dearly treasure such an important opportunity. In support of this conclusion, directly from my own personal experience, I will just make mention of three simple facts:

Subsequent to numerous, bit by tiny bit struggles with anything-goes misfit ideas, it was only in my 59th year that I finally discovered Ayn Rand’s Objectivism.
Then, my “foolish, little, hobgoblin, mind” did its utter best to honestly investigate the faint glow of reason.
I then, to the best of my ability, proceeded to compose this text to precisely communicate fundamental rational knowledge to each able individual, on Earth.

And though it will be impossible to directly communicate with each Middle-Brow Goldsmith, on Earth, there does exist a cost-effective method by which we can come much, much closer to achieving that communication goal than has ever been previously achieved.

The USA has always been my home, and I am most familiar with its opportunities. Therefore, the method that I have defined is directed towards Great Persuasion work within the United States of America. Similar non-US methods may become discovered. Meanwhile, let’s not neglect any rational opportunity to communicate this rational knowledge to each able individual, on Earth.

We will now define how a cultural apocalypse can most probably become prevented from soon becoming our reality: Our USA Project—BIG GP steps.

Section 11: Our USA Project

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) of the United States Postal Service (USPS) offers economical bulk mailing services to all residential addresses within US Zip Codes. Presently, EDDM provisions the most cost-effective method for delivering physical, printed messages to US homes. According to the US Census Bureau, about 118 million US households (2.63 persons) presently exist. And according to the USPS, over 42,000 Zip Codes presently exist. (Reference the website’s Links page.)

Our heroic plan is to mail Page of Reason Preface or Part 1 sub-essay reprints to each residential address within The United States of America. These sub-essay reprints have been attractively produced, and they each embody valuable content. Therefore, we expect that many of these reprints will not become immediately discarded. And we further expect that some of them should become potent introductions to fundamental rational knowledge.

By the end of my long writing project, these sub-essay reprints had finally become produced for just this sort of work.

And do understand that this is a long-tail endeavor of strategic-reason. Substantial, broadly observable outcomes will take time to develop.

Each individual begins their own conscious life within a mind that is entirely devoid of rational skills and conceptual knowledge. Each one then proceeds by plucking and chewing the low hanging fruit, while employing various guidance: various time worn, often raggedy, somewhat rational, somewhat irrational maps. By these methods, each individual works to climb the gigantic mountain of knowledge for the purpose of enriching their own pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness.

But what if an incisively rational map were to become widely available? What outcomes might arise from that?

Just as they have done so very frequently throughout the ages, anything-goes misfit ideas would naturally fade away into fable, fantasy, legend, and myth. However, this time, instead of becoming supplanted by more of the same, it is possible that rationality could come to dominate.

We are gardeners planting seeds that will take time to germinate, to mature, to flourish.

And I am absolutely certain that mega-legions of Middle-Brow Goldsmiths are utterly starving for fundamental rational knowledge.

• • • Welcome to Our Heroic USA Project! • • •

Section 12: Our USA Sub-Projects

GP Project Able Leaders and the GP Core Team cooperate to implement USA Sub-Projects—EDDM mailings to entire US Zip Codes.

For further specifics about our sub-projects, go to the website:
- Read the GP Causes: Mailer pages.
- Read the GP Causes: Core Projects page:
  - The GP USA Sub-Projects table displays completed sub-project information: actual home counts, per home costs, and total sub-project costs.

We contract with specialist organizations (agents) to implement our sub-projects. And when handled by our agents, inclusive of all printing, postage, and services, the costs of these sub-project mailings can be stated in cost per residential address.

According to my preliminary investigations, I estimate that our cost per residential address will be substantially less than the present $0.50 cost of a content–free US First-Class Postage Stamp. For estimated sub-project cost ranges, reference the brief table that resides on the website’s Contribute page.

For one full iteration of Our USA Project to become completed, possibly $100 million will eventually become required. Nevertheless, each and every Alexander Hamilton ($10.00) contribution will become important and valuable.

• • • We will enact Our Heroic USA Project: bit by tiny bit. • • •

Section 13: The EDDM Page

Should you desire to acquire current residential address counts, then:

Go to the website’s Links page. (Revised instructions might become posted there.)
Follow the USPS Look Up a Zip Code link to acquire a Zip Code.
Then follow the USPS Every Door Direct Mail link:
- Perform a Zip Code search, switch to Show Table, and Select All (routes).
- Make these drop-down menu selections:
  - Route: Select City and Rural/HWY. Do not select PO Box.
  - Residential: Select Residential Only. Do not select Business & Residential.
  - I judge these selection choices to be in best keeping with our communications objective.
- The EDDM Order Summary:
  - Will show the total delivery addresses, which is the point of this exercise.
  - Will show the retail postage approximate cost, not the cost of a corresponding sub-project.
  - Will most usually indicate, in red color, that the selections have exceeded 5000 addresses.
    - That 5000 address, per Zip Code, per day limit only applies to retail account mailings.
    - We will be mailing through our agents’ business accounts, so that limit does not apply to our work.

• • • GP Project Able Leaders sponsor USA Sub-Projects. • • •

Section 14: Our Progressive Conquests of Evil

In practice, irrational ideas have often promised some form of perfection, some form of utopia: here, there, or somewhere else. However, in the human reality that we can know: No such things exist!

In the human reality that we can know: Rationality is our distinctive human attribute, our principal virtue, and our fundamental talent.

And for each individual, the one most fundamental choice is: To willfully evade rationality or to willfully embrace rationality.

To embrace rationality is work. It is work for survival, prosperity, and happiness. It is the only kind of work by which life-enriching human goals can become achieved. In practice, it is work that does! work!

As rationality becomes progressively dominant, many human-generated-evils will become progressively diminished:
- Human-generated simple ignorance, abject poverty, substance dependencies, mental instabilities, domestic violence;
- Human-generated childhood tragedies, juvenile delinquencies, rampant criminality, mass assaults, evil terrorisms;
- Human-generated primeval tribalisms, primitive racisms, ethnic conflicts, religious wars, ideological wars;
- Human-generated destitution, destruction, and death!

8, 1: Without radical rearrangements within mega-legions of “foolish, little, hobgoblin minds”, further multitudes will certainly wallow, slowly rot, and then die within those same old stinking ghost and zombie swamps.

• • • This is Our Fundamental Life or Death Race! • • •

Section 15: The Seasons That Do! Wax and Wane

Throughout the ages, in various times and places, cultures and civilizations have gone into demise, and valuable knowledge has thereby been lost. And then later, only sometimes, and only in parts, some of that earlier, valuable knowledge has been rediscovered and revived.

I absolutely intend that it does not become necessary for The Page of Reason to become dredged up, out of some future ancient ruin, to thereby become rediscovered and revived. Most certainly, we are each able to acquire, stabilize, and employ our own fundamental rational knowledge, and to bequeath this essential life-enriching knowledge to many other able individuals—for it to become further bequeathed, for many ages to come.

And just as the seasons cycle through springs, summers, autumns, and winters, cultures and civilizations emerge and merge, wax and wane, rise and fall. However, we do not possess any ability to truly know in which seasons our cultures and civilizations are presently living.

Nevertheless, together, today, we choose to work for springs, to work for rationality, to work for:

An Earthwide Golden Tiara Becoming Gloriously Encrusted with Glimmering Pearls and Gems.

To accomplish such work will require much work, much work by many, much work by a great many Able Leaders: bit by tiny bit.

The Age of Persuasion Is Upon Us.
Our Talent Resides Within Us.
• • • Shall We Persuade? Or Shall We Just Bury Our Heads? • • •

Section 16: I Rest My Case

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.

I now rest my case: within your mind. Thank you for reasoning along with me.

Orrin Smith
Philosopher of Reason
Ally of Objectivism
Friday, April 26, 2019

• • • It has been my delightful pleasure to reason along with you! • • •

The Page of Reason

Supplement 2: The Afterword and Postscripts

Rational-Self-Interest Financial Contributions

I urge you to make rational-self-interest financial contributions for The Great Persuasion Project.

Go to the website’s Contribute page:
- GP Private Able Leaders: The minimum contribution is one Alexander Hamilton ($10.00).
- GP Public Able Leaders: Modestly substantial contributions earn an option for public recognition.
- GP Project Able Leaders: A most honorable, most important option is to sponsor a USA Sub-Project.

Mega-legions of able individuals are depending upon your Able Leadership contribution—for our mutually beneficial pursuits of happiness.

All times for false hopes and strategic patience have long since passed.
And each able individual is! able! to drop a few Hamiltons or Franklins into the kitty.
Nevertheless, read on, but please do! contribute: soon, soon, soon!

Ayn Rand: The Philosopher

In February of 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the waning decades of the increasingly decrepit Romanoff Dynasty, Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum became a very small individual. In January of 1926, late in her 21st year, and during the first decade of the totalitarian dictatorship of Soviet Russia, Alisa wisely migrated to The United States of America. In America, Alisa changed her name to Ayn Rand. Then, in March of 1931, she became a Naturalized Citizen of The United States.

In America, Ayn Rand began her novelistic writing career. That career culminated in 1957 upon the spectacularly successful publication of her masterwork: Atlas Shrugged. It is upon the foundation of Atlas Shrugged that she has publicly established her philosophy. Subsequent to that publication, Ayn Rand became a prolific author of numerous non-fiction philosophical works by which she further elucidated Objectivism.

In March of 1982, at her home in New York City, Ayn Rand died. It is a certainty that, for many ages to come, mega-legions of able individuals will come to dearly treasure her work. Slowly but surely, by what she has so generously bequeathed to us, we are all becoming her intellectual descendants.

Dr. Leonard Peikoff: Ayn Rand’s Chosen Heir

In late July of 2017, I paid a visit to Peikoff.com, and discovered that Dr. Leonard Peikoff had recently discontinued his weekly podcast participations. To the best of my knowledge, these weekly podcasts were Dr. Peikoff’s last forums of live public engagement. By what he has also so generously bequeathed to us, for as long as ideas are reasoned, Dr. Peikoff’s work will also become dearly treasured, by mega-legions of able individuals, for many ages to come.

The Page of Reason: Three Important Seeds of Its Inception

One: The 9/11 Experience: On Tuesday, September 11th of 2001, I departed from my home in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and headed towards my place of work at 215 Broadway in Manhattan. I drove east on I-35, towards Jersey City, where I would park, and then board the PATH subway. My eventual departure from the PATH would have been in the basement of the World Trade Center North Tower.

However, as I approached the turnpike toll booths, near the Newark International Airport, I witnessed a billowing column of smoke emanating from that North Tower. It was an ominous, nightmarish vision that I beheld! There … there … therefore, I reasoned quickly, u-turned, and headed back to the safety of home!

During those times, I was explicitly aware of reason’s important role within my life accomplishments. And during the weeks and months subsequent to that 9/11 terrorist attack, I often thought that: “Maybe now, we will all begin to focus much more on the important role of reason within our work, within our lives.”

Two: The Propagation Idea: Beginning in January of 2012, I participated in 162 weekly meetings of The Austin Objectivism Meetup Group. During the course of that time, we engaged in many pleasant and productive conversations. I remember once saying nearly these exact words: “I am reasonably certain that I will never originate a fundamental idea. However, I do think that I could do something to propagate Objectivist Principles.”

Three: The Reason Experiment: And within the periods of my intensive objectivist readings, I engaged in a brief reason experiment. I worked out a rough answer to the following question: “What would it take to place a copy of Dr. Peikoff’s book, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, into each of the 8-million households within my present home state of Texas?”

The Inception: That 9/11 experience, that propagation idea, and that reason experiment were three important seeds for my conception of The Page of Reason, and for my subsequent invention of The Great Persuasion.

Postscripts

Objectivism & Objectivist: “Objectivism” is the name of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, and of nothing else. All other works that relate to Objectivism, this one included, are commentaries, interpretations, opinions, etc. Furthermore, whereas the word “Objectivism” names a rationally integrated stable philosophy, an individual human mind possesses a uniquely complex developing philosophy. Therefore, though a commonplace practice, the identification of oneself as an “Objectivist” becomes replete with errors and omissions. To identify oneself as an “Ally of Objectivism”, a “Friend of Objectivism”, an “Objectivist Student”, etc. are more philosophically accurate practices. Otherwise, one can rationally embrace, trust, and advocate Objectivist Principles.

Objectivist Thunder: Thunder up, thunder down, no difference does it make. Thunder round, thunder round, BIG thunder let us make.

Abet: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1986 (Webster’s TNID). Page 3. To incite, instigate, encourage, or countenance.

Abrogate: Webster’s TNID. Page 6. (2) To put an end to, do away with, set aside. NULLIFY.

Action: As it ever has been and ever will be, it is just not possible to consider all things. But often, after much consideration, times to act arrive. Reason without action razors almost nothing. And action without reason razors almost nothing. However, to grasp an important opportunity to act with reason is an important grasp of life. Grasp life! To the degrees that we grasp rational knowledge and skills, we grasp obsidian-sharp razors by which to cultivate our lives.

Ad Hominem: Webster’s TNID. Page 26. (1) Directed at or appealing to one’s hearer’s or reader’s personal feelings or prejudices rather than his intellect and reason. (2) Marked by attack on an opponent’s character rather than by answer to his contentions. • Ad hominem arguments are dominated by either positive or negative emotions with little or no regard for rationality. And such arguments can indicate a corresponding ignorance within the mind of the individual who wields them.

Anchors: Anchors hold things in place. They establish stability. Without them, nothing can exist. Within our conceptual minds, conceptual anchors are necessary maintain mental stabilities. However, just as great ships must weigh anchors in order to adventure towards new destinations, so must our great conceptual minds.

Archimedes: “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.” If Archimedes, the Syracusan polymath (d. 212 BCE), had possessed: (1) A solid place upon which he could reliably stand; (2) A long and strong lever; and (3) Our beautiful moon to employ as his fulcrum—then he could have moved the Earth. Today, if we desire to move the Earth, then know that: (1) Non-contradictory reality is the solid place upon which we can reliably stand; (2) Incisive reason is our long and strong lever; and (3) Objectivist Principles constitute our beautiful moon for us to employ as our fulcrum. As easy as 1-2-3: Let’s venture forth and move the Earth!

Autodidact: The word “autodidact” refers to a substantially self-educated individual. It is a fact that many “great” educational institutions of our times have become prodigious perpetrators of irrational ideas. Therefore, one’s wise choice might be to become substantially self-educated, to become an autodidact.

Bonus Benefits: As we engage our minds with rational knowledge, to the degrees that our ideas, memories, worries, etc. are unimportant, they naturally fade away into our minds’ dusty attics, or they dissolve entirely. Otherwise, to the degrees that they are important, they venture forth to become honed and polished. Moreover, our everyday vocabularies, language skills, mental acuities and agilities, visionary ranges, emotions, etc. all naturally acquire their very own: Little Big Bangs!

Candides and Huckleberrys: Voltaire’s Candide and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry represent two aspects of our lives. Humanity, past and present, is replete with both Candides and Huckleberrys. In various manners, we each remain at home to cultivate our garden and/or light out for the territory ahead of the rest. In most cases, we engage in quests for life enrichments. Therefore, within various degrees, we are each both a Candide and a Huckleberry—says Huckleberry Smith.

Collective Knowledge: The sum total of our conceptual knowledge that has been progressively defined within the prodigiously long duration of human history.

Collectivism: The abrogation of individual rights in favor of falsely alleged group rights: a race towards the bottom, towards destitution, destruction, and death. If one believes that friends, neighbors, strangers, etc. should be forced! to relinquish their rights, then one might fight for any falsely alleged right; otherwise, not!

Concepts 1: Abstractions: Excepting proper names, a word always names a concept, and a concept is always an abstraction. Therefore, any argument that an “idea” is “just an abstraction”, and that it can therefore be ignored, is an absolutely invalid argument. Valid vs. invalid concept is a distinctly different type of argument.

Concepts 2: Evolution: Percepts are the evolutionary precursors of concepts. Non-human higher-animals also acquire percepts, rearrange them, employ memory processes, experience emotions, etc. The precursors of all higher-animal faculties have been the sensory/chemical faculties/processes of lower-animals, plants, bacteria, etc. Furthermore, just as each other evolved life form must employ its own most powerful methods to survive and flourish, so must we humans. Moreover, we most certainly now know that our most powerful method is our rationality, our fundamental talent.

Concepts 3: Words: Pictures: Someone, who’s fuzzy mind did not much understand the nature and importance of concepts, said: “A picture paints a thousand words.” Ayn Rand, who’s incisive mind well-understood the nature and importance of concepts, said: “A word paints a thousand pictures.”

Concepts 4: Words: Power: It is the enormous unit reduction, acceleration power of words (concept names, knowledge symbols) that has enabled humans to become so dominant over other living species. The essential difference between percept power and concept power can be usefully represented by an analogy based upon the processing and storage requirements of digital computers. In this analogy, whereas percepts are represented by the enormous requirements of images, audio, video, etc., concepts are represented by the extraordinarily simpler requirements of words: short byte strings.

Corruption: The root cause of all voluntary human corruption is irrationality. Only by our rational persuasion work can corruption become substantially defeated.

Egotism vs. Egoism: Egotism: irrational-selfishness, hate, ill-will, etc.? Or egoism: rational-self-interest, generosity, goodwill, etc.? There exists no greater generosity and goodwill than that which can result from the proper practice of egoism. Excellent examples of egoism include: The Page of Reason and The Great Persuasion.

Equality: As it ever has been and ever will be: (1) We each become an individual through a wet birth. (2) We each will die. (3) During life, the only fact by which we are each most nearly equal is the fact that we each possesses the fundamental talent of rationality. (4) Attempts to supersede this fact by evil-forces are evil-attempts to destroy our lives. (5) There is only one essential thing that a woman can do that a man cannot. (6) There is only one essential thing that a man can to that a woman cannot. (7) Subject to self-abrogated rights, each able individual possesses an absolutely equal right to each aspect of their own physical body.

Emotions 2: Demonstrations: From within your own memory, retrieve various faces of people that you know or have known. Observe your emotional responses.

Evolve: Webster’s TNID. Page 790. (3b) To work out or develop esp. by experience, experimentation, or intensive care or effort.

Fire-and-Forget: Propagating The Page of Reason can become the most effective method whereby we can promote our mutually beneficial pursuits of happiness.

Frauds: If mega-legions of “foolish, little, hobgoblin minds” embrace rationality and become well-informed, then fraudulent offers of products, services, ideas, etc. will naturally fade. Each able individual is ultimately responsible for their own rationality. Those who neglect their own rationality must learn: possibly the hard way.

Government and Intellectual Discourse: Each individual possesses an absolute, sovereign right to say, write, or otherwise portray whatever they may choose—just so long as they do not abrogate others’ individual rights, or significantly incite others to do so. Beyond its requirement to openly publish its establishment constitution and to enforce valid non-contradictory individual rights, a government has no right to influence any individual, in any form or manner. It likewise has no right to favor or disfavor, or to discourse upon, ideas, ideologies, or portrayals. For a government to engage in intellectual discourse is for it to abrogate individual rights. Only acting as individuals, not as enforcers, do governmental officials, employees, etc. possess the same discourse rights as all other individuals.

Greatest Praise: The greatest praise is due to all who perform good-willed rational-work. Ultimately, all such rational-work enriches all human lives, on Earth.

Historical and Historic: Webster’s TNID. Page 1073. Historical: (1a) Of, relating to, or having the character of history esp. as distinguished from myth or legend. Historic: (2a) Important, famous, or decisive in history. (2b) Having considerable importance, significance, or consequence.

Human Products: All human products are external manifestations of individual rationality. Such manifestations will never become able to supersede the intelligence of their creators, nor will they ever acquire independent rationality. Moreover, how they become employed will always remain a matter of individual human choices. And without a widely held set of non-contradictory values, such choices will continue to be seriously erratic. Furthermore, only in regards to such products might it be said that: “Humans cause things to exist”. In fact, at root, all human products, concepts included, are rearrangements of fundamental natural existents.

Humans and Nature: In commonplace terms, humans and nature are separate things. In philosophical terms, all aspects of humans are aspects of natural reality.

Incisive: Webster’s TNID. Page 1142. (2) Marked by sharpness and penetration esp. in keen clear unmistakable resolution of matter at issue or in pointed decisive effectiveness of presentation. • Whereas ideas like “stringent” imply squeaking along, “incisive” defines a sharp cut. One should incisively understand the incisive definition of incisive. One might also incisively judge Orrin’s Razor—his incisive attempt to formulate an utterly essential one-page definition of Objectivism.

Initiate: Webster’s TNID. Page 1164. (1a) To begin or set going; make a beginning of; perform or facilitate the first actions, steps, or stages of.

Parrots 1: Definitions: A word names a concept, and a concept must be defined. If an individual employs a word to communicate an important concept, then that individual becomes responsible for that concept’s definition—should one become necessary. If an individual insistently adventures far afield from rationality, then we might choose to ignore them, which is often our best method of conserving our time, our rational focus, etc. However, if we just want to enjoy some argumentative entertainment, then we might just counter-insist that the insistently adventuresome individual rationally define their concepts. Good luck with that!

Parrots 2: Masks: Sometimes, sometimes, but not always, individuals will mask their statements as questions: “Don’t you think this or that? Don’t you believe this or that?” Why do they do that? Often, this is a subtle, thoughtless manifestation of the Great Parrots’ requirement that all individuals parrot all others in thoughts, words, and deeds. In such cases, the individual may be seeking vague confirmations of their own vague ideas: “We are little parrot buddies, aren’t we?” Or: “You possess a very beautiful, well-tuned, squawking voice. Won’t you squawk my song for me?” Or it could just be Great Parrots squawking their sacrificial trades.

Perpetrate: Webster’s TNID. Page 1684. (1a) To be guilty of (as a crime, an offense). (1b) To carry through (a deception). (2) To produce, perform, or execute badly or in a manner held to be execrable or shocking. Execrable: Page 794. (2) Deserving to be execrated. DAMNABLE, DETESTABLE, ABOMINABLE, HORRIFYING.

Politics 1: Ideologies: Conservative? Well, that depends upon what is being conserved. Liberal? Well, that depends upon what is being liberalized. Etc., etc., etc.

Politics 2: Pursuits of Happiness: No individual will ever be able to do all of the necessary work for human life, on Earth. If mega-legions of “foolish, little, hobgoblin minds” do not willfully embrace rationality, whereby emotions and good judgments can become stabilized, then incisive pursuits of survival, prosperity, and happiness, within earthwide politics, will never become possible. Furthermore, “Tragedies of Commons” do exist—never give up on rational-work to resolve them.

Primeval 1: Webster’s TNID. Page 1801. Of or relating to the earliest ages of the world or human history. ABORIGINAL, PRIMITIVE. • Knowledgeable specialists vigorously debate their estimated times for the emergence of both primeval humans and primeval languages. And they will continue to do so.

Primeval 2: Humans: My usage of 2.6 million years for the emergence of primeval humans (Australopithecines, etc.) is well within the range of specialists’ current estimates. And just as we commonly recognize in all higher-animals, we can be reasonably certain that all forms of primeval humans did experience emotions.

Primeval 3: Languages: Most estimates for the emergence of primeval “word” languages fall within the range of 30 to 100 thousand years ago. And we can reasonably infer that primeval “sign” languages (facial expressions, gestures, etc.) existed before and concurrent with primeval “word” languages.

Punctuated Learning: If placed in cold storage, Objectivist Principles will become cold, dry, and remote.

Rational Knowledge vs. Faith: Webster’s TNID. Knowledge: 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. Faith: Page 816. (2a1) Firm or unquestioning belief in something for which there is no proof. (2a2) Uncritical grounds for belief. Critical: Page 538. (1c) Exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation.

Rational Knowledge vs. Gray Knowledge: Valid knowledge that has become polluted with anything-goes misfit ideas is gray knowledge. To live vibrantly, it is necessary that we be able to extract the blacks and the whites from within the grays. And because our cultural contexts have become so, so saturated with gray knowledge, such extractions are amongst our most frequent and most difficult challenges. To incisively extract the blacks and the whites from within the grays, it is absolutely necessary that we possess an obsidian-sharp razor by which to extract them. The only possible such razor is incisive reason—combined with rational knowledge.

Rational Youth Education: Our most magnificent social accomplishment would most probably be to provide youths with rational head-starts. Whereas Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Teaching Johnny to Think is not about teaching Johnny and Mary what to think, it is! about teaching Johnny and Mary how! to think.

Rights: Rights are concepts, concepts must be defined, and definitions require choices. Rights definitions must be non-contradictory; otherwise, chaos, anarchy, vast destitution, vast destruction, and vast death ensue. For unable dependents, rights become adjusted/supervised according to specific contexts.

Sanction: Webster’s TNID. Page 2009. (1) To make valid or binding; ratify, confirm, or put into effect typically by decree, fiat, or other formal procedure. (2) To establish, maintain, encourage, or permit usu. by some authoritative approval or consent. • Examples: formal initiations, perpetrations, abetments, votes, etc.

Valid: Webster’s TNID. Page 2529-30. (2a) Well-grounded or justifiable; applicable to the matter at hand; PERTINENT, SOUND. (2b) of an inference: correctly derived from its premises; specific: true in terms of the logical principles of the logistic system to which the inference belongs.

Value: Webster’s TNID. Page 2530. (8) Something intrinsically valuable or desirable. • Ayn Rand: “That which one acts to gain and/or keep.”

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.

Vibrant: Webster’s TNID. Page 2548. (1a2) Pulsating with life, vigor, or activity. • Bereft of generous good vibrations, life becomes replete with tragic excitations.

Virtue: Webster’s TNID. Page 2556. (1a) moral practice or action; conformity to a standard of right; moral excellence; integrity of character; uprightness of conduct.

Wealth 1: Material: Irrational influences are evidenced by our excessive use of material wealth to identify individual worth (classes, groups, equalities, etc.). Some material wealth is always necessary, but each individual’s necessary quantity differs, and one’s necessary quantity must become acquired by rational methods.

Wealth 2: Rational: Within variously mixed degrees, our minds are imbued with the following “brow” characteristics: (1) High-Brow: Castles in the Air devoid of rational foundations; (2) Middle-Brow: principles that possesses substantial rational foundations; (3) Low-Brow: not much thought. Moreover, whereas these characteristics do not refer to one’s quantity of knowledge, they do! refer to how! one employs one’s own mind. The individual human mind is the root of wealth.

Willful Evasions: Throughout the ages, copious-cadres of individuals have arduously propagated willful evasions of rationality. However, even brief evaluations of such willful evasions will disclose that they are just huffs of nothingness that are actually the feeblest of short-cut attempts to reason one’s way to happiness.

Smoke and Fog: Very briefly: irrational philosophies are founded upon variously mixed hodgepodge ideas: (1) That emotion dominates all; (2) That body dominates all; and/or (3) That consciousness dominates all. In extreme cases, these veer towards: (1) Proclaiming the invalidity of reason altogether (pure skepticism); (2) Proclaiming the independent validity of the body alone (pure materialism); or (3) Proclaiming the independent validity of consciousness alone (pure idealism). It is impossible for a human to entirely evade rationality. Therefore, in such cases, reason becomes irrationally subjugated in support of ever-contradictory, ever-evasive, anything-goes smoke and fog. Throughout the ages, the philosopher’s job has been: to clear away the smoke and fog. Thars Beena Whole Lota Wobblin Goin On!

Ghosts and Zombies Begone!
• • • Your wise financial contribution will become wisely deployed. • • •

Main Menu

The Webpage Presentation

The Page of Reason

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Reality Integrated Reason

Orrin Smith

Welcome to The Page of Reason

The Great Persuasion

The Declaration of Intent

The Preface

The Page of Reason

Part 1 of 8: 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 Remediation

Section 5: Understanding The Page of Reason

Section 6: Interregnum: Reading and Reproduction Rights

The Page of Reason

Part 2 of 8: The Outline Overview

The Page of Reason

Part 3 of 8: 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: Brew 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! • • •

The Page of Reason

Part 4 of 8: 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

Section 6: Further Comments on Key Objectivist Literature

The Page of Reason

Part 5 of 8: Orrin’s Razor: His One Page Definition of Objectivism

Section 1: A Rational Philosophy One: The Requirement: One Supremely Rational Concept

Section 2: Root: Rational Reality: “What Defines Conceptual Reality?”

Section 3: Root: Rational Knowledge: “What Defines Conceptual Knowledge?”

Section 4: Trunk: Rational Ethics: “What Defines Good Individual Judgment?”

Section 5: Branch: Rational Politics: “What Defines Good Social Judgment?”

Section 6: Branch: Rational Esthetics: “What Is Beautiful, Worthy of Admiration, Worthy of Emulation?”

Section 7: A Rational Philosophy Two: The Delivery: One Supremely Rational Concept: Objectivism

The Page of Reason

Part 6 of 8: A 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

The Page of Reason

Part 7 of 8: Rational Knowledge Resources

Section 1: Time and Choice

Section 2: Objectivism: Key Objectivist Literature from Part 4

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

The Page of Reason

Part 8 of 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 • • •

The Page of Reason

Supplement 1: The Great Persuasion

Section 1: Introduction

Section 2: The Outline Overview

Section 3: Apocalyptic Conclusions

Section 4: Context Keeping: 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 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: Brew 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! • • •

Section 1: A Rational Philosophy One:
The Requirement: One Supremely Rational Concept

Section 2: Root: Rational Reality:
“What Defines Conceptual Reality?”

Section 3: Root: Rational Knowledge:
“What Defines Conceptual Knowledge?”

Section 4: Trunk: Rational Ethics:
“What Defines Good Individual Judgment?”

Section 5: Branch: Rational Politics:
“What Defines Good Social Judgment?”

Section 6: Branch: Rational Esthetics:
“What Is Beautiful, Worthy of Admiration, Worthy of Emulation?”

Section 7: A Rational Philosophy Two:
The Delivery: One Supremely Rational Concept: Objectivism

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

Section 2: Objectivism:
Key Objectivist Literature from Part 4

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 of 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 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