Rand The Dogmatist

 

Ayn Rand is not only an epistemological dogmatist, but she is an ethical dogmatist. That is how I read what she wrote on Pages 18 and 19 of her book, The Virtue Of Selfishness: “In answer to those philosophers who claim that no relation can be established between ultimate ends or values and the facts of reality, let me stress the fact that living entities exist and function necessitates the existence of values and of an ultimate value which for any given living entity is its own life. Thus the validation of value judgments is to be achieved by reference to the facts of reality. That fact that a living entity is, determines what it ought to do. So much for the issue of the relation between ‘is’ and ‘ought.’”

 

My response: note that the ought end for the agent is to extend his own life as long as possible, to live as well as possible, and that is where he finds value, and living his valuable life vigorously, creatively, and productively allows him to live that life morally. His end is where moral value for him and all humans is found.

 

For Rand the atheist, there is no afterlife, so moral worth is making the life the agent is currently living and enjoying of supreme importance and significance for him, because this is the only shor he gets.

 

Rand ties the validation of value judgments by referring it to the facts of reality. The agent is, so living his life and extending his life as long as possible and living it to the fullest is how he ought to live.

 

Skeptical philosophers do not share her metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical optimism, but they underrated her severely for she was a great thinker. I like her dogmatism, and my own moderate epistemology is optimistic-skeptical, and she was optimistic-optimistic, and the unfair, biased foes of hers, professional thinkers, were pessimistic-skeptical.

 

Rand continues: “Now in what manner does a human being discover the concept of ‘value’?

By what means does he first become aware of the issue of ‘good and evil’ in its simplest form? By means of the physical sensation of pleasure and pain. Just as sensations are the first step of the development of a human consciousness, in the realm of cognition, so they are its first step in the realm of evaluation.

 

The capacity to experience pleasure or pain is innate in a man’s body; it is part of his nature, part of the kind of entity he is. He has no choice about it, and he has no choice about the standard that determines what will make him experience the physical sensation of pleasure and pain. What is that standard? His life.

 

The pleasure-pain mechanism in the body of man—and in the body of all the living organisms that possess the faculty of consciousness—serve as the automatic guardian of the organism’s life. The physical sensation of pleasure is a signal indicating that the organism is pursuing the right course of action. The physical sensation of pain is a warning signal of danger, indicating the organism is pursuing the wrong course of action, that something is impairing the proper function of its  body, which requires action to correct it . . . Consciousness—for those living organisms which possess it—is the basic means of survival.”

 

My response: Rand asserts that the agent innately values pleasure, the good value, when something extends or improves his life, and feels pain and withdrawal, a value innate and primitive but powerful, reminding him that things are not going well, or danger is afoot. What is causing pain, denigrates his enjoyment of his life, and may even lead to his perishing if he does not switch courses and soon.

 

She suggests that all higher forms of life have consciousness. Simple feelings of pleasure and pain encourage or discourage the agent on a course of action, and as her consciousness gains experience and understanding, she will seek pleasure that prolongs and enriches her life, and she devalues and shreds behaviors and goals that cause her pain and could even be fatal.

 

I have written elsewhere about good pleasure not being simply the satiation of basic desires and appetites, though in temperate self-control, these can be satisfied. Good pleasure is complicated: as the agent disciplines himself and sacrifices play, leisure and simple pleasure, denied and delays while he works, care for his family and maverze his own talent, then his high end pleasure is felt and known directly by him, a life lived and well lived, a creative and offering to God and the Good Spirits.

 

Pain follows a similar line of thinking.