Path: utzoo!yunexus!gall
From: gall@yunexus.UUCP (Norm Gall)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: sci.philosophy.objectivism
Message-ID: <6534@yunexus.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 90 22:58:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: yunexus.6534
References: <8284@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: gall@yunexus.UUCP
Organization: York University   Department of Philosophy
Lines: 32

harris@portia.Stanford.EDU (Joe Harris) writes:

|      The revolution which Ayn Rand created in philosophy was primarily
| epistemological, not political or ethical.  Her single greatest achievment,
| in my judgement, is her theory of concepts.  This theory makes it possible
| to understand in explicit terms the cognitive processes by which a human
| abstracts from perceptual data, and consequently makes possible an
| unprecedented level of clarity in the physical sciences and in the humanities

Well, let's nip this in the bud.  Ayn Rand's 'revolution in
philosophy' has had practically no effect at all in 20th century
epistemology and of 50 philosophy departments in North America if
there are 10 philosophers doing serious work in her epistemology, I'd
be surprised.

However, I will say that one of the more philosophically relevant
portions of her writings is the 'Theory of Concepts.' 6
~?~?~?~?~?~?~?~?~

| This is why sci.philosophy.objectivism is justified--because the central
| problem which Objectivism offers the answer to is the relationship of
| perceptual data to abstract ideas.


Hmmmmmm......  why is this a _scientific_ problem.... sounds like a
philosophical one to me. 

-- 
York University          | "Philosophers who make the general claim that a 
Department of Philosophy |       rule simply 'reduces to' its formulations
Toronto, Ontario, Canada |       are using Occam's razor to cut the throat
_________________________|       of common sense.'             - R. Harris