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Skip Berkes

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About Skip Berkes

  • Birthday 02/21/1987

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  1. In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand upholds the exactitude of an emotional response through Richard Halley. "Miss Taggart, how many people are there to whom my work means as much as it does to you?...That is the payment I demand. Not many can afford it. I don’t mean your enjoyment, I don’t mean your emotion—emotions be damned!—I mean your understanding and the fact that your enjoyment was of the same nature as mine, that it came from the same source: from your intelligence, from the conscious judgment of a mind able to judge my work by the standard of the same values that went to write it—I mean, not the fact that you felt, but that you felt what I wished you to feel, not the fact that you admire my work, but that you admire it for the things I wished to be admired… I do not care to be admired causelessly, emotionally, intuitively, instinctively—or blindly. I do not care for blindness in any form, I have too much to show—or for deafness, I have to much to say. I do not care to be admired by anyone’s heart—only by someone’s head. And when I find a customer with that invaluable capacity, then my performance is a mutual trade to mutual profit. An artist is a trader, Miss Taggart, the hardest and most exacting of all traders…" And in The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand names again three cardinal values which make up the essential generator of The Objectivist Ethics. "The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics—the three values which, together, are the means to and the realization of one’s ultimate value, one’s own life—are: Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues: Rationality, Productiveness, Pride." Reason without Purpose, being a default on Integrity. Purpose without Reason being the duty ethics. And an existence in total rejection of self-esteem being the insanity of absolute worthlessness. If an emotional corollary is implied in the actions of any creator and happiness is man's most heroic purpose, then what [if anything] does Objectivism say regarding the frequency, duration, intensity, etc, of happiness and emotions as such? Ayn Rand has said that man's life is a sum. What does it say about the particular math to be done? For example, Does it assert an attempt at a sort of Equanimity of Happiness?
  2. I mean that morality is a matter of (Building The Bridge) which connects man to his personal values. Traffic referring to the necessary duplex supply-chain of positive experiences for the achievement of personal values. Continual achievement and happiness depending on proper values as well as a connection to those values (that they are your own) to be as motivated as possible. Or motivated period.
  3. The nature of personal interest is the motive force behind an act of creation such as your post. Whether devoid of a particular motive and pleasure, a post remains the writing of a specific motive and person. I would say where you go in your life [purpose] and how fast you get there [success] is a matter of building the bridge to facilitate the greatest traffic [morality]. As I see it, the primary concern in the logistics of the human mind is based on the idea that traffic is proportional to the harmony between reason and emotion. That cognition depends on man's happiness as his happiness depends on his reasoning mind. It certainly is not the case that an unhappy man is incapable of great creations. But I do believe the person who is committed to his unhappiness [duty] and to the breach between consciously chosen goals and the most personal desires is ultimately committed to running his mind into the ground with his body soon to follow. First and foremost I believe this asserts the importance of emotional recognition, classification, and conceptualization. Finally then, reason seeking and maintaining total self-awareness is the crucial act of persistent success. Where then, does this place the moral choice to act as who we want to be? Nowhere other than the choice to be selfish primarily from the pursuit of our self. =) And that is exactly right.
  4. Perhaps understanding the person I want to be, Ifat, I can say this is the kind of post I'd like to write. =)
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