Objectivism is a philosophy. Ayn Rand said that philosophy is a science:
“Epistemology is a science devoted to the discovery of the proper methods of acquiring and validating knowledge. Ethics is a science devoted to the discovery of the proper methods of living one’s life. Medicine is a science devoted to the discovery of the proper methods of curing disease. …”*
Is Rand correct? And what does that imply for Objectivism being open or a closed?
Ayn Rand Center Europe invited me and and Craig Biddle to Belgrade, Serbia, to debate. I argued that Objectivism is an open philosophy and Craig Biddle argued that it is closed.
A recording of the debate follows:
* Ayn Rand, “Concepts of Consciousness,” Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, pp. 35-36, italics added.
Related: Rand’s essay “Man’s Rights,” in the Philosophers, Explained series.
Excellent — possibly one of the best debates I’ve ever observed. Both sides made strong arguments for their positions. I could agree with Craig’s position if I was inclined to think that there was any possibility of corrupting the systematic understanding of Objectivism and its underlying principles, but I think the critical observation was the one you made very near the end of the debate, pointing out that there is no threat of this occurring in practice. Your real-world examples were masterful.
Craig has had 25+ years to hone a smoother set of arguments, but at the end of the day I still believe what I concluded back in the 1990s, that the argument for a “closed” system had much more to do with marketing, self-promotion and intellectual control then it had to do with the issue of toleration as a virtue — which the “closed” side has and continues to completely misrepresent, just as they have and continue to do with the libertarian issue which kicked this whole thing off. The fact that Craig once again did that in this debate was where he completely lost me. Talk about package-deals!
I believe that Craig is genuine in his belief regarding the corruption of the philosophy, but my guess is that that belief rests on a failure to accurately perceive the power of truth and facts. Of course, in the face of today’s cultural events, that is a position that can be easy to adopt!
As always, thanks for the masterful ongoing work that you do.