From my notes on John W. Robbins' Without a Prayer, pp. 12-27 (basically a heavily abridged quote):
"Reason" is simply a cue word used by all varieties of philosophers. The word "reason" is a great empty vessel into which all meanings may be poured.
For Hume "reason" meant experience. For Spinoza and Hegel "reason" meant logic. For Aquinas "reason" meant experience plus ratiocination. Rand seemed to have meant sense experience, introspection, discussion, logic, or all four.
Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and Rand are all philosophers who claimed to be "champions of reason."
For Rand reason is a faculty distinct from the senses -- but she also wrote that reason is "man's only means of perceiving reality," so reason is the senses.
Rand originally wrote that reason is "man's only means of perceiving reality," and also "reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses." But later she omitted the word "perceives": "Reason is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses." (Virtue of Selfishness, "The Objectivist Ethics.")
From my notes on John W. Robbins' Without a Prayer, pp. 12-27 (basically a heavily abridged quote):
ReplyDelete"Reason" is simply a cue word used by all varieties of philosophers. The word "reason" is a great empty vessel into which all meanings may be poured.
For Hume "reason" meant experience. For Spinoza and Hegel "reason" meant logic. For Aquinas "reason" meant experience plus ratiocination. Rand seemed to have meant sense experience, introspection, discussion, logic, or all four.
Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and Rand are all philosophers who claimed to be "champions of reason."
For Rand reason is a faculty distinct from the senses -- but she also wrote that reason is "man's only means of perceiving reality," so reason is the senses.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteRand originally wrote that reason is "man's only means of perceiving reality," and also "reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses." But later she omitted the word "perceives": "Reason is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses." (Virtue of Selfishness, "The Objectivist Ethics.")