Filosofia de um só pé

Uma vez perguntou-se a Ayn Rand se ela poderia apresentar os princípios básicos da sua filosofia, de forma resumida, enquanto estava de pé sobre um pé. Eis o que ela disse:

1. METÁFICOS: REALIDADE OBJECTIVA

or “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed” or “Wishing won’t make it so.”
Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.

2. EPISTEMOLOGIA: JUSTIFICATIVA

or “You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.”
Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.

3. ÉTICA: INTERESSE PRÓPRIO

or “Man is an end in himself.”
Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.

4. POLÍTICA: CAPITALISMO

or “Give me liberty or give me death.”
The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man’s rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

PROJECTOS FINAIS

Se tivesse estes conceitos com total consistência, como base das suas convicções, teria um sistema filosófico completo para orientar o curso da sua vida. Mas mantê-los com total consistência - compreender, definir, provar e aplicá-los - requer volumes de pensamento. É por isso que a filosofia não pode ser discutida de pé sobre um pé - nem de pé sobre dois pés em ambos os lados de cada cerca. Esta última é a posição filosófica predominante hoje em dia, particularmente no campo da política.

Copyright © 1962 by Times-Mirror Company
This article has been edited by The Atlas Society. It was originally published on June 17, 1962 in the Los Angeles Times as "Ayn Rand Ties Her Beliefs to Today's World"

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