PHILOSOPHICAL TERMS DEFINED
 
1) Axiom – A self-evident truth which is a starting point for all further knowledge. An axiom cannot be denied without committing a contradiction and without reaffirming the truth of the axiom.
 
2) Metaphysics – The branch of philosophy which studies the nature of existence as such. Metaphysics is a very “abstract” but otherwise, in principle, simple subject. I believe that metaphysics has everything to do with mental health.
 
3) Epistemology – The branch of philosophy which studies the means by which man´s knowledge is acquired and validated.
 
4) Perception – The base of our awareness of reality. We perceive physical entities out there in the world, e.g. dogs, cats, chairs, tables etc.
 
5) Concepts – The abstractions which we form with our minds in order to classify and deal with a vast number of percepts. Some simple, concrete concepts are “man”, “dog” and “chair”. Some more abstract concepts are “justice”, “capitalism” and “philosophy”. It is the ability to form and use concepts which make us men radically different from the rest of the animals. Such animals as dogs and cats do not form concepts - they only have percepts. A psychotic is, probably, largely reduced back to the perceptual level (at least, I know for a fact that I was when I was a psychotic).
 
6) Subjectivism – The idea that truth and/or values reside in the subject´s consciousness, without any involvement of any external reality. There are two versions of subjectivism – the personal and the collective. In the personal version truth and/or values are in an individual´s consciousness – for example in a hippy´s, a criminal´s or an anarchist´s consciousness. In the collective version of subjectivism truth and/or values are in a collective´s consciousness – for example in the people´s, the nation´s or the majority´s consciousness. Subjectivism amounts to, in practice, the premise that the true or valuable is whatever the subject feels to be true or valuable.
 
7) Intrinsicism – The idea that truth and/or values reside in reality, without any involvement of any subject´s consciousness. The most widespread version of intrinsicism is religion. According to religion an external factor, God, imposes truth and value on us human beings from the outside, without our own consciousnesses playing any role in the process. For example, Sunday is just supposed to be a day of rest because God told us so, via the Bible. Intrinsicism amounts to, in practice, the premise that truth and/or value are revealed. But both intrinsicism and subjectivism are really the same thing. For how does one tell a true revelation from a false one? One just feels it. So subjectivism and intrinsicism ultimately both ultimately boil down to the premise that his feelings are man´s tool of knowledge. Subjectivism and intrinsicism are thus merely two sides of the same false coin.
 
8) Objectivity – The idea that truth and values are the products of an interaction between both an external reality and the consciousness which perceives that reality. Facts are facts, as opposed to subjectivism´s position that the subject´s consciousness determines what is true and valuable. But man´s consciousness nevertheless has to do something to discover them, as opposed to intrinsicism´s position that reality just reveals them to the subject. Objectivity is the radical alternative to both subjectivism and intrinsicism. The distinction between these three concepts can be summarized thusly: According to subjectivism, consciousness is both metaphysically and epistemologically active. According to intrinsicism, consciousness is both metaphysically and epistemologically passive. According to objectivity, consciousness is metaphysically passive, but is epistemologically active. Man´s consciousness must put forth work, but not in order to create reality – but “merely” in order to perceive it. Subjectivists commit a sin which can be called “cognitive megalomania” whereas intrinsicists commit a sin which can be called “cognitive laziness”.
 
9) The Axiom of Existence - “Existence exists”. That is just a brute fact and it is the starting point for everything. You cannot get “beneath the skin” of existence. And since nothing is nothing you cannot explain the fact of existence by reference to anything else, i.e. by reference to something which does not exist.
 
10) The Axiom of Consciousness – “Consciousness is conscious” (of that which exists). It is a brute fact that consciousness exists and that it is the awareness of the reality which we live in. The existence of consciousness is a starting point for all knowledge, so a piece of alleged knowledge which denies the existence of consciousness (i.e. materialism) involves a contradiction (the fallacy of the stolen concept, specifically).
 
11) The Axiom of Identity – “Existence is identity” or “To be is to be something”. In order to exist at all whatever exists has to be something specific, something in particular. As Ayn Rand put it “To be nothing in particular is to be nothing.” The Axiom of Identity is the basis for a stable, lawful universe – and is therefore a necessary precondition for sanity.
 
12) Primacy of existence – The axiom that existence simply “is” - i.e. that existence merely exists. That existence was not created out of nothing. And that existence is logically prior to consciousness. There can be no consciousness unless something other than consciousness first exists. A consciousness with nothing to be conscious of would be a contradiction in terms. It (e.g. the concept of God) would be just gibberish. Existence can however exist without consciousness. Consciousness is dependent on existence, but existence is not dependent on consciousness. So the universe cannot and need not have been created by “God”, i.e. by a supernatural consciousness. The universe has simply always existed. Existence can give rise to consciousness, under the right circumstances. But the converse is impossible
 
13) Primacy of consciousness – The mistaken idea that consciousness is prior to, and independent of, existence. According to this idea, some form of consciousness gives rise to existence. The most common version of this mistaken idea is religion. According to religion, existence - i.e. the entire universe - was created out of nothing by a supernatural consciousness. As point 9 above demonstrated, religion therefore flies in the face of reason.
 
14) Mysticism – The idea that there is some non-sensory means of knowledge, such as revelation, intuition and the like. Religion is the most common source of mysticism. Mysticism boils down to the notion that one can have knowledge without doing anything specific to acquire it, i.e. that one can have knowledge without a specific means of knowledge. So mysticism amounts to “arbitrary knowledge”. An effect without a cause.
 
15) Skepticism – The idea that no certain knowledge of anything whatsoever is possible. No matter how many good reasons you have for believing something – you nevertheless cannot be certain of it, according to skepticism. So skepticism amounts to “arbitrary doubt”. So, mystics and skeptics make the same fundamental basic error - they both ascribe significance to the arbitrary. Mystics and skeptics are two variations on a bad theme. Religious fundamentalists and agnostics are not opposites – but merely two sides of the same false epistemological coin!
 
16) Duty ethics – The idea that you should do things merely because you “should”. Some external authority imposes on you the fact of what you should do. Duty ethics is therefore an expression of intrinsicism - it is intrinsicism applied to ethics. The most common authority which is called upon to impose duties on men is “God”. “Don´t eat meat on Friday” for example. For God wills you not to.
 
The radical alternative to duty ethics is the ethics of selfishness. That is to say - you should do certain things because your own interests give you rational reasons to do so. For example, you should work diligently, not because God wills you to, but because you need to work in order to make a living and to survive. Duty ethics amounts to “arbitrary ethics”. The radical alternative to this nonsense is the Objectivist ethics of life (of selfishness, if you like) – i.e. you should do certain things rather than others because, objectively, they promote the interests of your life.
 
17) Egoism – The moral doctrine that you should do that which lies in your own interest. For example - you should work so as to make a living - you should find yourself a worthy romantic partner since you are a rational animal and therefore you need one in order to be happy – you should be honest because reality is what it is, and you will get yourself into a futile war against reality if you attempt to fake it – and so forth. Egoism means, equates with, rational egoism – whenever you choose to be irrational you will necessarily harm your own interests - and so, whenever you are irrational, you will not be egoistic. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as an “irrational egoist”. All genuine egoism is rational, and all genuine rationality is egoistic. You must do that which is in your own interest in order to survive - so egoism is the morality of life and reason.
 
18) Altruism – The moral doctrine that you should sacrifice your own interests for the sake of the interests of others. For example, the Bible tells you that whatever you own, you should give away to those who are poorer than you are. Consistent altruism leads, by dint of logical necessity, to death - because if you give up all of your values (e.g. all of your food, your clothing, your water, etc.) then you will, obviously, die. So altruism is the morality of death.
 
19) Egalitarianism – The moral doctrine that you should punish virtue and reward vice, that you should penalize the good and reward the bad. For example, socialistic egalitarians wish to persecute the most productive members of society. Feministic egalitarians wish to disfavor beautiful women. Pacifistic egalitarians wish to disfavor free countries, such as the USA, and to favor tyrannies, such as the Communist and Islamist dictatorships. Multicultural egalitarians trash the name of Western civilization and idolize primitive tribes. Egalitarianism is derived from altruism. For - if virtue consists of sacrificing your values, then the very fact that you currently lack values is proof that you have previously been virtuous - because in logic, if you sacrifice your values, then you will wind up not having any. So egalitarianism is widely embraced by altruists because of the fact that it “massages their egos”.
 
20) Collectivism – The political doctrine that the individual should sacrifice to, and obey, the collective. Collectivism is the expression in politics of altruism in ethics. For - if the individual should sacrifice his values to others, then everybody in his society other than he himself should receive his sacrifices. In other words, everybody else – i.e. the collective - should be above him. Those “others” which he must sacrifice his values to according to altruism, are for each individual man the rest of his society – i.e. they are the collective.
 
21) First-hander – The kind of person whose primary focus is reality, not the consciousness of other men. The first-hander “thinks for himself”, to use conventional terminology. He judges every idea which comes before his mind critically. He does not accept any idea or assertion merely because some authority - such as “popular opinion”, or his neighbors, or the Pope, or his professor - tells him that he should. The first-hander can be described as, roughly, the “rugged individualist” of the realm of cognition.
 
22) The second-hander – The kind of person whose primary focus is the consciousness of others, and not objective reality. Those members of humanity who are not first-handers, are all therefore instead second-handers. The second-hander believes in the assertions of whosoever he takes to be an authority. He takes assertions on faith, without thinking, if the utterances merely happen to be asserted by the “right” people. The mere fact that significant others believe it amounts to proof in the eye of the second-hander. All second-handers depend in some way on others for their survival – because of the fact that they depend on others for their perception of reality.
 
The most common flavor of second-hander is the abject conformist. Another flavor of second-hander is the power-luster (the power-luster depends on his victims for his survival). A third flavor of second-hander is the demonstrative “non-conformist”, whose motto is “I am against whatsoever others are for” (this type of second-hander goes by the judgment of other´s minds too - since he disagrees with whatever they happen to believe). The second-hander is named the way he is, because of the fact that he deals with reality - “second-hand” - with the first-handers as intermediaries. All second-handers are - to the very extent that they are second-handers - parasites.
 
Fundamentally, they are “parasites on consciousness”.
 
23) Aristotle – The philosopher of Greek antiquity who founded Western civilization, by providing the essential intellectual foundation – a philosophy of reason.
 
24) Immanuel Kant – The German philosopher of the late 18th century who has almost succeeded at destroying the modern world, by means of doggedly undoing the work of Aristotle. Kant promulgated a philosophy which advocated all the wrong ideas – intrinsicism, subjectivism, duty ethics, self-sacrifice etc. Kant was a man characterized by “radical evil”. Ayn Rand evaluated Immanuel Kant as “the most evil man in mankind´s history”. I myself discovered the hard way that Ayn Rand´s evaluation of Kant was absolutely spot-on. For Immanuel Kant persuaded me - from a distance of two hundred years - to attempt to end my own life! In addition, the legacy of Kant´s philosophy also turned me into a certified psychotic.
 
25) Ayn Rand – The Russian-born philosopher of the 20th century who completed the work begun by Aristotle. She perfected his defense of reason and egoism - and thereby made possible the defeat of Kant, the vindication of Aristotle and the salvation of modern western civilization.
 

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