Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings can gain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic; that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.
I think that every Objectivist needs to agree with the above to label oneself as such. But as I said in my previous post, this does not mention anything about Ayn Rand's word being infallible. I think that her comments on homosexuality are a pertinent example of this, and it also represents the dangers of having O'ism being a closed system.
So, those fundamental truths, more explicitly, are the axioms that uphold the Objectivist epistemology, views of metaphysics, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. We know those truths are indeed fundamental because axioms - as their nature implies - are irrefutable. Anyone trying to object to them must implicitly assume them even before he or she can formulate a counter-argument. No, there are no fundamental truths that are not part of Objectivism. I think that there ARE parts of Objectivism, according to Peikoff and the ARI, that are not necessarily fundamental truths. I, like Kelley, do not believe that Ayn Rand is infallible. Objectivism, on the other hand, definitely is infallible.
Andrew Grathwohl got a reaction from Harrison Danneskjold in Objectivism: "Closed" system
Andrew Grathwohl got a reaction from Myself in Objectivist Music