by NikitaTheIrishesqueSpy » 1/20/2003, 5:43 pm
To clarify the apparent miscommunication of what reality and existence really are:
"Existence exists - and the act of grasping that statement implies two corollary axioms: that something exists which one perceives and that one exists posessing consciousness, consciousness being the faculty of perceiving that which exists. If nothing exists, there can be no consciouness: a consciousness conscious of nothing but itself is a contradiction in terms. A consciousness conscious of nothing but itself is a contradiction in terms: before it could identify itself as consciouness, it had to be conscious of something. If that which you claim to perceive does not exist, what you posess is not consciousness." -Ayn Rand.
Here, she follows the precept that Aristotle formed thousands of years ago: that A is A. It is still a basic concept today in every form of logic. An apple cannot be an orange, nor anything but what it is - an apple. She also urges us to look at any contradiction that we may find ourselves facing, and check our premises. One thing cannot be one and another at the same time. A hand cannot be a foot at the same time, and a band of a rainbow cannot be blue and red at the same time.Two different things can be two different things, but they cannot be one in the same. Such is her argument of reason. Man has the ability to think. Reason is that faculty that we can choose to exercise, but it must be by choice. One always has the right to choose, however in choosing not to choose, he relinquishes his "self-control" to anyone who wants to take it. These are the people who seek scapegoats, and who refuse responsibility for their actions. And these are the people who expect to be carried through life, blaming others when it drops them. This is a contradiction. If A is the man with a thinking mind, then A cannot also be B: the man with the non-thinking mind. To think is to think, to not think it not to think, but don't expect them to cross over.
I'll end with another quotation:
"These two - reason and freedom - are corollaries, and their relationship is reciprocal: when men are rational, freedom wins; when men are free, reason wins." -Ayn Rand
When God said "I AM," the Jews should have said "You are WHAT?" If he really was God, he'd have better grammar than that!