The fun doesn't stop with metaphysics, though. Now I move to the second branch of philosophy, epistemology , which is the theory of knowledge. As such, you cant begin to talk about epistemology until you talk about metaphysics, which we have already done. Every theory of metaphysics implies a certain theory of epistemology. Before I can explain how this is true and how a certain view of epistemology caused the tragedy, I need to briefly present to you the Objectivist theory of epistemology.
Facts are what they are, independent of consciousness.
Contradictions do not and cannot exist. They can make errors of knowledge. The combination of this fact with the Law of Identity yields the need for a certain method to acquire knowledge of reality. That method is logic, or the art of non-contradictory identification. Logic is the method of reason, which is the faculty that integrates and identifies the materials provided by man's senses.