31 Articles tagged with: Metaphysics

• Ayn Rand Diet Plan: Fad Diets, Fat-acceptance Are Anti-Reality

  “A is A. All the pain has come from the effort to evade the fact that A is A.”

  These are the words of John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, summing up the core tenet of the Objectivist philosophy pioneered by the novel’s author, Ayn Rand. If … Read Article

• Objective Reality - An Atlas University Conversation

  May 13, 2014 -- Why do many philosophers deny the existence of objective reality? In this conversation David Kelley and William R Thomas discuss axioms and anti-objectivity. This conversation is based on Lecture 4, Objective Reality, part of our o… Read Article

• Toward An Objectivist Feminism

  Objectivism has the potential for a dynamic relationship with feminism, which can ground, challenge, and ultimately sharpen each school’s arguments toward the ultimate ends of both freedom and flourishing for women (and all human beings). A ne… Read Article

• Objectivity: Metaphysical and Epistemological

  Atlas Summit 2014 -- What does it mean to be objective? David Kelley discusses the relation of the objective, the intrinsic, and the subjective. He discusses objectivity both in a metaphysical and in an epistemological sense. And he shows why obje… Read Article

• Objective Reality | Atlas University

  September 28, 2013 -- In this 30-minute presentation, philosopher and author David Kelley covers the essentials of the Objectivist view of metaphysical objectivity: the axiomatic concepts of existence, identity, causality, and consciousness, and… Read Article

• What is the Objectivist View of Reality (Metaphysics)?

  Question: What is the Objectivist view of reality? 

  … Read Article

• Nietzsche's Metaphysics and Epistemology

  This commentary is part of The Atlas Society's 2000 online "CyberSeminar" entitled " Nietzsche and Objectivism ." 

  It is no easy task trying to understand what Nietzsche’s views on metaphysics and epistemology are. Beyond getting pas… Read Article

• Response by William Dale and Others

  This commentary is part of The Atlas Society's 1999 online "CyberSeminar" entitled " The Continental Origins of Postmodernism ."

  … Read Article

• Love, Lust, and the Mind-Body Dichotomy

  Question: How does Objectivism define and classify sexual desire and lust? It seems they do not actually flow from convictions, but instead have a biological basis. Since sex is a large part of an individual’s self-identity, what role do sex… Read Article

• Agnosticism and the Unknown

  Question: Objectivism rejects the existence of God because it cannot be proven by our senses—in other words, God-believers must bear the "burden of proof," which, of course, they cannot provide. However, adherence to Objectivist philosoph… Read Article

• What is the Objectivist View of Free Will?

  Question: What Is the Objectivist view of free will?

  … Read Article

• What Does Science Say About the Mind? - Review of The Problem of the Soul by Owen Flanagan

  BOOK REVIEW: Owen Flanagan, The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them (New York: Basic Books, 2002). 364 pages. $27.50.

  … Read Article

• Nature, Nuture, and Free Will

  Summary: Despite the influence of genetic and environmental factors, which limit the scope of free will, we do have extensive volitional control of our actions and character. In therapy, it is crucial to assess what is and is not in the patient&… Read Article

• Universals and Induction

  Unlike other species, man has the ability to re-organize his perceptual world in such a way as to discover new relationships. The essence of this ability is his capacity to generalize and to extract universal truths that are applicable to things… Read Article

• Skepticism

  Skepticism is the belief that knowledge of reality is impossible and that man lacks any rational basis for certainty or confidence in what he thinks he knows. By undercutting the efficacy of reason, skepticism forces us to fall back on emotion, … Read Article

• The Foundations of Knowledge: The Primacy of Existence

  June 1985 -- A cardinal principle of Objectivist metaphysics is the primacy of existence which asserts that there is one objective world, which exists independently of consciousness. This fact is irreducible and does not have to be proved becau… Read Article

• Is Religion Compatible with Objectivism?

  Question: Is Objectivism compatible with religion?

  … Read Article

• Agnosticism and Proof

  Question:  Objectivism states that there is no proof that the supernatural exists. However, wouldn't the Objectivist assertion that the supernatural does not exist require proof as well? Does a lack of proof in the affirmative justify the ne… Read Article

• Agnosticism and the Unknown: Round Two

  Question: Why does the existence of "God" have to be considered a "spiritual" question and not a "scientific" one?

  … Read Article

• Atheism--Pascal's Wager

  Question: What would Ayn Rand say about this? I know none of you can answer for her but you might could speculate.

  Pascal's Wager (God is a safe bet): "If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothin… Read Article