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Primacy o' Existence [This was written for the Ayn Rand Institute's essay contest for graduate students, 1995. --mh]Objectivism and the Primacy of ExistenceWhen Ayn Rand distinguishes 'existence' from 'consciousness', she mainlymeans by "existence" what other philosophers call "the external world" --thus, the distinction is between states of one's own mind and externalphenomena.(1) According to Objectivism, existence has primacy overconsciousness in two senses. First, epistemologically: human knowledgebegins with (sensory) awareness of the external world. It does not beginwith awareness of one's own ideas. The reason is that ideas or states ofconsciousness are necessarily ideas about something, and that something iswhat one is aware of. One could not become aware of one's ownconsciousness, unless one first had some states of consciousness to beaware of; and one could not have states of consciousness, unless one firsthad something else that one was conscious of.(2) Second, existence has a metaphysical primacy over consciousness: thatis, the external world exists prior to, and is not dependent on, our minds. This also implies that the external world has its specific characteristics(identity) prior to, and independent of, the states of our minds. And thisis for the same reason: in order to have states of consciousness, theremust first be things for us to become conscious of (whereas the converse isnot the case), because consciousness is consciousness of things. Consciousness, again, is a faculty of becoming aware of things, not ofcreating or altering them. Historically, most philosophers (especially in the modern era) havefailed to recognize one or the other of these points and have upheld thecontrary principle, the primacy of consciousness, in some form. Descartesis the clearest example of an epistemological primacy-of-consciousnessthinker. Early in his Meditations, he lays down that he can be certain ofthe contents of his own mind -- his ideas, feelings, and sensations -- butthere might not be any external objects. It is only the existence of hismind and thoughts that is self-evident, according to Descartes. Althoughhe does eventually conclude as to the existence of an external world, heregards this fact as derived from facts about his own ideas. Nor is thisnotion that ideas are the only direct objects of awareness unique toDescartes; it is shared also by Locke, Hume, and Berkeley, among others. G.W.F. Hegel is among the clearest exponents of the metaphysicalprimacy of consciousness. He holds that the entire universe is aconsciousness, and that the events of history (including natural history)are all the results of the cosmic spirit's attempts at self-consciousness. So consciousness controls reality, and its activity is becoming consciousof, what? Itself. William James also asserts the metaphysical primacy of consciousness,in a different way. Pragmatism's main idea is that truth is what isuseful, or what 'works'. Now this implies that in a certain sense, realitywaits on human needs and desires. If a proposition is not useful to us,then it won't be true. If we find it 'useful' to believe in God, then thebelief will be true -- that can only mean that God will actually come intoexistence, consequent on our needing to believe in him. Now whether or notit is in fact useful to believe in God is not the point, of course. Evenif all true beliefs are useful and all false beliefs are useless, thequestion remains whether beliefs are true because they are useful, orwhether they are only useful because they are true. It is the formeranswer that represents the primacy of consciousness. But the philosopher who most thoroughly maintains the primacy ofconsciousness in both the epistemological and metaphysical aspects isImmanuel Kant. On the one hand, he claims, not merely that our own ideasare the first things we are aware of, but that 'appearances' or ideas inthe mind are the only things that anybody can ever know: I say that things as objects of our senses existing outside usare given, but we know nothing of what they may be inthemselves, knowing only their appearances, i.e., therepresentations which they cause in us by affecting our senses.(3)This quotation makes it clear that 'appearances' are ideas in the mind. Second, in the process of trying to validate synthetic a prioriknowledge, Kant writes: If intuition must conform to the constitution of the objects, Ido not see how we could know anything of the latter a priori;but if the object (as object of the senses) must conform to theconstitution of our faculty of intuition, I have no difficultyin conceiving such a possibility.(4)The context makes it clear that Kant is asserting that we can have a prioriknowledge, and thence concluding that objects must conform to theconstitution of our faculty of 'intuition'. "Intuition", for Kant, meansthe direct knowledge of particular things; so what he is concluding is thatthe nature of external objects is constrained by the nature of ourperceptual faculties. Ancient philosophy was less wedded to the primacy of consciousness. The only place Plato directly addresses the issue is where he considersProtagoras' doctrine that "man is the measure of all things," at whichpoint he portrays Socrates as refuting it.(5) Nevertheless, Rand wouldarguethat Plato is also ultimately a primacy-of-consciousness thinker, becauseof his theory of the Forms. In the first place, Plato argues that theForms must exist because of our ability to use concepts -- he argues thatthere must be a Form corresponding to each abstract noun that we canunderstand (e.g., "the good", "beauty", "unicorn") -- regardless of whetherwe perceive any referents of it. He uses facts about our mental abilities(even merely imaginative abilities) to derive significant metaphysicalconclusions.(6) Second, he claims that the Forms are more real than thehumdrum concrete objects we see around us, and that the Forms give thoseobjects their identity (for instance, the Form of Man makes me human byentering into me). Rand would regard this as betokening the primacy ofconsciousness, because Plato's Forms are really hypostatizations ofconcepts -- so that what Plato is really doing is regarding concepts asmore real than, and determining the natures of, other existences. However, it should be noted that Plato did not assert the primacy ofconsciousness as such. If someone had asked him directly, "Doesconsciousness have primacy over existence?" he would have answered, "No. The Forms exist and are what they are prior to and independent of allobservers." Plato is trying to uphold the primacy of existence. Ifanything, his problem is rather assigning too little role to consciousnessthan too much. Finally, Aristotle is probably the thinker who most exemplifies theprimacy-of-existence viewpoint prior to modern times. He, too, firmlycriticized relativism. More importantly, he first laid down the law ofidentity, and he inaugurated the method of empirical science, involving theobservation of nature (as against Plato's method of simply contemplatingone's own ideas). Here is what he says against Protagoras and similarthinkers: And, in general, if only the sensible exists, there would benothing if animate things were not; for there would be nofaculty of sense. Now the view that neither the sensiblequalities nor the sensations would exist is doubtless true (forthey are affections of the perceiver), but that the substratawhich cause the sensation should not exist even apart fromsensation is impossible. For sensation is surely not thesensation of itself, but there is something beyond thesensation, which must be prior to the sensation...(7)which is almost a paraphrase of Rand, with "sensation" substituted for"consciousness". Now Ayn Rand, of course, is the paradigmatic primacy-of-existencephilosopher, and this basic stance runs throughout her thought. In thefirst place, she lays down "Existence exists" as the first fundamentalaxiom that we (implicitly) grasp, and it is only after we grasp this that,by taking cognizance of our own grasp of it, we can arrive at the secondaxiom, that our consciousness exists. Second, because of this epistemic primacy of existence, she regardsperception as the base of knowledge and as self-evident (for perception isthe direct awareness of external existents). Whereas Kant argued thatsince a priori knowledge exists, it must be the case that reality conformsto our minds, Rand argues conversely: since reality does not have toconform to our minds (but rather the reverse is the case), there can not bea priori knowledge -- we can only acquire knowledge through interactingwith the world. Third, Rand regards reason as absolute (that is, as always to be usedand never defied), because she recognizes the absoluteness of reality. Todefy reason means, essentially, to set one's desires, feelings, or evenarbitrary assumptions, against reality. The primacy of existence entailsthat such a course can only be self-destructive -- reality will not yield. Fourth, Rand applies the idea of the primacy of existence to ethics. She argues that values are objective, rationally demonstrable, and derivedfrom the nature of man and the requirements of human life. This isopposed, for example, to the doctrine that the good is whatever people want(per von Mises and various subjectivists), what pleases us(utilitarianism), what we have a sentiment of approval towards (Hume), orotherwise what we have certain feelings towards. All of those would beapplications of the primacy of consciousness to ethics, insofar as they saythat what is good for us depends on what consciousness considers good. Objectivism takes the same approach to political philosophy, regardinggovernment as a tool designed to serve specific, objective requirements ofhuman life. Thus, what is just or unjust, and what rights people have, arefacts rooted in human nature, not dependent on leaders' caprice (contramost pre-Enlightenment doctrines as well as contemporary legal positivism). Finally, Objectivism treats aesthetic value as objective in the sameway. Good art, again, is not what causes a certain 'aesthetic emotion' inus. Rather, it serves a rationally demonstrable requirement of the humanpsyche, the need for a concrete embodiment of one's views of the nature oflife and man's place in the universe. In all of these matters, Rand is seeking to put reality first, touphold the existence of the relevant facts independent of our feelings andwishes. She is arguing that we must accept reality as we find it.Notes1. This is not to imply, obviously, that internal phenomena don't 'exist'. Thepoint is just to distinguish consciousness from the rest of existence.2. Ayn Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (hereafter,ITOE) (New York: NAL Books, 1990) p. 246.3. Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, remark II, followingsection 13.4. Critique of Pure Reason, preface to second edition. Kemp Smith,tr., Bxvii.5. Theaetetus, 177c-179b.6. ITOE, p. 53.7. Metaphysics, IV.5, 1010b30-37. W.D. Ross' translation. |
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