Monday, March 12, 2012
AYN AND ARISTOTLE: A IS A
"I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." - Rand
Dagny Taggart, John Galt, Fransisco d'Anconia, and Henry Rearden—characters created by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged live by this oath, an oath that drawn from Rand's own morality. "My personal life is a postscript to my novels; it consists of the sentence: 'And I mean it,'" Rand writes. The maxims upon which Rand built her life are expressed in her novels. Rand, also the author of such philosophical works as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and The Virtue of Selfishness, formed a philosophy in which a man is his own highest standard. Believing only in what she knew and could quantify, Rand drew her morality from the fact of man's existence. Rand's reader hears her speak through the words of one of her protagonists John Galt. "Do you ask what moral obligation I owe to my fellow men? None—except the obligation I owe to myself, to material objects and to all of existence: rationality." Self and this present world is her focus. To her, existence is the primary truth, and the foundation of man's rationality, the core of his reason. Because man's existence is her first truth, Rand draws her moral compass around this origin. "Accept the fact that the achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness—not pain or mindless self-indulgence—is the proof of your moral integrity. . . . and when you learn that pride is the sum of all virtues, you will learn to live like a man." In a system where a man's existence is his first truth, his own happiness becomes his first priority.
Rand's philosophy, logical and logically expressed, nods to Aristotle as her key inspiration. She titled the three parts of Atlas Shrugged in tribute to the ancient philosopher. Aristotle's Law of Identity "A is A" is recurrent in Atlas Shrugged. It is the idea that a thing is what it is, the idea that existence exists. Man is man. A train is a train. Air is air. This is truth. But is it enough?
Rand's presumes man's perception of himself is the only foundation he needs. He needs no higher truth. Man's perception of his own existence validates not only his existence but also his perception. For Rand, existence is tied to perception, or thinking. Thus, man's only absolute is to think. Using his ability to think, man is able to perceive and validate the existence around him, able to say that "A is A," where "A" is anything man can perceive.
But, according to this, a thing is not unless it is perceived. That is to say, it exists not until it is perceived to exist. Air is not air until it is perceived to be so. Rand has yoked existence with perception. Yet, the truth is that air is air whether one perceives it or not. A is A whether one perceives it or not; and denying the fact, or trying to make A to be non-A, is not merely an attack on oneself, as Rand says. It is an attack on truth.
"A is A" is not incorrect, it is simply incomplete. It is fact without reason. A is A because of a higher Law: God is God. The issue is perspective. Rand pointed her perspective outward, just as Aristotle did. Their error was that they never looked upward. They ignored the existence of a higher being. Rand did not care to consider anything beyond her temporal view. She writes of her position on morality and virtue, "Do not remind me that it pertains only to this life on earth. I am concerned with no other." But, her denial that God is God does not change the fact. Her denial does not erase God's existence. God was, is, and will be God, and because of that, A is still A. "A is A" is the fact. "God is God" is the reason. Rand and Aristotle only wanted to know that "A is A" in order to exist, but they should have known the fact that God is God is the only reason to do so.