The Republican Message is Irrefutable

… as is all nonsense.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

The story goes that theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli was invited to a lecture on his favorite topic. Afterward, when asked for his opinion, he responded that the speaker was “not even wrong”. This is an ongoing problem with inductive argumentation. An argument must have substance. It should provide reasonable observations based upon established premises. It must be possible to evaluate and assess it. It must be possible to prove it false. The truth or falsehood of the argument may be established by evaluating how the observations are derived from the premises or by evaluating the validity of the premises themselves. It’s always about the premises.

This is a common source of confusion. Ayn Rand claimed that if all decisions are based upon cold hard logic, all decisions will be correct. She ignored the fact that logic must be based upon premises and those premises may be wrong. The problem of evaluating and selecting correct premises, however, was not a key issue for her. This is why most serious scholars reject Rand’s philosophy as superficial and why most Capitalists, seeking justification for their actions, worship Rand as a goddess. A philosopher demands disciplined and self-evident premises; the Captain of Industry may simply make them up.