An Objectivist Etymological Inquiries in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957) and The Fountainhead (1943)

Abstract

How could we possibly know what we do? Is the reason a reliable source of knowledge, or is it substituted by extraterrestrial revelation or emotional instinct? Would we be able to be assured of our understanding, or must we always be in doubt?

For instance, questions like these are under the purview of epistemology, the area of logic concerned with the learning hypothesis. The right answers also heavily depend on the nature and legitimacy of concepts, which is one of the main concerns of epistemology. When our ideas refer to objects existing generally, we may be sure that our insight is accurate and reliable. If they don't, however—if rather they are imaginative developments supported by authority or the social show—then our knowledge is unjustified and hence inherently unreliable.

Since man's knowledge is “picked up and held in the calculated structure,” as Ayn Rand explains, “the legitimacy of man's learning depends upon the legitimacy of ideas.” However, everything that a man sees is concrete and specific; concepts are deliberate or universals. What is the relationship between cement and deliberations? What unquestionably do concepts suggest in reality?