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Reblogged: Objections to the Axioms (Part 2)

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This next objection is about the utility of the axioms.  

Objection: “Axioms Must Have Deductive Implications”

[...]A first principle is only useful and workable if you can deduce the rest of the worldview from it. You can't deduce

anything

from 'whatever exists exists'. You can't deduce any kind of epistemology (ie, how we know that whatever exists exists, how we know that we know, etc); we can't deduce any kind of metaphysic (ie, what is the nature of existence, what is the ground of existence, etc); and we certainly can't deduce any ethical or anthropological propositions (ie, what is right and wrong, what is the nature of man, etc).[1]


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More often than not, the non-axiomatic, theoretical principles of Objectivism are induced.  Only a relative few principles are properly deduced.  I believe that it would be helpful to some philosophy students and other interested parties if someone would simply list which principles of Objectivism are induced and which are deduced.

 

I don't think any principles of Objectivism are deduced. In Unity in Epistemology and Ethics, Leonard Peikoff said that Miss Rand had informed him multiple times that all philosophic principles are arrived at through induction..

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