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There has been some great discussion about values lately, and so I'd like to present a brief case for my notion of a complex standard of value. Any feedback or criticism would be appreciated. This is only the beginning of a work in progress. I start with the idea that humans have three basic aspects: the physical, the mental, and the biological. Also, for each aspect we can hold a separate standard of value. For the physical it's pleasure over pain; for the mental, it's knowledge over ignorance; and for the biological, it's health over sickness. Next, many people seem to believe tha

I'm having trouble / confused with the following passage from OPAR: "A definition in terms of fundamentals can be formulated only by reference to one's full knowledge of the units. In order to identify a fundamental distinguishing characteristic (and a fundamental integrating characteristic—the genus), one must take into account all the known facts in the case. One must bear in mind how the units differ from other things, how they resemble other things, and what causal relationships obtain within these two sets of attributes. Only on this basis can one establish that a certain charact

There are many types of integration. There are integrations of units, which are involved in concept-formation. The new unity classifies the input material. There are integrations of facts where you arrive at an abstract principle. The new unity is more general than the starting input. There are integrations where a new fact is filed under an establish genus, such as a minor premise. There is demonstrating that a previously formed proposition can be deduced from some wider proposition. The unity recasts the starting material as a theorem. For example, Galileo's law of fall was arrived at