Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

How to think at the highest level of abstraction?

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

Great philosophers, like Ayn Rand or Aristotle, have identified principles of such generality, that only a dispassionate analysis of reality could enable.

The identification of the Axioms of Existence requires, as I see it, a complet detachment of the context of one's life and individual preferences/experiences/particularities. To think on such an abstract level requires a very "naked" perspective on reality.

How does one think so clearly, and how does one detaches one's self from the individual context, to grasp such basic principles?

How can we apply measurement-omission to concepts/abstractions so far from the perceptual level?

I feel dwarfed by the precision of thought required to build/identify such a clear and concise hierarchy of knowledge. How did they do it? What makes one think "clearly"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you have things a bit confused on how great thinkers such as Aristotle and Rand came to such high abstract concepts. A common fallacy in philosophy today is that the higher the abstraction, the "less connection to reality" it has. This is completely untrue. In order to formulate an abstract concept, one needs an extreme amount of attachment "of the context of one's life and individual preferences/experiences/particularities." In fact, the higher the abstraction, "the more connection to reality" it has because it subsumes more particulars.

However, you may have meant something else by this. You may have meant how does one eliminate potential subjectivity from one's thinking and achieve such a high level of objectivity. To answer that, I refer you to Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff and Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...