# 1999/2/17

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# Axiomatic Concepts #
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1a. consciousness as an attribute (describing an action)
Rand, ITOE, chapter 4
	Consciousness is the faculty of perceiving
	that which exists.
This definition gives us three equivalent ways of saying
the same thing:
	animal has consciousness
	animal has faculty = perceiving that which exists
	animal do perceive existent
I prefer the third way, because it describes an action
with an action, not an attribute.

1b. consciousness as a relation
Rand, ITOE, chapter 6
	The units of the concept "consciousness" are
	every state or process of awareness that one
	experiences, has experienced or will ever
	experience (as well as similar units, a
	similar faculty, which one infers in other
	living entities).
This can be expressed as
	existent
	    entity
	    relation
		consciousness
		    [animal has state=awareness]
		    [animal do process=awareness]

2. existence (and consciousness as a phenomenon)
Rand, ITOE, chapter 6
	The units of the concepts "existence" and "identity"
	are every entity, attribute, action, event or
	phenomenon (including consciousness) that exists,
	has ever existed or will ever exist.
This can be expressed as
	existence is identity is existent
	    entity
	    attribute
	    action
	    event
	    phenomenon
		consciousness

3. identity as a different view
Peikoff, OPAR, chapter 1
	Why, one might ask, use two concepts to identify
	one fact?  This procedure is common in philosophy
	and in other fields as well.  When men have
	several perspectives on a single fact, when they
	consider it from different aspects in different
	contexts, it is often essential to form concepts
	that identify the various perspectives.

	"Existence" differentiates a thing from nothing,
	from the absence of the thing.  This is the primary
	identification, on which all others depend; it is
	the recognition in conceptual terms that the thing
	*is*.  "Identity" indicates not that it *is*, but
	that *it* is.  This differentiates one thing from
	another, which is a distinguishable step in cognition.
	The perspective here is not: it is (vs. it is not),
	but: it is this (vs. it is that).  Thus the context
	and purpose of the two concepts differ, although
	the fact both concepts name is indivisible.
This can be expressed as
	at view = v_existence
	existence is existent
	    entity
	    relation
		[existent is either entity or relation]

	at view = v_identity
	identity is existent
	    entity
	    relation
		[entity isin relation]
		attribute
		    [entity has attribute]
		action
		    [entity do action]

4. axiomatic concepts
Rand, ITOE, chapter 6
	An axiomatic concept is the identification
	of a primary fact of reality, which cannot
	be analyzed, i.e., reduced to other facts
	or broken into component parts.  It is
	implicit in all facts and all knowledge.
	It is the fundamentally given and directly
	perceived or experienced, which requires
	no proof or explanation, but on which all
	proofs and explanations rest.
This can be expressed as
	axiomatic concept :=
	    man do identify primary fact of reality
	axiomatic concept has
	    implicit in all facts and all knowledge,
	    requires no proof or explanation,
	    on which all proofs and explanations rest
	primary fact of reality is fact of reality with
	    cannot be reduced to other facts,
	    cannot be broken into component parts

(":=" means "is the product of")
I think that this definition qualifies "identify" and
"man" as axiomatic concepts, since they are used in
the definition of axiomatic concept.  I think that
the attribute "implicit in all facts and all knowledge"
opens the door to consider "knowledge" (and "choose"
and "purpose") to be axiomatic concept(s).