Morality Morality is a code of action that protects man's rights. One of the areas about which there is a fair amount of disagreement between the Objectivist and the Reasonist philosophies is morality. The Reasonist morality is summed up in the concept of non-infringement. The moral man is the man who doesn't infringe on the rights of another. Morality then is only applicable to situations where two or more people interact. Morality has absolutely nothing to say about what one individual does to or for himself. Reasonism holds that each man is truly an end in himself, and not the means to the ends of others. Morally speaking, any man may do what-so-ever he pleases, so long as his actions do not infringe on the rights of any other man. Where Objectivism held that certain intra-relational (as opposed to inter-relational) value-judgments were immoral, the Reasonist holds that all personal value judgments have no moral value. One example is sexual preference. Rand held that homosexuality was immoral. The Reasonist philosophy recognizes that all men have the right to engage in any activity, by mutual consent, and to mutual benefit, that they so choose. No moral judgments are applicable to personal value-judgments. What one man values is amoral. How a man interacts with others is either moral or immoral. The Reasonist philosophy also draws it's morality from its metaphysics. The Reasonist concept of right and wrong in morality is a metaphysical, not just an ethical, concept. All immoral actions reduce to an attempt to violate the law of non-contradiction. An immoral action is an attempt to affect reality without following the rules of reality. As an example, we will look at theft. By taking something that does not belong to you using force, you have made an attempt to will it, again by means of force, to change its identity. You have not succeeded. The stolen item is still the property of whomever it was stolen from. To claim it as yours is both metaphysically and morally wrong. Reasonism promotes rational selfishness.
Epistemology Epistemology is the study of knowledge and the means by which man gains it. Here again the Objectivist and Reasonist philosophies are largely in agreement. Reasonist philosophy holds that the only means of cognition, that is thought and knowledge building, available to man is his faculty of reason. Reason is the process, from perception to identification, by which man gains knowledge.
The process begins with the senses, and perception. Man gains the first building block of his knowledge though his senses and the way they interact with existents. This very first step in the process is vitally important, because it starts us out on a non-contradictory and objective path. Every existent impinges on every man's senses in the exact same way. While different men may FEEL differently about an object, the way that the object is perceived is the same for every man because the existent is the same for every man. While certain aspects of the object may not be available to certain people (such as color to the color blind) the object is still perceived in the exact same way no matter who is seeing it. This is because our senses only relay to us the facts about whatever object has impinged upon them, and the facts are objective. (They are objective because of the primacy of existence!) When our senses are impinged upon they relay that data to our brains, and the second step begins.
This second step, integration, is where our brain, through non-contradictory logic, takes this data and integrates it into the entirety of our knowledge through logical comparisons. For instance, the abstraction "round" is a word used to describe the concrete (as opposed to abstract) shape of a given object. All such objects are classified as round. When our brain receives the perceptory data of a "round" object we integrate it as round. All other perceptory data about the object is classified and categorized in the same way, by comparing that knowledge to the knowledge we have already gained. Once the data is integrated, our rational process moves to the third and final step.
The third step is Identification. At this juncture we have received the raw data, integrated it into the hierarchy of our knowledge, and can now, through logical contrast, differentiate between this object and others. This process, where in we add up the abstractions--such as round, solid, rough, brown, supported by a certain number of equally solid rough brown and long objects--results in a more specific abstraction for a concrete object. In this case, table (granted I didn't list every possible variable that adds up to the concept of table). These are the three basic steps. Once this has been done initially for a given type of object the process becomes stream-lined and, sticking with our example, "Table" can be more easily and readily inferred.
Reason is the only method of cognition that follows these steps. Faith, the antithesis of reason, relies on feelings and preferences, rather than objective facts, to draw its conclusions. Certainly it is possible to get an occasional "right answer" by means of faith, but not with any consistency. Reason is the only tool of cognition whereby man can gain consistently correct knowledge about reality. Reasonism rejects all forms of faith as tools of cognition. Faith is the tool of distortion, because no concrete facts are needed to "know" something by means of faith. In fact faith has led billions and billions of people to "know" that a super-natural ghost is watching them--from a mountain top, another world, or some spiritual reality not accessible to reason, and not subject to objective scrutiny--despite the concrete facts of reality. Reasonism promotes rational thought as man's cognitive tool.
Politico-economics The Reasonist politico-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. Laissez-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez aller, laissez passer, which is French for let do, let go, let pass. Laissez-faire is an economic system with a strictly free market, with no government interference or regulation. Its political corollary is TRUE Right-theorist Libertarianism. Right Theorist Libertarianism holds that each and every person's life is their own, and that so long as they do not infringe on the liberties of others, they should be allowed to do as they please with no government interference. Right Theorist Libertarianism is in perfect agreement with the Reasonist morality. Both the Laissez-faire and Right Theorist systems advocate personal freedom and protection of individual rights.
Reasonists hold that, as a part of the limited government Right Theorist system, there should be two branches of government: one for defense, with a police force for domestic defense and a military for international defense, and one for arbitration in the case of disagreements between rational individuals. Both of these branches must and can be supported without forced taxation, and both must be separate from the economy of the nation in order to ensure impartiality. Reasonism promotes individualism and freedom.
Reasonism is a philosophy that promotes the best in man, and encourages him to be the best that he can be. Reasonism is the philosophy for the Hero in man.