Today, I return to my exploration of Objectivism the Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff. Today’s topic is the primacy of existence as opposed to the primacy of consciousness.
Primacy of Existence
The Objectivist position holds that existence has primacy over consciousness. In other words, if you were to approach the question in a “what comes first” manner, the answer is that existence comes first. Consciousness follows from existence – or it fits into existence, rather than the other way around.
According to this view, the primary means of gaining knowledge is through extrospection of the outside world. It’s worth noting that this view doesn’t rule out the value of introspection. Indeed, the Objectivist position holds that introspection is a valuable exercise to gain knowledge over one’s self.
Ayn Rand neatly summarized the primacy of existence view by saying that “nature, in order to be commanded, must be obeyed.”
Primacy of Consciousness
On the other hand is the view that consciousness holds primacy over existence. In other words, consciousness comes first and essentially controls existence. According to this view, the only means of gaining knowledge is through introspection, because reality bends to God’s, our, or my wishes. Peikoff identifies three essential categories of the primacy of consciousness.
Supernatural – In the supernatural category, existence is a product of God’s consciousness. Peikoff identifies the start of this view in philosophy as implicitly stated by Plato via his realm of Forms. He argues that this implicit statement was readily made explicit as Christian philosophers adopted Plato’s philosophy to Christian beliefs. According to this view, the means of knowledge is through introspective revelation (i.e. one looks inward to learn what God is communicating to oneself).
Social – In the social category, existence is a product of a particular group’s consciousness. That group may be any manner of grouping, for example a nation, a race, a gender, an economic class, etc. Peikoff identifies that this view in philosophy starts with Kant and is made explicit by Hegel. According to this view, the means of knowledge is through collective instrospection, for example public surveys.
Personal – Finally, in the personal category, existence is a product of my own consciousness. Reality bends to my own mind and my own wishes. Peikoff identifies that this view starts in philosophy with Protagoras, and that it continues into today’s world through statements such as “my truth” or “your truth”.
Wrap Up
It may be tempting to think that no one really believes in the primacy of consciousness, and I think that no one can consistently believe in it. As I understand it, the primacy of existence states that reality never bends to my wishes or anyone else’s wishes – no matter how badly we may wish that it did. In other words, wishing will never made it so. Praying to God, so that he can wish it so, will never work.
To me, the unique part of the Objectivist view is to identify that if someone thinks that wishing will sometimes make it so, or that praying to God will work sometimes, then that implies that reality is subservient to my wishes (or God’s). If we were to actually believe that, and to act accordingly, then we would never turn towards reality to learn what we should do. We would, instead, wish our problems away.
Ryan Sawatzky 