• Metaphysics
• Epistemology
  • Perception
  • Volition
  • Concepts
  • Objectivity
  • Reason
• Ethics
  • Man’s Nature
  • Value
  • Virtue
  • Happiness
• Politics
  • Government
  • Capitalism
• Esthetics

• Existence, consciousness, identity
  are the basic axioms.
• The axioms mean: existence (reality)
  is, consciousness exists perceiving it, something is what it is.
  • “There is something
    of which I am aware” sums them up.
• Causality is a corollary of
  identity, relates an entity and its action.
  • Every entity has identity, which
    it must act in accordance with (it cannot contradict it’s own nature)
  • This is the law of identity
    applied to action, all actions are caused by entities.
• Existence possesses primacy
  over consciousness:
  • One is conscious because one
    exists, not vice versa.
  • i.e.: the object of consciousness
    precedes its subject – that to which consciousness is directed must necessarily
    come before consciousness itself.
  • Consciousness observes reality,
    it does not alter its identity (non-contadiction).
  • Knowledge of existence (apart
    from one’s consciousness) can be gained only by directing one’s consciousness
    outwards, to apprehend reality.
  • Knowledge of consciousness itself
    may be gained by introspection.
• The metaphysically given is
  absolute.
  • Anything in existence apart
    from human action is metaphysically given.
  • The metaphysically given is
    “necessary” since it’s non-existence would involve contradiction (causality).
  • Necessary is the antonym of
    chosen, but man-made objects don not violate causality.
  • Man must enact the requisite
    causes by rearranging combinations of natural elements.
  • Value judgments can not be made
    of the metaphysically given, it simply is.

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• To validate epistemology, one
  must first validate sense perception and volition.
  • If one is unable to observe
    reality (without distortion) there can be no cognitive enterprise since
    there are no innate ideas, conceptual content is derived from the senses.
  • If the conceptual level is automatic,
    if human beings are determined, then no cognitive guidance is applicable.

• The validity of the sense is
  an axiom, it is a precondition of proof.
  • If one is conscious of that
    which is, then one’s means of awareness are one’s means of
    awareness;
    are valid – a corollary of consciousness.
  • Sense organs are a link in a
    causally determined chain, they do not have an ability to distort; they
    give us evidence of everything impinging upon them, the full context of
    the facts.
  • Sensations are caused in part
    by objects in reality and in part by our organs of perceptions (in the
    forms they provide) – a difference in sensory form, however, does
    not matter. Beings with different senses will not come to different conclusions,
    they simply gain different kinds or amounts of knowledge.
  • Sensations are real, they are
    the inexorabl effects of primaries, they are neither wholly in the object
    or the subject, they are results of an interaction of the two; however
    in the sense that the source of sensory form is a fact independent of consciousness,
    they are “out there”.
  • Consciousness, like all entities,
    possesses identity; it is finite and limited,it is something which
    has to grasp its objects somehow.
  • It is not omniscient – an infinite
    consciousness would have no identity, it is a nothing, it does not exist
    since it has no identitiy in particular – infinity is merely a potentiality,
    the actual is always finite.
  • A means to perception cannot
    be used to negate perception.
  • The perceptual level is the
    metaphysically given, the brain integrates disparate sensations into percepts
    automatically.
  • The conceptual level, however,
    is not automatic.

• The actions required of a consciousness
  on the conceptual level are not automatic.
  • The primary irreducable cause
    of volition is the choice to “focus” ones consciousness.
  • This decision to perceive reality
    precedes value judgments and ideas.
  • Volition does not defy causality
    - man is neither indeterminate nor determined, man chooses the causes that
    shape his actions, his actions do have causes; they are both caused and
    free.
  • Volition is axiomatic, self-evident
    by introspection.
  • To ask for proof of free
    will is to presuppose the validity of volition, since proof is only necessary
    because of free will.
  • Volition is a corollary of consciousness.
• Thus the need for epistemological
  norms is proven.

• The conceptual level (which
  animals do not possess) is the ability to regard entities as units.
• Units are things viewed as being
  in existing relationships.
• Differentiation and integration
  of entities into a concept are the means to a unit-perspective, concepts
  achieve “unit-economy” – they condense the vast array of units “out there”
  into a single idea – so instead of the need to remember all the trees ever
  encountered, one simply remembers the concept tree and it’s characteristics.
• Words, language, are essential
  to the process of conceptualization and thought by providing a visual/auditory
  “tag” for a concept, itself functioning as a unit.
• The unit, both in measurement
  and conceptualization, brings the universe, the potential of all existents
  and quantities within the range of finite consciousness.
• Man relates concretes quantitatively;
  to form a concept we retain characteristics but omit their measurements
  (which exist but are not specified).
• A concept is “a mental integration
  of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristics
  with their particular measurements omitted”.
• Higher level concepts (those
  removed from the strictly perceptual level) also involve measurement omission,
  they are abstractions from previous concepts.
• A definition is the final step
  in concept-formation.
• A definition specifies the essential
  characteristics of a concept’s units, since listing all characteristics
  is impossible. 
• The genus and differentia, or
  species, are the necessary parts of a definition, which reflect the differentiation
  of the units from a larger group (genus).
• Concepts are contextual, as
  are definitions since man’s mind operates under a certain context of knowledge
  (it is not omniscient, it has identity).
• As one’s knowledge expands,
  definitions rnay have to be revised to reflect the new context – the new
  definition does not contradict the old one however, it is just a refinement
  of it since the facts in the old definition no longer serve to differentiate
  the units subsumed.
• Concepts also remain open-ended
  to new knowledge – characteristics which are added to the concept which
  do not contradict earlier knowledge.
• A definition is made on the
  basis of the concept’s fundamental characteristie(s); the definition implicitly
  contains all known features, but it is not interchangeable with the concept
  itself – it is a condensation.
• Concepts and definitions are
  objective, there is a real rnetaphysical precedent (observed characteristics),
  which are processed by a volitional consciousness; concepts are the products
  of existence and consciousness.
• Some concepts (synonyms or borderline
  cases) are optional, one can alter an existing concept to accommodate the
  new concept, create a new concept, or simply describe the object (i.c.;
  hanging tables) as long as the option makes no cognitive difference or
  leads to contradiction.

• Knowledge is the grasp of an
  object through an active, reality based process chosen by the subject (to
  find this method and explain it is epistemology’s purpose).
• This method is logic (‘non-contradictory
  identification’).
• Objectivity, the means to knowledge,
  is “volitional adherence to reality by the method of logic”
• Knowledge is contextual and
  hierarchical
  • A concept is objective when
    defined within the full context of current knowledge, this context cannot
    be stripped away since knowledge on everv level is relational, a non-contradictory
    sum – not disconnected concretes.
  • Knowledge is hierarchical, proof
    is available by reduction to perception (axioms); ‘stolen concepts’ cannot
    be proven to have any relation to reality – dropped context.
• False concepts represent attempts
  to integrate errors, contradictions, and cannot be reduced to perception
  - they are invalid. 

• The objectivist epistemology
  amounts to the injunction to follow reason.
• Reason is “the faculty that
  organizes pereeptual units in conceptual terms by following the principles
  of logic”.
• Reason is the faculty
  of proof, one cannot then ‘prove it’ as such by simpler factors, it must
  be accepted since it is reality.
• However reason can be validated
  by showing that it is man’s only means of knowledge, and that it can lead
  man to certainty.
• Reason is man’s only means of
  knowledge, all other claims are reducible to emotional response (i.e.;
  how do you know? “I feel I am right”).
  • Emotions are not inexplicable,
    they are products (effects) of ideas.
  • They are an automated value
    judgrnent based on explicit or implicit beliefs.
  • There is no dichotomy between
    reason and emotion, they are integrated.
  • Since emotions are the consequences
    of conclusions, they can only seem inexplicable if one does not explicitly
    identify and logically integrate ideas.
  • Emotions are not tools of cognition
    because they have no means of independent access to reality, their basis
    can be either true or false.
  • Emotions are important, Objectivism
    is not anti-emotion (stoicism), emotions play an essential role in life,
    but not in cognition.
  • Arbitrary statements are neither
    true nor false, they are entirely divorced from cognition, they are worse
    than false, they are wholly invalid.
  • One can transfer the status
    of an arbitrary statement to truth or falsehood only by relating it to
    an established context.
  • The onus of proof is on someone
    who states the arbitrary, one cannot prove a negative or disprove the arbitrary
    if it has no relation to existenee – “no inference can be drawn from a
    zero” which has no impact on reality.
• Reason leads one to objective
  certainty.
  • Certainty is contextual, like
    concepts and definitions.
  • Certainty is an absolute within
    the relevant context.
  • Further knowledge will not lead
    one to contradiction of previously held ideas, if their contextual nature
    is preserved 

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Man’s Nature.

• It is crucial to identify what
  man’s nature is; normative ethics (value judgrnents) presuppose an answer
  to this question, for it is necessary to know man’s nature in order to
  know what we should do.
• Living organisms are goal directed
  and conditional.
• Their existence requires action
  to maintain (death is a static state)
• Man is a living organism.
• There are three forms of consciousness:
  sensual, perceptual, conceptual.
• Man cannot live by the survival
  means of lower organisms, ours is a conceptual consciousness and our means
  of survival is reason; we survive by means of our knowledge and action,
  not unerring instinct.
• Reason is an individual attribute,
  there is no ‘collective mind’
  • Men may share their knowledge,
    but not their thinking.
  • A conclusion can be reached
    by discussion, but each person’s brain is theirs alone to use.
  • The individual is a sovereign
    being.

• A code of ethics should deal
  with three questions:
  • For what end should one live
    (value) – life
  • What principle should one follow
    to achieve this (virtue) – rationality
  • Whom should benefit from one’s
    actions (beneficiary) – oneself.
• Morality is not a primary, facts
  of reality give rise to it.
• A value is “that which one acts
  to gain and/or keep”.
• A value needs both a valuer
  and at least two choices, an altemative to the value; otherwise it cannot
  be a value.
• The alternative of existence
  vs. nonexistence is a precondition of values, an immortal being could not
  possess them, only living organisms have grounds to pursue a particular
  side of this alternative – life is the root of value.
• Morality is a code of values
  accepted by choice.
• Man needs morality in order
  to survive – man’s life is the root of morality.
• If man is to sustain his life,
  he must act long range.
• This need to project consequences
  into the future is made possible only by the same kind of consciousness
  that necessitates it – man must conceptualize the requirements of survival.
• Man must abstract principles
  (a general truth on which other truths depend) and then act on principle
  in any given circumstance.
• The opposite, a short range
  outlook, viewed long-range, is self destructive (pragmatism).
• Rationality is the primary virtue,
  reason the ruling value.
• Evasion of reality constitutes
  the essence of irrationality, of evil.
• Reality is an interconnected
  whole; any evasion of its parts will grow in scope if it is sustained,
  resulting in intellectual disintegration, in non-perception.
• Hope, faith, wishing are the
  opposite of virtue.
• The individual is the proper
  beneficiary of his own moral action.
• Egoism – rational self-interest
  - is the correct policy -’selfishness’.
  • Involves not sacrificing yourself
    to others, nor sacrificing others to oneself.
  • Man’s life is not ruled by conflict,
    it does not require martyrs.
  • Neither does egoism rule out
    caring for those whom you value.
• Values, like concepts, are not
  intrinsic (i.e. mandated by gods) or subjective (picked arbitrarily), but
  objective – they depend on a proper relationship between your mind and
  existence.
• Value presupposes an act of
  evaluation, it is not good in itself.
• The ‘good’ is also an aspect
  of reality in relation to man, its not intrinsic or arbitrary.
• The three ruling values of one’s
  life if one chooses to live are – reason, purpose, self-esteem.
• These values imply and require
  all of man’s virtues.

• The primary virtue is rationality;
  six derivative virtues are:
  • Independence, integrity, honesty,
    justice, productivity, pride.
  • These are useful for clarification
    of the primary virtue, but not necessarily an exhaustive list, they are
    the minimum knowledge of virtue needed to follow reason consistently.
  • Independence is one’s acceptance
    of the responsibility of forming one’s own judgments and of living by the
    work of one’s own mind, it is an orientation towards reality, not towards
    living off of others.
  • Integrity is loyalty to one’s
    own convictions and values, loyalty to rational principles.
  • Honesty is the refusal to fake
    or evade reality, it is the rejection of unreality.
  • Justice is the virtue of judging
    men’s character and conduct objectively, and of acting accordingly when
    dealing with them – rationality when evaluating others.
  • Productivity is the process
    of creating material values, whether goods or services – adjustment of
    nature to man (this is the main existential content of virtue).
  • Pride is the commitment to achieve
    one’s own moral perfection, it is moral ambitiousness.
• The initiation of physical force
  against others is the primary vice, which negates the ability to employ
  reason.
• Force is the opposite of both
  mind and value – good cannot be achieved through evil. 

• In existential terms, the moral
  man’s reward is life.
• In emotional/spiritual terms,
  the concomitant reward is happiness.
• The achievement of happiness
  is the only moral purpose of ones life.
• Virtue is practical – there
  is no dichotomy between virtue and value since virtue is the means to value,
  to be moral is to be practical.
•  Virtue is not automatically
  rewarded however, since man is neither omnipotent nor omniscient.
  • It is rewarding in the sense
    that it maximizes one’s possibility of success.
  • Virtue is long-range, one must
    enact the means to succeed.
• As virtue is practical, so evil
  is impotent, capable only of negation.
  • Evil is capable of destroying
    only itself and its victims.
  • No thought, knowledge, or consistency
    is necessary to destroy.
  • Evil can only exist as a parasite
    on the achievements of virtue if one gives it sanction to do so.
• Morality can only be viewed
  as impractical if one holds a flawed view of consciousness and the nature
  of existence – a culmination of errors.
• Happiness is the normal condition
  of man.
  • Pleasure’s cause is the gain
    of some value, which on the physical level is a requirement of survival
    - pain is the opposite.
  • The emotion of joy results from
    the gain of some value chosen on the conceptual level, suffering from a
    failure in this regard.
  • Pleasure/pain is a barometer
    of the fundamental altemative of life vs. death.
  • Properly, so is joy/suffering
    - but man’s chosen values are not necessarily in harmony with the requirements
    of survival.
• Happiness is the state of consciousness
  which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values (since a course of
  self-destruction is an anti-value course, one cannot long pursue values
  opposed to life and be happy, since irrational values cannot be achieved
  - the irrational man is tortured, unhappy).
• Happiness is not the absence
  of unhappiness, but vice versa – values can only be achieved by seeking
  goals, not by seeking to escape consequences.
• Rationality is a sufficient
  precondition of happiness, because though one may be beset by obstacles,
  the pain is superficial.
• Beneath this pain are the values
  of reason, purpose, self-esteem – one feels the efficacy of knowing that
  achievement is possible.
• Contrast: the irrationalist
  feels that happiness is superficial, beneath which lies anxiety, ‘nausea’,
  conflict, self-doubt, metaphysical pain.
• Happiness is thus the normal
  underlying state – one holds the recognition that the universe is benevolent
  (neutral), that it is not malevolently pursuing your destruction.
• By accepting this premise, one
  refuses to take pain seriously, to grant it metaphysical primacy or significance;
  pain is a stimulus to corrective action (What can I do?) not (What is the
  use?).
• A rational man needs not only
  to know of his efficacy, but toexperience it metaphysically as well.
• Sex is the way in which one
  directly experiences a celebration of life, of self-esteem and the  
  benevolent-universe conviction.
• Sex is to love what action is
  to thought, to introduce a breach between the two (under the appropriate
  circumstances) is to breach one’s integrity.
• Sexual feeling is a summation
  which presupposes all of a rational human being’s moral values and one’s
  love for them (and one’s self), and one’s love for a partner who also embodies
  them; it is a physical capacity in the service of a conceptual need of
  mind-body harmony; it is an end in itself and not necessarily a means to
  a further end (i.c. procreation).
  • One cannot reverse cause and
    effect – if one wishes to gain self esteem through sex, it becomes an act
    of escapism, of trying to momentarily diminish the anxiety caused by false
    premises (malevolent universe) – it is tantamount to groveling for self
    respect.
• Any human pleasure is largely
  spiritual, meaning not mere satisfaction of physical need.
  • Our pleasure comes dominantly
    from our emotions, frorn human satisfaction.
  • This principle applies preeminently
    to sex – no human pleasure so intense can be dominantly a matter of physical
    sensation – it is dominantly an emotion, and it’s cause – intellectual
    ecstasy .

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Government.

• Politics is the normative branch
  of philosophy which defines the principles of a proper social system -
  it rests upon, and is an application of, ethics.
• What kind of a society conforms
  to the requirements of man’s life? is the question all political
  principles must answer to.
• The basic principle of politics
  is – individual rights as absolutes.
• Rights have no meaning outside
  of a social context, they are a moral principle defining and sanctioning
  a man’s freedom of action with regard to other men.
  • Rights are the link between
    the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, they subordinate
    society to moral law.
• The fundamental right is the
  right to life, which has the derivatives of the right to liberty, property,
  and the pursuit of happiness.
  • Man has a method of survival,
    his mind – and he requires the freedom to act and achieve his values -
    liberty.
  • To sustain life, man needs to
    create the material means of his survival – the right to property is the
    right to gain, keep, use, and dispose of material values.
  • Man needs to be governed by
    a motive to sustain his life, which is his own welfare – the right to happiness
    is this right, the right to live for one’s own sake.
• Freedom is indivisible, none
  of these rights are possible apart from the rest.
• Man’s life is the moral standard,
  it is only the requirements of man’s life that make morality (and rights)
  possible.
• These are the only rights -
  all other valid rights are applications of these three, and are derived
  from them.
• Rights pertain only to action
  - they are the freedom to act, the freedom from physical compulsion, interference
  or coercion (force).
• A man’s rights impose no duties
  on others – they are stated in the form “freedom firom…”X or “thou shall
  not…”, not “freedom to…” X, or, “you must…” since man does not act
  by permission.
• Rights are a negative obligation,
  not
  to infringe another’s rights, they do not constitute a claim to assistance
  on others, nor are they a guarantee of success in all endeavours.
• The idea of human rights vs.
  property rights is a contradiction – it means some human beings want to
  make others their property (by controlling their ability to live independently).
• Rights are an attribute of the
  individual, there are no such things as collective rights (rights possessed
  by a group) since these all demand a distinction between beneficiaries
  and servants.
• An individual can neither acquire
  new rights nor lose rights by belonging to a group.
• There are no rights to other’s
  labour, no rights of groups, nor rights of parts of humans or non-humans
• Rights can be violated only
  by the use of force.
• Rights are objective, and their
  protection involves protecting innocents from force.
• This is the sole moral purpose
  of govemment.
  • A govemment’s power must derive
    from the people, it is a servant and not a ruler.
  • It is the agency of protection,
    of self-defence.
• The government has a monopoly
  on the use of retaliatory force in a rational society – this use of force
  cannot be arbitrary, it must be objectively defined by law.
• Citizens therefore delegate
  the right of self-defence to the government except in cases of immediate
  peril.
• Government, therefore, must
  consist of police, military, and a court system in order to protect citizens
  against criminals (both individuals and agressor nations) and to resolve
  honest disputes and misunderstandings (contracts, Civil law).
• Since force is inherentty negative
  (destructive), it must be used in this capacity only to destroy agents
  of   destruction.
  • Government’s power is thus inherently
    negative, it cannot be used to sustain virtue.
  • It must not intervene in the
    intellectual or moral lives of its citizens.
  • The function of government is
    to protect freedom, not truth or virtue.
  • A government can play no part
    in promoting the philosophy it is based upon, this is the responsibility
    of private citizens (if they so choose).
• Laws must be objective and clear-cut,
  neither capricious in interpretation nor indefensible; meaning, not arbitrary.
  • Citizens cannot spend their
    lives trying to anticipate the government’s whim.
• The government may not initiate
  force in regard to its own legitimate functions by demanding service in
  the police or the militia, nor may it seize property to finance its activities
  (taxes).

• Politics identifies the principles
  which should govem every social field.
• One of the aspects of a proper
  political system is a proper economic system.
• The economic system which does
  not prevent man from acting in accordance with individual rights is capitalism.
• Capitalism is the only moral
  social system.
  • It is the social system based
    on the recognition of individual rights (incl. property rights) in which
    all property is privately owned.
  • Capitalism is the moral system
    because it is the only system which subordinates society to moral law.
  • It adheres to the virtues of
    independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.
• Capitalism rewards the pursuit
  of rational self-interest and thus, though this is not its primary validation,
  everyone benefits.
  • The justification of capitalism
    is that it is a system which implements a scientific code of morality -
    which recognizes man’s nature and needs – which is based on reason and
    reality.
  • The good of the public can only
    be achieved through freedom – to reject this causal sequence is to reject
    reason, capitalism, the public good, and freedorn – this leads to slavery
    and statism.
• Capitalism is objective because
  it is based on the proper view of metaphysics and epistemology.
  • Virtue and objectivity are the
    same phenomenon as viewed from the aspect of action (existence) or thought
    (consciousness) – it is the proper volitional relationship between consciousness
    and existence.
  • Economie valuc (price and profit)
    can not be set or gained arbitrarily under a capitalist system.
  • Economic power is not the same
    as political power (political power is negation, economic power (like knowledge)
    is an earned value.
  • The degree to which these attributes
    are arbitrary is the degree to which a society has adopted statist controls
    - unadulterated capitalism has never yet existed.
• Opposition to capitalism is
  based upon a bad view of epistemology – on rejection of reason to some
  degree – evasion, whim, dialectic, etc.
• To defend it, one must first
  grasp capitalism’s intellectual basis.
• Two opposing systems of thought
  not conflicting “ideologies” (meaning, arbitrary political systems viewed
  in a vacuum), is the arena in which the intellectual battle for the world
  is being fought.

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• The last of the five branches
  that comprise a full system of philosophy is esthetics, the philosophy
  of art, since art is a need of man, not simply a professional field.
• Art has the purpose of fulfilling
  an essential spiritual need of human life.
  • Man’s consciousness is conceptual,
    and a spiritual being needs guidance.
  • This guidance is provided by
    philosophy, which integrates principles.
  • However, man cannot explicitly,
    consciously, think in philosophical terms all the time, he must have an
    implicit philosophical context available at all times – an ulitimate integration,
    a sum of his metaphysical value judgments; since his mind is an integrating
    mechanism, it needs this vision, this unity – this is the function
    achieved by art.
• Art is a “selective re-creation
  of reality according to an artists metaphysical value-judgments” – whether
  these judgments are explicit or not.
•  An artist presents what
  he considers to be of metaphysical import.
• Art is an end in itself, it’s
  purpose is to show, not tell (not didactic).
• The telling is the province
  of philosophy, but either art or philosophy alone are not enougb to satisfy
  man’s need of philosophy.
• Art converts man’s concepts
  into the form of a percept – it not only integrates metaphysics, but objectifies
  it in the form of an existential object – presenting it not as a content
  of consciousness, but of existence.
• Since the purpose of man’s consciousness
  is to observe, this conversion makes one’s metaphysical abstractions into
  a concrete, which one may deal with directly, in the same way that language
  concretizes concepts.
• Men respond to art in a profoundly
  personal way since it is either an affirmation or rejection of their deepest
  values.
• Both subject and style are significant
  in art – one reveals the artist’s metaphysics, the other his psycho-epistemology.
• Art cannot be an instrument
  of literal reproduction of reality (naturalism).
• It is a selective recreation
  - since art is subject te contemplation, everything included is important
  by the fact that it is included, it acquires metaphysical significance
  - in life, one ignores the unimportant, in art – one omits it.
• All men are able to respond
  to art by virtue of an implicit sense of life – a subconsciously
  integrated appraisal of man and life which is created as a sum of one’s
  choices and conclusions throughout life – most men do not know in explicit
  terms what they consider to be important, but they consider it nonetheless
  - and since art is implicitly philosophical (if not explicitly) they react
  accordingly.
• There is a difference between
  philosophical judgment and esthetic judgment.
  • In judging an artwork’s philosophy,
    one is interested in truth.
  • The purpose of art however is
    to show – and so an artwork’s philosophy is irrelevant to an objective
    esthetic judgment.
  • It is on the basis of an artwork’s
    theme that one judges it, as in how well it projects this theme, to what
    degree of mastery.
  • Three ways to judge esthetic
    value are selectivity in regards to subject, clarity, and integration.
    • The subject of an artwork ought
      to suit its theme, it can not be meaningless, random, or plagiarized.
    •  Art is not for art’s sake;
      but for man’s sake – philosophical freedom is not the freedom to dismember
      art, thus non-selectivity in regards to art’s subject, or non-representational
      art, undercuts itself.
    • Technique is not enough by itself.
    • Clarity is also essential since
      the purpose of art is not to revel in ambiguity, but to overcome the opacity
      of human existence, to show it’s essence – not to disintegrate and destroy
      art
    • The hallmark of art is integration,
      every item included must be part of an indivisible whole – the inclusion
      of the insignificant produces a contradiction, it undercuts the artist’s
      recreation of reality as being unreal.
• Art can be judged rationally
  - it is neither in the object nor in the eye of the beholder – beauty is
  a value, it is objective, it is in the object,a s judged by a rational
  beholder.
• It is both an esthetic appraisal
  and one’s own philosophic standards which one must onsult to judge whether
  a work of art is of value to oneself – it may be a great work of art, but
  it is not a contradiction to not like it.
• Esthetics completes philosophy,
  by linking it back to concretes, to metaphysics, to reality.

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