The Objectivist:1966-1971 (Volumes 5-10)

553 Pages·52.257 MB·English

by  Ayn Rand

ALTRUISM AS APPEASEMENT
By Ayn Rand
A few years ago, on the occasion of giving a lecture at M.LT., I met
a young student who was earnes~ly, intelligently concerned with opposing
the ·trend to collectivism. I asked him his views on why so many of today's
young intellectuals were becoming "liberals.'" He could not give me a full
answer. But a few weeks later, he wrote me a remarkable letter'.
He explained that he had given a great deal of thought to my question
and had reached certain conclusions. The majority of college students,
he wrote, do not choose to think; they accept the status quo, conform to
the prescribed code of values and evade the responsibility of independent
thought. "In adopting this attitude, they are encouraged by teachers who
inspire imitation, rather than creation."
But there are a few who are not willing to renounce their rational
faculty. "They are the intellectuals-and they are the outsiders. Their
willingness to think makes them shine forth as a threat to the stagnant
security of the levelers in which they are immersed. They are teased and
rejected by their schoolmates. An immense amount of faith in oneself and
a rational philosophical basis are required to set oneself against all that
society has ever taught. .. . The man who preaches individual integrity,
pride and self-esteem is today virtually nonexistent. Far more common
is the man who, driven by the young adult's driving need for acceptance, ,
has compromised. And here is the key-[the result of] the compromise
is the liberal.
"The man who sets nimself against society by seeking to be rational is
almost certain to succumb to the extent of accepting a strong guilt com
plex. He is declared 'guilty' by his rejection of the omnipresent 'equality
in mediocrity' doctrine of today .. .. So the intellectual,. to atone for a
false guilt, becomes today'S liberal. He proclaims loudly the brotherhood
of all men. He seeks to serve his escapist brothers by guaranteeing them
their desire for social security. He sanctions their mediocrity, he works
for their welfare, above all he essentially seeks their approval- to atone
for the guilt that they have thrust upon him in the guise of an absolute
moral system which is not open to question."
This young man deserves credit for an extraordinary psychological
perceptiveness. But the situation he describes is not new; it is as old as
altruism; nor is it confined to "liberals."
Shortly after receiving that letter, I met a distinguished historian, a
man of great intellect and scholarship, an advocate of capitalism, who was
then in his late seventies. I had been puzzled by the fact that in his many
works, the rigorous logic of his arguments was inexplicably contradicted
and undercut by his acceptance of "the common good" as the criterion of
JANUARY 1966
morality-and I asked him his reasons. "Oh, one must say that to the psychology of such a man, but it is hard to tell whether it led to or resulted
masses," he answered, "otherwise, they won"t accept capitalism." from his surrender. In either case his basic motivation is different and,
Between these two extremes of age-from college years to the culmina in a certain sen e, worse. Basically, a social metaphysician is motivated
tion of a lifetime's struggle-lies a silent psychological horror story. It by the desire to escape the responsibility of independent thought and he
is the story of men who spend their lives apologizing for their own surrenders the mind he is afraid to use preferring to follow the judgments
intelligence. of others. But·an intellectual appeaser surrenders morality, the realm of
The following pattern does not enmesh all men of superior mental values in order to be permitted to use his mind. The de'gree of self-abase
endowment; some manage to escape it; but, in our anti-rational culture, ment is greater the implicit view of values- as irrelevant to the mind
it strangles too many of them. is disastrous; the implicit view of the mind-as functioning by permission
By the time he reaches college, a bright, sensiti~e, precociously ob of the mindless-is unspeakable. (Nor does the appeaser often care to
servant youth has acquired the sense of being trapped in a nightmare speak about it.)
universe where he is resented, not for his flaws, but for his greatest attri There are as many variants of the consequences as there are men who
bute: his intelligence. It is merely a sense, not a firm conviction; no commit this particular type of moral treason. But certain scars of psycho
teen-ager can draw such a conclusion with certainty nor fully believe. so logical deformity can be observed in most of them, as their common
enormous an evil. He senses only that he is "different," in some way whIch symptoms.
he cannot define-that he does not get along with people, for some reason Humanitarian love is what the altruist-appeaser never achieves. In
which he cannot name-that he wants to understand things and issues, stead his salient characteristic is a mixture of bitter contempt and intense,
big issues, about which no one else seems to care. profound hatred for mankind, a hatred impervious to reason. Re regards
His first year in college is, usually, his psychological killer. He had men as evil by nature he complains about their congenital stupidity,
expected college to be a citadel of the intellect where he would find mediocrity depravity-yet slams his mind ferociously shut to any argu
answers, knowledge, meaning and, above all, some companions to share ment that challenges his estimate. His view of the people at large is a
his interest in iQeas. He finds none of it. One or two teachers may live up nightmare image-the image of a mindless brute endowed with some in
to his hope (though they are growing rarer year by year). ~ut. as to explicably omnipotent power-and 11e lives in terror of that image, yet
intellectual companionship, he finds the same gang he had met m kmder resi ts any attempt to revise it.
garten, in playgrounds and in vacant lots: a leering, screeching, aggres If questioned, be can give no grounds for .his view. Intellectually, he
sively mindless gang, playing the same games, with a latinized jargon admits that the average man is not a murderous brute ready to attack him
replacing the mud pies and baseball bats. at any moment; emotionally he keeps feeling the brute's presence behind
There are many wrong decisions he can make at this crossroads; but every corner.
the deadliest-psychologically, intellectually and morally-is the attempt An accomplished young scientist once told me that he was not afraid
to join the gang at the price of selling his soul to uninterested buyers. It of gangsters, but waiters and gas-station attendants filled him with terror,
is an attempt to apologize for his intellectual concerns and to escape from even though he could not say what it was he expected them to do to him.
the loneliness of a thinker by professing that his thinking is dedicated to An elderly, extremely successful businessman told me that he divided
some social-altruistic goal. It is an attempt that amounts to the wordless people into three classes according to their intelligence: the above average
equivalent of the plea: "I'm not an outsider! T'm your friend! Please for the average and the below average· he ilid not mind the fir t two classes,
give me for using my mind-I'm using it only in order to serve you!" but those of below average intelligence threw him into uncontroUable
Whatever remnants of personal value he may preserve after a deal of panic. He had spent his life expecting a bloody uprising of brute who
that kind, self-esteem is not one of them. would seize, loot wreck and slaughter everything in sight; no, he was not
Such decisions are seldom, if ever, made consciously. They are made a "conservative '; he was a "liberal:'
gradually, by subconscious emotional motivation a?d s~m~-cons~ious There is an element of truth in that image of the brute: not factual
rationalization. Altruism offers an arsenal of such rahonahzahons: if an truth, but psychological truth, not about people at large, but about the
unformed adolescent can tell himself that his cowardice is humanitarian man who fears them. The brute is the frozen embodiment of mankind as
love that his subservience is unselfishness, that his moral treason is spiri projected by the emotions of an adolescent appeaser. The brute's omni
tual 'nobility, he is hooked. By the time he is old enough to know bett.er, potent power to perpetrate some unimaginable horror is merely an adult's
the erosion of his self-esteem is such that he dares not face or re-exarmne rationalization; physical violence is not what he fears. But his terror is
the issue. real: a monster that had the power to make him surrender his mind is,
Some degree of social metaphysics is almost always involved in the indeed, a terrifying evil. And the deepest, the unconfessed source of his
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terror lies in the fact that the surrender was not demanded or extorted
confidence of the evil is a metaphysical confirmation, the sign of a universe
that the monster was the victim's own creation.
in which he feels at home-and his emotional response is bitterness, but
This is the reason why the appeaser has a vested interest in maintaining
obedience. Some dictators-who boastfully stress their reign of terror, such
his belief in the brute's existence: even a life of terror, with the excuse that
as Hitler and Stalin-count on this kind of psychology. There are people
he could not help it, is preferable to facing the full enormity of the fact
on whom it works.
that he was not robbed of self-esteem, but threw it away-and that his
Moral cowardice is fear of upholding the good because it is good, and
chronic sense of guilt does not come from the spurious sin of possessing
fear of opposing the evil because it is evil. The next step leads to opposing
intelligence, but from the actual crime of having betrayed it.
the good in order to appease the evil, and rushing out to seek the evil's
A corollary symptom, in most intellectual appeasers, is the "elite'"
favor. But since no mind can fully hide this policy from itself, and no
premise-the d9gmatic, unshakeable belief that "the masses don't think,"
form of pseudo-self-esteem can disguise it for long, the next step is to
that men are impervious to reason, that thinking is the exclusive preroga
pounce upon every possible' or impossible chance to blacken the nature
tive of a small, "chosen" minority.
of the good and to whitewash the nature of the evil.
In the field of politics, this leads the more aggressive type of appeasers,
Such is the relationship of mind to values-and such is the fate of those
the "liberals," to the belief in rule by physical force, to the doctrine that
who sought to preserve their intellect by dispensing with morality.
people are unfit for freedom and should be ruled-"for their own good"
The appeaser's inner state is revealed in the field of esthetics. His sense
by a dictatorship of the "elite." Hence such "liberals' " craving for gov
of life dominates modern art and literature: the cult of depravity-the
ernmental recognition, and their extreme susceptibility to bribes by any
monotonous projection of cosmic terror, guilt, impotence, misery, doom
strong-arm government, foreign or domestic, in the form of minor jobs,
-the compUlsive preoccupation with the study of homicidal maniacs, a
loud titles, official honors or simply dinner invitations. Hence such
preoccupation resembling the mentality of a superstitious savage who
"liberals'" tolerant sympathy for the regimes of Soviet Russia or Red
fashions a voodoo doll in the belief that to reproduce is to master.
China, and their appalling indifference to the wholesale atrocities of
This does not mean that all the practitioners of modern art or modern
those countries.
politics are men who betrayed their own intelligence: most of them had
The more timorous type of appeasers, the "conservatives;" take a
nothing to betray. But it does mean that such practices would not have
different line: they share the notion of an intellectual "elite" and, there
spread without the sanction of the intellectual traitors-and that they
fore, they discard intellectuality as numerically unimportant, and t~ey brought their own nightmare universe into reality by creating a cultural
concentrate on cajoling the brute ("the masses"') with baby-talk-WIth bandwagon for pretentious mediocrities and worse.
vapid slogans, flattering bromides, folksy speeches in two-syllable words,
Not all of the intellectual appeasers reach the public arena. A great
on the explicit premise that reason does not work, that the brute must be many of them perish on the way, torn by their inner conflicts, paralyzed
won through appeals to his emotions and must, somehow, be fooled or by an insufficient capacity to evade, petering out in hopeless lethargy after
cheated into taking the right road. a brilliantly promising start. A great many others drag themselves on, by
Both groups believe that dictatorships are "practical"-the "liberals'" an excruciating psychological effort, functioning at a small fraction of
boldly and openly, the "conservatives" fearfully. Behind the "conserva their potential. The cost of this type of appeasement-in frustrated, ham
tives' " ineffectual, half-hearted, apologetic attempts to defend freedom, pered, crippled or stillborn talent-can never be computed.
lies the often confessed belief that the struggle is futile, that free enter An appeaser's professional success Or failure, as well as the degree of
prise is doomed. Why? The unconfessed answer is: Because men are brutes. his precarious psychological adjustment, depends on the slowness or speed
Moral cowardice is the necessary consequence of discarding morality of a process common to all appeasers: the erosion of his sense of values.
as inconsequential. It is the common symptom of all intellectual appeasers. The renunciation of values-the acceptance of an irrational morality
The image of the brute is the symbol of an appeaser's belief in the suprem was the specific form of his surrender. The pretense at any belief in
acy of evil, which means-not in conscious terms, but in terms of his altruism vanishes from his mind in a very few years, and there is nothing
quaking, cringing, blinding panic-that when his mind judges a thing to left to replace it: his independent capacity to value has been repressed
be evil, his emotions proclaim its power, and the more evil, the more and his fear of the brute makes the pursuit of values seem hopelessly
powerful. impractical. What sets in, thereafter, is the dry rot of cynicism-like a kind
To an appeaser, the self-assertive confidence of the good is a reproach, of premature senility of the spirit-a thin coating of belligerent amorality
a threat to his precarious pseudo-self-esteem, a disturbing phenomenon over a swamp of lifeless resignation. The result is a muted, impoverished,
from a universe whose existence he cannot permit himself to acknowledge extinguished personality, the impersonal personality of a man with an
-and his emotional response is a nameless resentment. The self-assertive ever-shrinking range of concern, with nothing to seek, to achieve, to
THE OBJECTIVIST JANUARY 1966
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admire or oppose, and-since self-assertion is the assertion of one's values No, it is not the intelligent man's moral obligation to serve as the
-with no self to assert. One of the bitter penalties of the appeasers is that leader or teacher of his less endowed brothers. His foremost moral obli
even the most brilliant of them turn out, as persons, to be conventional, gation is to preserve the integrity of his mind and of his self- esteem
empty, dull. which means: to be proud of his intelligence-regardless of their approval
If their initial crime was the desire to be "one of the boys,'" this is the or disapproval. No matter how hard thi might be in a corrupt age like
way in which they do succeed. ours, he has, in fact, no alternative. It is his only chance at a world where
Their ultimate penalty i till worse. A wrong premise doe not merely intelligence can function, which means: a world where he- and, inciden
fail it achieves its 0\ n opposite. After year of intellectual faking, dilut tally, they-can survive.
ing corner-culting-in order to smuggle his ideas pa t an imaginary cen or
in order to placate irrationality, stupidity dishonesty, prejuclice, malice or
ne
vulgarity- the appea er's own mind assumes the standards of those
THE OBJECTIVIST THEORY OF VOLITION
professes to despise. A mind cannot maintain a double standard of judg
ment indefinitely (if at all). Any man who is willing to speak or write
"down," i.e., to think down-who distorts his own ideas in order to accom By Nathaniel Branden
modate the mindle s who ubordinates truth to fear- become eventually
inclistinguishabJe from the hacks who cater to an alleged "public taste." (Part I of a two-part article)
He joins the hordes ~ ha believe that the mind i impotent, that reason is
futile. that ideas are only means of fooling the masses (i.e., that ideas are One of the foremost characteri lics of the majority of modern psycho
important to the unthinking, but the thinkers know better) -the vast,
logical theorie , aside from tI:ie arbitrariness of so many of their claims,
stagnant underworld of anti-inteIlectuality. Such is the dead end of the
is their frequently ponderous irrelevance. The cause, both of the irrele
road he has chosen to take, he who had started out as a self-sacrificial
vance and of the arbitrariness, is the evident belief of their exponents that
priest of the intellect.
one can have a science of human nature while consistently ignoring or
Hatred for reason is hatred for intelligence; today's culture is saturated
evading man"s most significant and distinctive attributes.
with both. It is the ultimate product of generations of appeasers, past and
Psychology today is in de perate need of epistemological rehabilita
present-of men who, fearing an imaginary brute, upheld and perpetuated
tion. It hould be unnecessary for example to point out what is wrong
the irrational, inhuman, brutalizing morality of altruism.
with the attempt to pro e that all learning .is of a random, trial-and-error
No, men are not brutes; neither are they all independent thinkers. The
kind by placing a rat into a maze where random, trial-and-error Jearning
majority of men are not intellectual initiators or originators; they accept
is all that is possible then adducing the rat s behavior as evidence for the
what the culture offers them. It is not that they don't think; it is that they
tbeory. it hould be till less requi ite to point out what i wrong with
don"t sustain their thinking consistently. as a way of life, and that their
accepting the underlying premise of such experiments: tbe groundless and
abstract range is limited. To what extent they are stunted by the anti
flagrantly unempirical notion that the learning proccs in mm is to be
rational influences of our cultural traditions, is hard to say; what is known,
understood through a study of the behavior of rats. But unfortunately,
however, is that the majority of men use only a small part of their poten
it is of this sort f methodology that much of the "cience' of modern
tial intellectual capacity.
psychology is made.
The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is the
In the writing f modern psychologists-whether or not the writers
appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's intellectual
happen to how a predilection for the study of .rats (or pigeons or earth
abdication that invites them to take over. When a culture's dominant trend
worms)-man is ale entity most con. picuousl. absent. This is as true of
is geared to irrationality, the thugs win over the appeasers. When intel
the psychoanalytical school as of tl1e behaviorist.
lectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, unformed, vacillating
One can read textbook after textbook today and never learn that man
character of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out the worst.
has the ability to think; if the fact is acknowledged at all, it is dismissed
When the ablest men turn into cowards, the average men turn into brutes.
as unimportant. One would not learn from these books that man"s dis
No, the average man is not morally innocent. But the best proof of his
tinctive form of consciousness is conceptual-nor that this is a fact of
non-brutality, of his helpless, confused, inarticulate longing for truth, for
crucial significance. In many cases, one would not learn (it would not be
an intelligible, rational world-and of his response to it, when given a
conceded) that man is conscious at all. One would not learn that man's
chance he cannot create on his own-is the fact that no dictatorship has
biologically distinguishing attribute and his basic means of survival, is
ev.er lasted without establishing censorship. reason.
THE OBJECTIVIST
JANUARY 1966
6 7
bodies of animals and men-as in metabolism, for example.
This is the first of two basic principles of man's nature which are
The conscious-behavioral level of self-regulation appears with the
indispensable to an understanding of man's psychology and behavior:
emergence of consciousness in animals. The vegetative level continues to
reason (the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided
operate within the animal's body-but a new, higher level is required to
by the senses) is man's distinctive tool for apprehending and dealing with
protect and sustain the animal's life, as the animal moves through its
the facts of reality.
environment. This level is achieved by the animal's power of awareness.
The second basic principle is that the exercise of his rational faculty,
Its senses provide it with the knowledge it needs to hunt, to move around
unlike an animal's use of his senses, is not automatic-that the decision to
obstacles, to flee from enemies, etc. Its ability to be conscious of the
think is not biologically "programmed" in man-that to think is an act
external world enables the animal to regulate and direct its motor activity.
of choice.
Deprived of its senses, an animal could not survive. For all living entities
"The key to ... human nature ... is the fact that man is a being of
that possess it, consciousness-the regulator of action-is the basic means
volitional consciousness. Reason does not work automatically; thinking
of survival.
is not a mechanical process; the connections of logic are not made by
The sensory-perceptual level of an animal's consciousness does not
instinct. The function of your stomach, lungs or heart is automatic; the
pennit it, of course, to be aware of the issue of life and death as such;
function of your mind is not. Jn any hour and issue of your life, you are
but given the appropriate physical environmeI).t, the animal's sensory
free to think or to evade that effort. But you are not free to escape from
perceptual apparatus and its pleasure-pain mechanism function automat
your nature, from the fact that reason is your means of survival-so that
for you, who are a human being, the question 'to be or not to be" is the ically to protect its life. If its range of awareness cannot cope with the
question 'to think or not to think.' " (A tlas Shrugged) conditions that confront the animal, it perishes. But, within the limit of
A full exposition of this principle requires that we begin by placing its powers, its consciousness serves to regulate its behavior in the direction
the issue in a wider biological context-that we consider certain basic of life. Thus, with the faculty of locomotion and the emergence of con
facts about the nature of living organisms. sciousness in animals, a new form of self-regulatory activity appears in
An organiSm's life is characterized by and dependent upon a constant nature, a new expression of this biological principle of life.
process of internally generated action. This is evident in the process of In man, both life and consciousness reach their most highly developed
growth and maturation, in the process of self-healing-and in the actions form. Man, who shares with animals the sensory-perceptual mode of
of the organism in relation to its environment. The goal-directedness of consciousness, goes beyond it to the conceptual mode-to the level of
living action is its most striking feature. This is not meant to imply the abstractions, principles, explicit reasoning and self-consciousness. Unlike
presence of purpose on the non-conscious levels of life, but only the animals, man has the ability to be explicitly aware of his own mental
significant fact that there exists in living entities a principle of self-regulat activities, to question their validity, to judge them critically, to alter or
ing action, and that that action moves toward, and normally results in, correct them. Man is not rational automatically; he is aware of the fact that
the continued life of the organism. For example, the complex processes his mental processes may be appropriate or inappropriate to the task of
involved in metabolism-or the remarkable self-repairing activities of correctly perceiving reality; his mental processes are not, to him, an
living structures-or the integrated orchestration of the countless separate unalterable given. In addition to the two previous forms of self-regulating
~ctivities involved in the normal process of an organism's physical matura activity, man exhibits a third: the power to regulate the action of his own
~lon. Organic self-regulation is the indisputable, fascinating and challeng consciousness.
mgphenomenon at the base of the science of biology. Life is self-sustaining In one crucial respect, however, the nature of this regulatory activity
action. differs radically from the two previous ones.
Life exists on different levels of development and complexity, from On the vegetative and conscious-behavioral levels, the self-regulation
the single cell to man. As life advances from simpler to higher levels, one is "wired in" to the system. A living organism is a complex integrate of
may distinguish three forms or categories of self-regulatory activity: the hierarchically organized structures and functions. The various components
vegetative level of self-regulation-the conscious-behaviorallevel-the self are controlled in part by their own regulators and in part by regulators
conscious level. on higher levels of the hierarchy. For example, the rhythm of the heart is
The vegetative level is the most primitive. All the physiological-bio directly under the control of the heart's own "pacemaker" system; the
chemical processes within a plant, by which the plant maintains its own pacemaker system is regulated by the autonomic nervous system and by
existence, are of this order. This pattern of self-regulatory activity is hormones; these are regulated by centers in the brain. The ultimate regu
?perative within a single cell and in all higher life-fonns. It is operative lative principle, controlling the entire system of sub-regulators, from the
m the non-conscious physiological-biochemical processes within the nervous system to the heart down to the internal action of a single cell,
JANUARY 1966
THE OBJECTIVIST
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is, clearly, the life of the organism, i.e., the requirements of the organism's apply his knowledge to each new particular he encounters. Man's capacity
survival. The organism's life is the implicit standard or goal that provides to default on the responsibility of thinking is too easily observable. Man
the integrating principle of the organism's internal actions. This ultimate must choose to focus his mind; he must choose to think. On the concep
regulator is "programmed" into the organism by nature, so to speak, as tuallevel, the responsibility of self-regulation is his.
are all the sub-regulators; the organism has no choice in the matter. The act of focusing pertains to the operation of a man's consciousness,
Just as, on the vegetative level, the specific nature of the self-regulation, to its method of functioning-not to its content.
the controlling and integrating principle, is "wired in" to the system-so, A man is in focus when and to the extent that his mind is set to the
in a different form, this is equally true of the conscious-behavioral level goal of awareness, clarity, intelligibility, with regard to the object of his
in animals. The ultimate standard and goal, the animal's life, is biologi concern, i.e., with regard to that which he is considering or dealing with
cally "prograrpmed;" through the animal's sensory-perceptual apparatus or engaged in doing.
and its pleasure-pain mechanism, to regulate its behavior. To sustain that focus with regard to a specific issue or problem, is to
Now consider the self-conscious level of self-regulation. think.
The basic function of consciousness-in animals and in man-is aware To let one's mind drift in will-less passivity, directed only by random
ness, the maintenance of cognitive contact with reality. On the plane of impressions, emotions or associations-or to consider an issue without
awareness that man shares with animals, the sensory-perceptual plane, genuinely seeking to understand it-or to engage in an action without a
the integrative process is automatic, i.e., "wired in" to the nervous system. concern to know what one is doing-is to be out of focus.
In the brain of a normal human being, sensations are automatically inte What is involved here is not an issue of the degree of a man's intelli
grated into perceptions. On the sensory-perceptual level, awareness is the gence or knowledge. Nor is it an issue of the productiveness or success of
controlling and regulating goal of the integrative process-by nature's any particular thinlcing process. Nor is it an issue of the specific subject
"programming. " matter with which the mind may be occupied. It is an issue of the basic
This is not true of the conceptual level of consciousness. Here, the regulating principle that directs the mind's activity: Is the mind controlled
regulation is not automatic, not "wired in" to the system. Conceptual by the goal of awareness-or by something else, by wishes, fears or the
awareness, as the controlling goal of man's mental activity, is necessary inert pull of lethargic anti-effort?
to man's proper survival, but it is not implanted by nature. Man has to To be in focus is to set one's mind to the purpose of active cognitive
provide it. Man has to select that purpose. Man has to direct his mental integration. The alternative is not simply absolute unconsciousness or
effort and integrate his mental activity to the goal of conceptual aware optimal consciousness. There are different levels of awareness possible to
ness-by choice. The capacity of conceptual functioning is innate; but the man's consciousness, determined by the degree of his focus. This will be
exercise of this capacity is volitional. reflected in (a) the clarity or vagueness of his mind's contents, (b) the
To engage in an active process of thinking-to abstract, conceptualize, degree to which the mind's activity involves abstractions and principles
relate, infer, to reason-man must focus his mind: he must set it to the or is concrete-bound, (c) the degree to which the relevant wider context
task of active integration. The choice to focus, in any given situation, is is present or absent in the process of thinking.
made by choosing to make awareness one's goal-awareness of that which Thus, the choice to focus (or to think) does not consist of moving from
is relevant in the given context. a state of literal unconsciousness to a state of consciousness. (This, clearly,
One activates and directs the thinking process by setting the goal: would be impossible. When one is asleep, one cannot suddenly choose to
awareness-and that goal acts as the regulator and integrator of one's start thinking.) To focus is to move from a lower level of awareness to a
mental activity. higher level-to move from (relative) mental passivity to purposeful
The goal of awareness is set by giving oneself, in effect, the order: mental activity-to initiate a process of directed cognitive integration. In
"Grasp this." a state of passive (or relatively passive) awareness, a man can apprehend
That this goal is not "wired in" to man"s brain by nature, as the auto the need to be in full mental focus. His choice is to evade that knowledge
matic regulator of mental a-::tivity, scarcely needs to be argued. One does or to exert the effort of raising the level of his awareness.
not need to design special laboratory experiments in order to demonstrate The decision to focus and to think, once made, does not continue to
that thinking is not an automatic process, that man's mind does not auto direct a man's mind unceasingly thereafter, with no further effort re
matically "pump" conceptual knowledge, when and as man's life requires quired. Just as the state of full consciousness must be initiated volition ally,
it, as his heart pumps blood. The mere fact of being confronted with so it must be maintained volitionally. The choice to think must be reaf
physical objects and events will not force man to abstract their common firmed in the face of every new issue and problem. The decision to be in
properties, to integrate his abstractions into still wider abstractions, to focus yesterday will not compel a man to be in focus today. The decision
THE OBJECTIVIST JANUARY 19&6
10 11
to be in focus about one question will not compel a man to be in focus of each major theorist. If Dr. Arnold had done no more than provide
about anot~er. The decision to pursue a certain value does not guarantee this chronologically organized summary and critique of the history of
th~t ~an wIll exert the mental effort required to achieve it. In any specific thought about emotions, her book would be of immense interest and value.
thmkmg process, man must continue to monitor and regulate his own Her goal, however, is not merely to point out the defects in the works of
~ental ac.tivity, to "keep it on the rails," so to speak. In any hour of his others, but to use the conclusions of her analysis as the basis of her own
hfe, man IS free to suspend the function of his consciousness, to abandon theory of emotions-a theory in which she attempts to integrate the data
effort, to default on the responsibility of self-regulation and let his mind of introspective and experimental psychology the knowledge recently
dri~t passively. ~e is fr:e to maintain only a partial focus, grasping that gained in the neurological sciences and in endocrinology, and, alas, the
wh~ch comes easIly to hIS understanding and declinirig to struggle for that premises of Thomistic theology.
WhICh does p.ot. The integration, while not a complete success, represents a remarkable
Man is free not only to evade the effort of purposeful awareness in attempt to deal, in a non-contradictory manner, with all the phenomena
gener~l, but to ev.a~e speci~~ lin~s o~ th~ught that he finds disconcerting associated with emotions.
or pamful. PerCeIVIng qualItIes m hIS fnends, his wife-or himself-that Unlike most prevailing psychological theories which deal, almost ex
clash with his moral standards, he can surrender his mind to blankness clusively, with the painful emotions of rage, anger, fear and anxiety, Dr.
or s.witc? it ~astily to some other concern, refusing to identify the meaning Arnold's theory attempts to encompass the emotions of joy, courage,
or. ImplIcatIOns of what he has perceived. Dimly apprehending, in the affection and love. Unlike most prevailing psychological theories which
ml~st ~f. an argur.n~nt, that he is being ridden by his emotions and is fail to make any distinctions between the emotions of animals and those
mamtrumng a posItIon for reasons other than those he is stating, reasons of men, Dr. Arnold's theory is based on the fact that man's form of con
that he knows to be untenable, he can refuse to integrate his knowledge, sciousness is conceptual, that man can evaluate the long-range conse
he can refuse to pause on it-he can push it aside and continue to shout quences of his actions-and that man need oot act upon an emotion merely
with .ri~hteous indignation. Grasping that he is pursuing a course of action because he experiences it. Unlike most prevailing psychological theories
that IS In blatant defiance of reason, he can cry to himself, in effect: "Who which are based on the implicit or explicit assumption that man is essen
c~ be sure of anything?" -plunge his mind into fog and continue on tially a pa sive being pushed by inner instinctual drives and pulled by
hIS way. his environment Dr. Arnold hold that man is a being of free will and
In s~ch cases, a man .is doing mo~e th~ defaulting on the responsibility that his mind is the ource of his motivation- that men choose their own
of makmg awareness hiS goal: he IS actIvely seeking unawareness as his values and act, volition ally , to achieve them.
goal. This is the meaning of evasion. The first volume of this two-volume work is primarily devoted to
In the choice to focus or not to focus, to think or not to think, to activate proving that an emotion is the experience which automatically follows
the .conceptua~ level of his consciousness or to suspend it-and in this from a cognitive appraisal of an object or an event. An emotion is a
chOice alone-Is man psychologically free. response to a judgment, "Is this object event, or situation out there good
(To be concluded in our next issue.) for me or bad for me?" To make such an appraisal man must be able
to identify the object, i.e., to know its nature and to gauge bow it wiU
affect him. If he knows nothing about tbe object or event he cannot
appraise it and will be indifferent (unemotional) to it. An emotion will
BOOKS always occur with extreme rapidity, following an appraisal whether or
not the appraisal is factuaUy correct and appropriate.
Emotion and Personality by Magda B. Arnold Dr. AmoJd adduces a good deal of evidence to support her theory. It
is a theory with which-in a general way, at least-Objectivists can agree.
------------- Reviewed by ROBERT EFRON, M.D. But there is one glaring and puzzling omission in Dr. Arnold's treatment
of emotions: the term "value." The concept of value as the root of emo
What are emotions? What causes them to occur? What is their role in tions is implici.t in her entire discussion' bur- incomprehensibly-it is never
the life. of ani~als and n,ten? What is known about the physiological made explicit. When one speaks of appraisal of what is "good for me or
mechamsms whIch underlIe the experience of an emotion? bad for me one is obviously speaking of value-judgments. Dr. Arnold's
,H
Dr. Magda Arnold presents and critically analyzes the "answers" to avoidance of this term is too consistent to b accidental' but the reader is
these questions given by philosophers and psychologists from Aristotle given no inkling as to why. Its absence is an unfortunate defect in Dr.
to Sartre, dissecting in detail the frequently erroneous initial assumptions Arnold's presentation.
THE OBJECTIVIST JANUARY 1966
12 13
Dr. Arnold makes an intere ling, and to my knowledge, an original
field of psychology, neurology and philosophy. It can be read with enjoy
distinction between "feelings ' and emotion." Feelings, she states, are
ment by any educated layman seriously interested in the psychology of
the positiv (plea urable) or negative (unpJea ant) internal states which emotions. It offers to all readers the immensely gratifying experience of
are the direct and immediate effects of sensory stimulation either from
watching a brilliantly analytical mind at worlc- a value rare enough in
external or internal sources. The follow from appraisals of how sensa
any field today but Tare above all, in the literature of psychology.
tions affect u· . In contradistinction emotions are reactions to the appraisal
of perceptions. Wberea' feeling follow from the effect of sensations on
Emotion and Personality is published by Columbia University Press in 2 volumes, $10
our body, emotions follow from appraisals of the phenomena of external
per volume. Available from NBI BOOK SERVICE, Inc., 120 East 34th St., New York,
reality. Whether or not one can ultimately accept the validity of this dis
N.Y. 10016. (N.Y. State residents add sales tax; outside the U.S. add 254 per volume.)
tinction between feelings and emotions, it does appear to have a good deal
to commend it...:.and Dr. Arnold develops her distinction very effectively
Dr. Efron is a neurologist and neurophysiologist working in the field of perception;
when she traces the development of emotions from the simple feeling he is Chief. Neurophysiology-Biophysics Research Unit. V.A. Hospital, Boston; he
states of the newborn baby to the complex emotions of adult life. has published articles in scientific publication.s such a.s "Brain," "British Journal of
The first volume of Emotion and Personality can be read profitably by Ophthalmology," "Journal of PhySiology."
any educated layman and can be treated as a self-contained unit. The
second volume deals with the neurophysiological basis of emotions; and,
despite Dr. Arnold's efforts to make this volume as universal in appeal
as the first, the technical nature of the subject matter unavoidably places
greater demands on the reader. One will find here, however, an excellent OBJECTIVIST CALENDAR
and comprehensive review, and a discriminating analysis, of the field of
knowledge generally referred to as "neuropsychology." One will find first
• On Tuesday February 8, Nathaniel Branden's course OD "Basic Prin
rate accounts .of the major experimental work describing the defects in
ciples of Objectivism" will begin in New York City. Time: 8 P .M. Place:
psychological functions such as learning, memory, perception and voli
Sheraton-Atlantic Hotel, 34th St. & Broadway. Visitor's admission: $3.50.
tional action, which occur following brain damage in animals and man.
(College & High School Students: $2.75.) Ayn Rand will participate in
I must mention that I cannot always agree with Dr. Arnold's neuro
the question period which follows the lecture. For further details, contact
physiological theories. For example, she commits a major but very com
NATHANIEL BRANDEN INSTITUTE. 120 East 34th St., New York, N.Y.
mon error-that of confusing the functional disturbance due to damage
10016.
of parts of the brain with the function of those parts. A patient may be
unable to identify an object by the use of his vision if his brain is damaged
• On Wednesday, February 9, Nathaniel Branden wiII speak at ArIington
in region X. This does not necessarily mean that the "function" of region
State College in Arlington, Texas. His subject: "Alienation and the Critics
X is to identify objects visually. It could mean only that region X, in
of Capitalism. Time: 2 P.M. Open to the public; admission free for
association with other regions of the brain, is required for this function.
college students, 504 for otbers.
It is an error to assume that each specific psychological function or activity
"is performed by," "takes place in" or is "mediated by" some quite small
• On Monday, February L4, Ayn Rand will deliver Lecture # 17-"The
region of the brain-a view which could be considered the modern equiv
Estbetics of Literature"-in the current NBl course on "Basic Principles
alent of phrenology.
of Objectivism" in New York City. Time: 7: 30 P.M. Place: Sheraton
However, such neurophysiological theories are not essential to her
Atlantic Hotel 34th St. & Broadway. Visitor's admission: $3.50.
main thesis and are easily separable from her clearly presented facts.
The great merits of Emotion and Personality are its comprehensiveness;
• On Saturday. February 19, Dr. AJlan Blumenthal win conduct a work
the importance of its central thesis: that emotions are the product of
shop on Objectivist psychotherapy in Detroit. Michigan. This workshop
cornitive appraisals; the many fascinating and provocative psychological
is open only to professionals in the mental bealthfield-psychology, psy
ob~ervations with which the book is filled' and the truly admirable lucidity
chiatry, psychiatric social work, etc. For further details, contact Dr. Roger
of the writing. Dr. Arnold' infrequent excursions into Thomistic theology
Canahan, 17000 W. Eight Mile, Southfield, Michigan (phone: 356-099J).
are startlingly incongruous in a cientific work; however, they do not
seriously mar the:: overall value and importance of her book.
• NBr's Tape Transcription Division has scheduled the following starting
This work is of inestimable value to students and professionals in the
dates: "Basic Principles of Objectivism" in Tampa, Feb. 2; Riverside,
THE OBJECTIVIST JANUARY 1966
14
15
Calif., Feb. 2; Charlottesville, Va., Feb. 6; Rochester, N.Y., Feb. 6;
Lansing, Mich., Feb. 8; Madison, Wisc., Feb. 8; Lake Forest, Ill., Fe? 14;
PHILOSOPHY AND SENSE OF LIFE
Winnipeg, Feb. 16; Cincinnati, Feb. 18- "Contemporary Th.e~nes of
Neurosis'" in Youngstown, Feb. 4-"Basic Principles of ObjectlVlst Psy
chology" in Houston, Feb. 6; Boston, Feb. 9; Chicago, Feb. 27-"~e By Ayn Rand
Principles of Efficient Thinking" in Montreal, Feb. 16-"The Economl~s
of a Free Society" in Detroit, Feb. 25-"Three Plays by Ayn Rand" 10 Since religion is a primitive form of philosophy- an attempt to offer a
Washington, D.C., Feb. 25-"The History of Ancient Philosophy" in
comprehensive view of reality-many of its myths are distorted dramatized
Chicago, Feb. 27. For further information, contact NI. allegories based on some element of truth, some actuat, if profoundly
elusive aspect of man's existence. One of such allegories which men find
• A condensed version of Ayn Rand's article "What is Capitalism?"
particularly terrifying, is the myth of a supernatural recorder from whom
which appeared in the November and December 1965 issues of THE nothing can be hidden who lists all of a man's deeds-the good and the
OBJECTIVIST NEWSLETTER, was published in Barron's on January 3. evil, the noble and the vile-and who confronts a man with that record on
judgment day.
• On January 24, Nathaniel Branden addressed the Psychiatric Division
That myth is true, not existentially, but psychologically. The merciless
of the San Mateo (Calif.) County Medical Society and the San Mateo
recorder is the integrating mechanism of a man's subconscious; the record
County Health Department. His subject: "Psychotherapy and the Objec
is his sense of life.
tivist Ethics."
A sense of life is a pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emo
tional subconsciously integrated appraisal of man relationship to exist
• On January 26, Nathaniel Branden spoke at the California Institut~ .of ence. It sets the nature of a man's emotional responses and the essence of
Technology in Pasadena, Calif. His subject: "Alienation and the Cntlcs
his character.
of Capitalism."
Long before he is old enough to grasp such a concept as metaphysics,
man makes choices, forms value-judgments experiences emotions and
acquires a certain implicit view of life. Every choice and value-judgment
implies some estimate of himself and of the world around him-most
particularly, of his capacity to deal with the world. He may draw con
scious conclusions, which may be true or false; or he may remain men
tally pa sive and merely react to events (i.e., merely feel). Whatever the
case may be his subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activj
ties, integrating his conclu ions, reactions or evasions into an emotional
sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic re
sponse to the world around him. What began as a series of single, discrete
conclusions (or evasions) about his own particular problems, becomes a
generalized feeling about existence, an implicit meraphysicswith the com
pelling motivational power of a constant, basic emotion-an emotion which
is part of all his other emotions and underlies all his experiences. This is a
sense of life.
To the extent to which a man is mentally active, i.e., motivated by the
desire to know to understand. his mind works as the progr~mmer of his
emotional computer-anti his sense of life develops into a bright counter
part of a rational philosophy. To the extent to which a man evades, the
programming of his emotional computer is done by chance influences: by
random impressions, association , imitations, by undigested snatches of
environmental bromides by cultural osmo i . If evasion or lethargy is a
man's predominant method of mental functioning, the result is a sense of
life dominated by fear-a soul like a shapeless piece of clay stamped upon
THE OBJECTIVIST
FEBRUARY 19&&
16 17
by footprints going in all directions. (In later years. such a m~n c~ies that The key concept, in the formation of a sense of life, is the term
he has lost his sense of identity; the fact is that he never aCQUIred It. )
"important." It is a concept that belongs to the realm of values, since it
Man, by his nature. cannot refrain from generalizing; he cannot live
implies an answer to the question: Impprtant-to whom? Yet its meani~g
moment by moment. without context. without past or futur.e; he cannot
is different from that of moral values. "Important" does not necessanly
eliminate his integrating capacity, i.e., his conceptual capacity. an~ co~­ mean 'good." It means: "A quality character or standing such as to en
fine his consciousness to an animal's perceptual range. Just as an ammal s
title to attention or consideratiolJ." (The American College Dictionary.)
consciousness cannot be stretched to deal with abstractions. so man's con
What, in the most fundamental sense, is entitled to one"s attention' or
sciousness cannot be shrunk to deal with nothing but immediate concretes.
consideration? Reality.
The enonnously powerful integrating mechanism of m.an's co~sci~usness "Important"- in its essential meaning, as distinguished from its more
is there at birth; his only choice is to drive it or to be dnven by It. Smce. an
limited and superficial uses-is a metaphysical tenn. It pertains to that
act of volition-a process of thought-is required to use that mech~msm
aspect of metaphysics which serves as a bridge between metaphysics and
for a cognitive purpose, man can evade t~at effo~t. But I~ he
ethics: to a fundamental view of man's nature. That view involves the
evades chance takes over: the mechanism functions on Its own, lIke a
answers to such questions as whether the universe is knowable or not,
machi~e without a driver; it goes on integrating. but integrating blindly,
whether man has the power of choice or not, whether he can achieve his
incongruously. at random-not as an instrument of cognition, but as .an
instrument of distortion, delusion and nightmare terror, bent on wreckmg goals in life or not. Even though metaphysics is not a n~nnative science,
the answers to such questions may be designated as "metaphysical value
its defaulting possessor's consciousness. ...
judgments," since they form the base of ethics.
A sense of life is formed by a process of emotional generalIzation which
It is only those values which he regards or grows to regard as "impor
may be described as a subconscious counterpart o~ a proce~s. of abstrac
tant," those which represent his implicit view of reality, that remain in a
tion since it is a method of classifying and integratmg. But It IS a process
man's subconscious and form his sense of life.
of e;notional abstraction: it consists of classifying things according to the
"It is important to understand things"- "It is important to obey my
emotions they invoke-i.e., of tying together, by assoc.iati?~ or connot~tion,
parents '-"It is important to act on my own"-' It is important to please
all those things which have the power to make an mdlvld~al expenence
other people"-"lt is important to fight for what I want"- 1t is important
the same (or a similar) emotion. For instance: a new neighborhood, a
not to make enemies' -"My Ilfe is important '- "Who am I to stick my
discovery, adventure, struggle, triumph-or: the folks next door, a mem
neck out?' Man is a being of self-made soul-and it is of such conclusions
orized recitation, a family picnic, a known routine, comfort. On a more
that the stuff of his soul is made.
adult level: a heroic man, the skyline of Ncw York, a sunlit landscape.
Nathaniel Branden defines "soul" as "a mind and its basic values."
pure colors, ecstatic music-or: a humble man, an old village, a foggy land-
The integrated sum of a man's basic values is his sense of life ..
scape, muddy colors, folk music. . .
A sense of life represents man's early value-integrations, which remain
Which particular emotions will be invokt!d by the thmgs m th~se
examples. as their respective common denominators, depends on which in an extremely fluid, plastic, easily ammendable state, while a man gathers
sct of things fits an individual's ,'jew of him.l"clf. For a man of se.lf-eQe:ll1. knowledge to reach full conceptual control and thus to drive his inner
the emotion unitin!! the things in the first part of thesc examples IS admml mechanism. A full conceptual control means a consciously directed process
tion, exaltation. a-sense of challenge; the cmotion uniting the things in of cognitive integration, which means: a conscious philosophy of life.
the second part is di~gust or boredom. For a man who lacks self-~steem. By the lime he reaches adolescence man's knowledge is ufficient to
the emotion uniting thl: things in the fiN part of these examples IS fea~. deal with broad fundamentals; thjs is the period when he becomes aware
guilt. resentment: thc emotion uniting the.:. things in the se~~nd part IS of the need to translate his incoherent sense of life into consciou terms.
relicf from fear. reassurance, the und\~malldlng safety of passIvity. This i the period when he gropes for such things as the meaning of life
Even though such emotional abstractions grow into a metaphysical for principles, ideals values and. desperately. for self-as crtion. And
view of man, their origin lies in an individual's view of h~mself ~nd .of his since nothing is done, in our anti-rational culture, to assist a young mind
own relationship to existence. The subverbal, subconscIOus. cn.te~lon of in this crucial tran ition, and everything possible i done to'hamper, crip
selection that forms his emotional abstractions is: "That which IS Impor ple, stultify it-the result is the frantic, hy terical irrationality of rno t
tant to me" or: "The kind of universe which is right for me, in which I adolescents particularly today. Theirs is the agon, of the unborn- of
would feel at home." It is obvious what immense psychological conse mmds go.ing through a process of atrophy al the lime set by nature fQf
their growth.
quences will follow, depending on whether a man's s~bconscious meta
physics is consonant with the facts of reality or contradicts them. The transition from guidance by a sense of life to guidance by a con
scious philosophy takes many forms. For the rare exception, the fully
THE OBJECTIVIST
18
FEBRUARY 1966
19