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Objectivism




Stephen Boydstun

boydstun@rcn.com
Send me a RoR MailAtlas Count 582Atlas Count 582Atlas Count 582582 Atlas Points

Author Info

View all articles by Stephen Boydstun

Number of Posts: 255
View all posts by this user: here

Num Gallery items: 15
View all Galleries by this user: here

Description

Premium Articles

"Vegetative Robots and Value"
"The 'With-Measurement' Program"

"Rights, Games, and Self-Realization"

  Intro, Part I, Part II, Part III


Premium Posts
Foundations of Ethics #15, #17, #20

Implied Axioms #207, #230
Who Needs Philosophy #14
Locke and Essence #3
Evolution of the Objective #39
Objectivism and the Correspondence Theory #0
Mind and Representation #4, #6
Concepts #1, #11
Concept Formation #0
Corruption of Measurement #11
Physics and Philosophy #54
Scope of Volition #31, #38
Objectivism and Existentialism #7, #11
Self-Interest #13
Objectivist and Libertarian Politics #36
Definition of Objectivism #12, #24
Whether Objectivist #17

 

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My current intellectual project consists of various integrations of Objectivist theoretical philosophy with science and mathematics. My most recent accomplishment in that vein is the essay "Universals and Measurement" in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (Spring 2004).

In that essay, I argue that Rand's measurement-omission analysis of concepts implies a distinctive magnitude structure for metaphysics. This is structure beyond logical structure, constraint on possibility beyond logical constraint. Yet, it is structure ranging as widely as logical structure through all the sciences and common experience. I uncover this distinctive magnitude structure, characterizing it by its automorphisms, by its location among the mathematical categories, and by the types of measurement it affords. I uncover a structure to universals implicit in Rand's theory that is additional to recurrence structure.

My academic backgrounds are in physics, philosophy, and engineering. My engineering work was building locomotives, then I switched to nuclear power electrical generation. Engineering rounded out the understanding of the physical world I had from physics. Now all those backgrounds, and long study of philosophy, too, are put into my project of extending Ayn Rand's metaphysics.

I created, financed, and edited Objectivity, a hardcopy "journal of metaphysics, epistemology, and theory of value informed by modern science" (1990-98). All issues of Objectivity are now freely available online for readers and researchers.


Visit www.objectivity-archive.com

On the romantic side, my partner's name is Walter. We have been together twelve years. He has two sons and one grandson, now age seven. It is wonderful to have a family.











Recent Gallery Items

(News) Philosophy of Science Association
(News) Ayn Rand Society - Esthetic Value
(Books) A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism
(Articles) Rights, Games, and Self-Realization – Part II
(Articles) Rights, Games, and Self-Realization – Part III

RecentPosts

Objectivism Q&A - Quine's critique of the analytic/synthetic dichotomy - 6
   Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 5:44am --  ..."Two Dogmas of Empiricism"...Willard Van Orman Quine...1951, 1961... ..."The...
Article Discussions - NATO, Georgia and Russia - 12
   Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 10:34am --  ...Abkhazia v. Georgia...
Objectivism Q&A - Objectivism: Entity ontology or Substance ontology? - 35
   Friday, August 22, 2008 - 5:58am -- Re: #30... ...Tim, edges are detected, not created. Edges are detected, and the ...
Objectivism Q&A - Quine's critique of the analytic/synthetic dichotomy - 1
   Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 9:56am --  ...Great topic for discussion, Jordan!... ...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~....
General Forum - Foreign Policy and Self-Defense: Bidinotto's Facts - 195
   Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 5:18am --   Follow-on to #90   Continuing atrocities in Algeria:  ...Algiers, Zem...
Objectivism Q&A - Objectivism: Entity ontology or Substance ontology? - 21
   Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 5:31am -- Re: #19   From "Capturing Concepts" in Objectivity V1N1 (pp. 20–21): Wh...
Objectivism Q&A - Objectivism: Entity ontology or Substance ontology? - 10
   Sunday, August 17, 2008 - 9:01am -- Tim Scobey,... ...The first word uttered by my partner’s grandson was “ba” meani...
News Discussions - Philosophy of Science Association - 10
   Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 7:40am --  Forthcoming by James G. Lennox:   “Essentialism and the Fixity of Kinds i...
News Discussions - Philosophy of Science Association - 8
   Monday, July 28, 2008 - 6:58am -- Thoughts on Essence from Objectivity... ...From “Capturing Concepts” in V1N1 (19...
News Discussions - Philosophy of Science Association - 7
   Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 5:12am --   The other presentations in the session The New Biological Essentialism are ...


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