Virtuous Living (5 of 13): Rationality
by Joseph Rowlands
Objectivist Virtues
According to standard Objectivist literature, there are 7 major virtues, as well as a myriad of unspecified minor virtues. The difference between a major and a minor virtue is a difference in importance to your life. The major virtues are based on the widest of abstract principles, and the most significant values to one's life. The Objectivist major virtues are: Rationality, Productiveness, Justice, Integrity, Pride, Independence, Honesty. To this list, David Kelley has added Benevolence, but I won't cover that in this talk.
The rest of this speech will be a discussion of each virtue in both the Passive and Active forms. I'll go over what I've already discussed, showing how it applies to the major virtues. From the more details examples, you can be the judge of whether there is merit to the Active/Passive distinction, and how it can and should affect the way you treat virtues, as well as live your life.
The virtues I will discuss are not in any particular order.
Virtue #1: Rationality
The first virtue I'll talk about is rationality. In The Objectivist Ethics, Rand defined rationality as "the recognition and acceptance of reason as one's only source of knowledge, one's only judge of values and one's only guide to action".
Notice the wording. She starts her definition with the word "recognition". This is consistent with the Objectivist position that virtues are based on moral principles. The moral principle involved is the characteristic of the virtue that differentiates it from every other virtue. It is a critical part of the definition, and so every virtue should be partially defined by its particular moral principle.
Remember that a definition has a genus and differentia. The genus places the concept into a class of other concepts, while the differentia identifies the essential characteristics of the concept that show the difference between it and the other concepts. The moral principle at the heart of a virtue is merely the differentia in the definition. The goal of this speech is to help fill in the details of what the genus is.
Rand uses the phrase "the recognition and acceptance of" a moral principle, when defining the virtue. This means, simply, to understand the moral principle, and to act accordingly. The first part is fairly straightforward. The latter part, acting accordingly, is not as simple. I'll attempt to fill in some details here based on the Active/Passive distinction I make.
So let's hear the definition Rand gave again. Rationality is "the recognition and acceptance of reason as one's only source of knowledge, one's only judge of values and one's only guide to action".
So what's the moral principle here? It's that reality is absolute, and your actions must be in accordance with reality or they will fail. Furthermore, it is the principle that reason is your means of grasping reality.
So that's easy. Life is purposeful action, and to make your actions effective, you have to know understand the world around you. " Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."
Remember that virtues are the means to acquire values. The moral principle tells us how to acquire a kind of value, and the virtue shows how to practice this moral principle. What values are dependent on rationality? Actually, all values are. In order to identify and attain values, you need the use of reason and the acceptance of reality.
So now what? What's the "act accordingly" all about? Where do we go from there? This greatly depends on whether you accept the Active or Passive view of virtues. Let's start with the Passive view.
Under the Passive view, virtues are limits on your action. You can think of rationality in a couple ways here, then. The first is that it's an acceptance that reason is the means of gaining, so the virtue would tell you to never attempt to gain knowledge through some other means. So when the fortune-tellers come with their crystal ball, you better not take them seriously.
Or, you can focus on the fact that reality is absolute, and so you must never willingly evade knowledge you have of the world. Never act on a premise you know to be false. In this sense, Rationality is the virtue of never abdicating reason. It means never accepting the false or arbitrary as true. Only accept information that you know to be true, and only act on real knowledge.
But I said earlier that limits on actions can and properly always are defined by what they are preventing. In this instance, the virtue of rationality means never be irrational. Never act on faulty premises. Never evade knowledge. Never substitute emotion for reason. Never accept things on faith.
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