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From: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: CALL FOR VOTES - sci.philosophy.objectivism
Message-ID: <8063@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Feb 90 21:23:19 GMT
References: <7875@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs)
Organization: Your typical phone company involved in your typical daydream
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I've mailed in my NO vote - though I would support talk.philosophy.objectivism
(or talk.religion.objectivism :-) <- some of you have a sense of humor.)

> Sci--because of the approach participants should use when
> contributing to this newsgroup.  What is scientific about it is
> that conclusions should be drawn by reasoning based on observations of
> reality.  Neither "Ayn Rand says so" nor "I just feel it's so" should
> be used as a premise for a conclusion.

Is it really because of the approach that should be used, or is it
really because Objectivists BELIEVE their beliefs to be Science?
Nice as it is to KNOW that your senses and reason map accurately to
the "real" world (which are probably the fundamental axioms of
objectivism), all of the Objectivist attempts at epistemology
come down to the assumption, or desire, or faith, that these are true.

While I do not accept the prejudices or premises of Zen, its observations
of human nature are rather devastating to the Objectivist premises.
In particular, the view that reason is often a tool used to
rationalize the opinions that people want to hold for other reasons
rather than a prime mover of conscious thought applies well to much
Objectivist writing, and especially to Ayn Rand's aesthetics and
passions, and to the infighting and "excommunication" that's gone on
since the early 60s.

				Bill Stewart
-- 
# Bill Stewart AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs

# ho95c has gone the way of all VAX/785s, so I'm now on erebus.att.com