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Veritas

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I just want to know if this is accurate.

The need for a code of values is because we are living organisms that presuppose the action of survival and that our nature does not make us survive automatically like lower organisms. We have to survive by making choices, therefore we need a code of values to dictate how we are to survive.

The ultimate value is life, since life is that this which is needing to survive.

Are these statements accurate?

Thanks.

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Hey Veritas, Not sure if you're trying to make a quick summary for your own understanding, or for some other specific purpose. Assuming the former:

First consider the concept "values" from a neutral sense: things the one seeks to gain, i.e. without getting into whether these are right or wrong, and whether one's actions are automated or volitional. Now, when you consider values in this neutral sense, you'll see that living is pretty much synonymous to valuing.

Living beings live... this means they act... this means they pursue "values" (good ones, bad ones, automated one, volitional ones).

When one thinks specifically of man, then there are many areas where man's actions are automated (his heart keeps beating) and other where they are far less automated than animals (knowing what to eat, when to migrate etc.) and require the use of the brain. In almost every field, man cannot stop at every second and rediscover all the knowledge that leads up to his next action. So, he needs knowledge: concepts, principles.

So,

  • Life is value-pursuit
  • Man needs principles

That's how one gets to: man needs a code of values.

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The ultimate value is life, since life is that this which is needing to survive.

Hi,

I wish to add a few things to sNerd's (good) post for clarification and emphasis.

With regards to life, Objectivism holds that both:

i.) Life is the standard of value.

ii.) Life is an end in itself.

The first principle provides an objective criteria to evaluate an action, idea or entity when one wishes to decide if something is good or is bad. That which is good is something that enhances your life. That which is bad is something that is detrimental to your life. When making such value judgments, it is important to keep one's long-term, rational self-interest in mind and not evaluate based on one's short-term whims. The latter would be Hedonism.

Lastly, it is important to note that by life, I do not mean mere biological life. Man has emotional and intellectual needs in addition to many physical needs in order to live a fulfilling life. Thus to be physically alive but in constant physical agony due to some horrific injury or to be biologically functioning but imprisoned in a despotic concentration camp is certainly not living a human life.

I hope that this helps!

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The short answer is no, they're not accurate, both superficially and more fundamentally.

You are being loose with the meaning of key concepts, are missing chunks of vital context, and what you have provided is also out of order. More fundamentally, there isn't much to go on, but it looks as though you have a larger deductive system from which you've presented us an extract to look at and judge. If so, then your methodology is dead wrong, and is an error called rationalism (not to be confused with general rationality, in case you were not aware of the distinction). What you need at this fundamental level is the proper mix of deduction and induction, with primary emphasis on induction, not deduction. All that deduction is used for is teasing out the application of principles to some of the details.

You need to be careful with a phrase like "code of values." Specifically, you need to define carefully what you mean by 'values' in that context. Objectivism does not provide a list of individual concrete things, or even classes of things, to place a set value upon. That is, Objectivism does not say "Thou shalt value this because that, then this because the next thing, et cetera, in that order," which is what your mention of the word 'dictate' and 'life is the ultimate value' imply. What the Objectivist code consists of is principles of action and hence valuation. One then uses the principles to determine value according to the specific context in which you live. That context stretches all the way from the entire nature of your life and what you want to do with it down to the detail of the moment, in an integrated manner.

The missing context is what comes before this, barely touched on in your paragraph. It is also why your statement "the ultimate value is life" is wrong. The correct statement is "the ultimate standard of value is life," but you can't state that without the missing context as without that context the statement would be pulled out of thin air. You get that context by induction, observing directly the relationships between life, action, and value, which in turn lead to the definitions of those three concepts, which then lead to your required context. It is not something that can be done deductively.

You start by recognising and asking three fundamental questions: why should someone act, how should that someone determine how to act, and for whose benefit should that someone act? It is here that you eventually prove that life is the standard of value, and so on.

You then need to expand the scope of your investigations and incorporate more facts, by applying what you have discovered so far to the unique nature of human beings. There is far more to it than just the fact that we have to choose, as another vital element is the fact that we are conceptual beings born without a scrap of conceptual knowledge (reflex actions and rudimentary animalistic skills such as facial recognition etc are not conceptual knowledge, so aren't refutations of tabula rasa). It is here, for example, that one incorporates the fact that we live long range and that we must have a means of predicting the future. Developing that line, drawing in a host of observations about the nature of human beings and the nature of the world, then leads to the need for the code of principles and their content in turn.

In addition to The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and "The Objectivist ethics" in Virtue of Selfishness, also read Dr Peikoff's "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand", starting from the beginning.

JJM

Edited by John McVey
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Hey Veritas, Not sure if you're trying to make a quick summary for your own understanding, or for some other specific purpose. Assuming the former:

First consider the concept "values" from a neutral sense: things the one seeks to gain, i.e. without getting into whether these are right or wrong, and whether one's actions are automated or volitional. Now, when you consider values in this neutral sense, you'll see that living is pretty much synonymous to valuing.

Living beings live... this means they act... this means they pursue "values" (good ones, bad ones, automated one, volitional ones).

When one thinks specifically of man, then there are many areas where man's actions are automated (his heart keeps beating) and other where they are far less automated than animals (knowing what to eat, when to migrate etc.) and require the use of the brain. In almost every field, man cannot stop at every second and rediscover all the knowledge that leads up to his next action. So, he needs knowledge: concepts, principles.

So,

  • Life is value-pursuit
  • Man needs principles

That's how one gets to: man needs a code of values.

Ok, so just to clarify. Man needs a code of values because life is a value pursuit and in order to pursue values he hasto have principles, which are the codes of values?

I have been reading and re reading The Objectivist Ethics, but am still unfiliar with the nuances of objectivism to help make the idea clear to me.

Thanks for the help

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Ok, so just to clarify. Man needs a code of values because life is a value pursuit and in order to pursue values he hasto have principles, which are the codes of values?

Man needs a code of values because he has to pursue values in order to live. In order to pursue values he must use his mind to form principles. Proper principles tell him what to value and why. The pursuit of these values is virtue.

Edited by JMeganSnow
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