From: bil@okcforum.osrhe.uoknor.edu (Bill Conner)
Subject: Deliberate Ignorance
Organization: Okcforum Unix Users Group
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 03:19:25 GMT


   I've noticed that most of the postings here have to do with logic,
as if logic were the final arbiter of Truth. I don't hold to the
belief that everything can be fully understood through the application
of logic and find it a little odd that Objectivists apparently reject
every other means of apprehending reality. Logic is an intellectual
tool like mathematics, it is really the study of relationships, how
one thing or category of things relates to another.

   Like mathematics, logic can deal with abstractions, thoughts that
have no object in the "real" world, and like mathematics, can be used
to describe things with no actual existence. The resort to logic by
those calling themselves, Objectivists, gives the impression that
logic can solve problems, and this just ain't so. Logic can describe
how one thing (thought, etc.) compares to another, but it of no use in
determining which thing or thought or idea is "true".

   This deification of logic is revealing though; it does show
how little those who use it understand the nature of nature, and
especially human nauture. Like those orgaminc effusions of enthusiasm
for "Science" so typical of the last century, Objectivists seem to
have confused the advances of engineering with the advancement of
Science, as if they were the same thing. 

    Technology is almost entirely the result of engineering, not
Science. Our material well being is based on that technology; we are
indebted to the engineers and technicians for our prosperity.
Technology however, is morally neutral; it is neither good nor bad,
it's just engineering.

   Science on the other hand, is concerned with questions that don't
necessarily have any direct, technical application. Science was
originally called, Natural Philosophy, which meant that its primary
concern was the attempt to -understand- nature, not control it. By
studying nature these philosophers hoped to attain insight into the
essence of the universe; if that insight led to something useful was
not the point.

   Dilettantes, then and and now get confused about the real purpose
of Science, unable to distinguish between it and the products of
engineering. Science is by is very nature, concerned with issues that
have always been the province of philosopher, moralists and ethicists.
Since enigineering is by its nature the outcome of the application
deterministic logic (math), the two depend on different attributes of
human intelligence.

   An Objectivist identifies with the Engineer, and can therefore have
nothing whatever to offer to those concerned with questions of worth, truth,
right or wrong or any other philosophical issue. If the logic of the
Objectivist is correct and if the conclusions drawn from their logic
are valid (very unlikely), then we are mere biological machines and
all of our needs, desires, and ambitions can be attributed entirely to
physiological causes.

   What is especially stupid about this kind of view point (no, theirs
is not an original concept), it that each one of us KNOWS that we are
more than a machine. We know it intuitively, we know it so
fundamentally that if it weren't for the indoctrination of the last
hundred years or so, we'd think this kind of mechanisitic nonsense was
the outbursts of morons. Objectivist thinking is the direct result of.
whole generation eating too many Happy Meals at MacDonalds. 
   
   In all fairness though, we can probably let these people design
Wal-Mart Stores, Banks maybe even bridges, but we can't let them
design a human society, not until they grow up enough to understand
what it is. It is an unfortunate quirk in human nature however, that
makes it unlikely that our Objectivist brethren will ever be trusted
with our governence; how can they admit they've been wrong after
investing so much of themselves in their folly - and on the Internet
at that !?

Ok, Fire Away ...


Bill Conner

Newsgroups: alt.philosophy.objectivism