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And How “Sense of Life” Can Help You to Claim It Tara Smith OCON

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And How “Sense of Life” Can Help You to Claim It Tara Smith OCON To Imagine A Heaven – And How “Sense of Life” Can Help You to Claim It Tara Smith OCON July 2011 / Fort Lauderdale Passages from Ayn Rand & Others A. Passages from Ayn Rand’s non-fiction: pp. 2-8 B. Passages from Ayn Rand’s fiction: pp. 8-12 C. Passages from other authors: pp. 12-13 Abbreviations & Editions Used: Throughout, all emphases in originals PSL = "Philosophy & Sense of Life” (in The Romantic Manifesto) AMT = “Art & Moral Treason” (in RM) ASL = “Art & Sense of Life” (in RM) PSA = “The Psycho-Epistemology of Art" (in RM) A&C = “Art and Cognition” (in RM) Goal = “The Goal of My Writing” (in RM) DLG = “Don’t Let it Go” (in Philosophy: Who Needs It) MM = “The Metaphysical versus the Manmade” (in PWNI) CVD = “Causality vs. Duty” (in PWNI) TOE = "The Objectivist Ethics" (in The Virtue of Selfishness) Envy = “The Age of Envy” (in Return of the Primitive) Journals = Journals of Ayn Rand, ed. David Harriman, Plume/Penguin, 1997 Letters = Letters of Ayn Rand, ed. Michael S. Berliner, Plume/Penguin, 1995 OPAR = Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Penguin, 1991 NB: “Vacuum, speech, Zavarella” refers to Kara Zavarella’s transcription of Ayn Rand’s speech, “Our Esthetic Vacuum,” which is lengthier and somewhat different from the written version that was published in The Romantic Manifesto under the title, “The Esthetic Vacuum of Our Age.” Ayn Rand Answers – The Best of Her Q&A, ed. Robert Mayhew, Penguin, 2005 Objectively Speaking, eds. Peter Schwartz & Marlene Podritske, Lexington Books, 2009 Return of the Primitive – The Anti-Industrial Revolution, expanded edition of The New Left, ed. Peter Schwartz, Meridian, 1999 Editions of Ayn Rand’s works: The Romantic Manifesto, 1975, second revised edition Philosophy: Who Needs It, Bobbs-Merrill, 1982 The Virtue of Selfishness, Penguin, 1964 Atlas Shrugged, 50th anniversary edition paperback, (originally published 1957) We the Living, New American Library/Penguin, 2009 (originally published 1936) “Ideal,” in The Early Ayn Rand, 1986. _____________ 2 A. Passages from Ayn Rand’s Non-Fiction 1. “A sense of life is a pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man’s emotional responses and the essence of his character. "PSL" p. 25 2. “Long before he is old enough to grasp such a concept as metaphysics, man makes choices, forms value-judgments, experiences emotions and acquires a certain implicit view of life. Every choice and value-judgment implies some estimate of himself and of the world around him—most particularly, of his capacity to deal with the world. He may draw conscious conclusions, which may be true or false; or he may remain mentally passive and merely react to events (i.e., merely feel). Whatever the case may be, his subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him. What began as a series of single, discrete conclusions (or evasions) about his own particular problems, becomes a generalized feeling about existence, an implicit metaphysics with the compelling motivational power of a constant, basic emotion—an emotion which is part of all his other emotions and underlies all his experiences. This is a sense of life.” "PSL" pp. 25-26 3. “The integrated sum of a man’s basic values is his sense of life.” "PSL" p. 29 4. “A given person’s sense of life is hard to identify conceptually, because it is hard to isolate: it is involved in everything about that person, in his every thought, emotion, action, in his every response, in his every choice and value, in his every spontaneous gesture, in his manner of moving, talking, smiling, in the total of his personality. It is that which makes him a ‘personality.’” "PSL" p.31 5. “There are two aspects of man’s existence which are the special province and expression of his sense of life: love and art.” "PSL" p. 32 6. “The key concept, in the formation of a sense of life, is the term ‘important.’” "PSL" p. 28 7. “…A sense of life is not infallible. But a sense of life is the source of art, the psychological mechanism which enables man to create a realm such as art. "ASL" p. 35 8. “The emotion involved in art is not an emotion in the ordinary meaning of the term. It is experienced more as a “sense” or a “feel,” but it has two characteristics pertaining to emotions: it is automatically immediate and it has an intense, profoundly personal (yet undefined) value-meaning to the individual experiencing it. The value involved is life, and the words naming the emotion are: ‘This is what life means to me.’ "ASL" p. 35 9. “Regardless of the nature or content of an artist’s metaphysical views, what an art work expresses, fundamentally, under all of its lesser aspects is: ‘This is life as I see it.’ The essential meaning of a viewer’s or reader’s response, under all of its lesser elements, is: ‘This is (or is not) life as I see it.’ "ASL" p. 35 10. “And just as an individual who has never translated his sense of life into conscious convictions is in terrible danger—no matter how good his subconscious values—so is a nation.” "DLG" p. 252 3 11. “A sense of life is not a substitute for explicit knowledge. Values which one cannot identify, but merely senses implicitly, are not in one’s control. One cannot tell what they depend on or require, what course of action is needed to gain and/or keep them. One can lose or betray them without knowing it.” "DLG" pp. 256-257 12. “Emotional abstractions. An emotional abstraction consists of all those things which have the power to make one experience a certain emotion. For instance: a heroic man, the New York skyline, flying in a plane, a sunlit "stylized" landscape, ecstatic music, an achievement of which one is proud. (These same things will give an emotion of terror and guilt to a man with the wrong premises; all except the last, which is impossible to him.) An opposite example: a humble or depraved man, an old village or ruins, "walking on the moors," a desolate landscape, folk songs or atonal music, the failure of someone else's achievement or ambition. (The root and common denominator in all these things is self-esteem or lack of it; pro-man or anti- man; pro-life or anti-life.)” Journals, p. 714, April 28, 1965, on To Lorne Dieterling 13. lengthy passage: “The fundamental mistake in this question is its treatment of sense of life as if it were a conscious, rational conviction. I’ve always stressed that a sense of life is not a conviction, but an emotional sum arrived at subconsciously. This is why man cannot be guided by a sense of life alone; he is helpless without a conscious philosophy. “You define your sense of life by introspection; however, if you’re interested in identifying your sense of life, you don’t start by defining it. Begin by defining the causes of your emotions. First learn to identify the exact nature of what you feel (and why) in any instance. Learn to be at home with your emotions. Learn to identify in conscious words (not approximately) what you feel and why. Once you’ve become acquainted with yourself emotionally—when there are no longer any great mysteries—then you can try to identify your sense of life. … “You need not characterize your sense of life; what’s important is to ask yourself: “Are my subconscious ideas right or wrong? Do I consciously believe them, or have I made a mistake in my childhood?” and then translate your sense of life into conscious convictions. Once you’ve reached the point where you have identified the essentials of your sense of life, you’ll know you’re succeeding when there is no clash between your conscious convictions and your subconscious, sense of life emotions. “How much detail is necessary? Sense of life doesn’t deal with details, just as emotions don’t. It deals with philosophical fundamentals. Therefore, if you know in sense of life terms what you feel about the nature of reality, cognition, man’s nature, and his morality, that’s sufficient to know your sense of life. “In the light of what I’ve said, it is of course impossible to name the sense of life of fiction characters. You might name the sense of life of your closest friend—though I doubt it. You may, after some years, know approximately the sense of life of the person you love, but nobody beyond that. You cannot judge the sense of life of another person; that would be psychologizing. Judge their philosophical convictions, not whether their feelings match their ideas. That’s not for you to judge; it’s of no relevance to you. “In art, you can say I like this artist’s sense of life, even though his conscious convictions are different or opposite. But then you’re not concerned with his psychology, but with the ideas expressed in his work. It’s impossible to tell the sense of life of a character of fiction. What you need to determine are his convictions—his basic views on life. … 4 “A novelist need not—and cannot—know the sense of life of his characters. He needs their conscious convictions.” Ayn Rand Answers – The Best of Her Q&A, pp.
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