PART 2: CHAPTER 6

OBJECTIVE EPISTEMOLOGY

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Epistemology

Epistemology studies how man learns, from when he perceives to when he thinks.

If axiomatic concepts and their corollaries answer the question, Where am I?, epistemology answers the question, How can I know?

The word epistemology comes from Greek: episteme means knowledge, and logos means study.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines how knowledge is produced and the criteria for its validation. It studies the nature of knowledge, its truth, and justification — from perception to reason — and the structure of concepts derived from percepts.

The goal of learning epistemology is to think with clear, precise concepts and to distinguish them from confused or approximate ones. Mastering this subject is essential for you to think clearly and make sound life decisions, because decisions are based on thoughts.

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Percepts

A percept automatically integrates sensory perceptions into mental entities.

Man, as a baby, knows the world through his percepts before he can speak. Percepts are the automatic sensory integration of the things, or “entities,” he perceives.

A percept can be seen as a “photo” of the entity, but one that combines vision with smell, taste, hearing, and touch. This sensory integration forms the percept, or “photo,” of the entity.

The “photo” must not be confused with the real entity. The entity exists independently in the material world, before the photo. The percept derives from the entity and cannot exist before it. In other words, the entity comes first; the percept comes second.

Percepts are the pre-conceptual way of knowing the world. Before learning to speak, man knows reality through percepts, which his body automatically creates to survive. Animals do the same.

Man alone can know reality through concepts, but concepts are not automatic. Carefully built concepts, aligned with reality, help him survive. Careless concepts, detached from reality, can lead to failure or death. The quality of a man’s thinking depends on the seriousness with which he studies epistemology.

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Word, Concept and Percept Differences

Every valid concept contains percepts.

If a percept is like a “photo” of a thing, a concept is like a photo album of similar things.

For example, the percept soccer ball integrates the sensory experience of a soccer ball, which exists in the real world. The entity is the ball. The percept is the photo. The concept is a photo album containing only soccer ball photos.

Another example is the concept apple. It is an album containing only apple photos. If the album is empty or has mixed photos, it is not a valid concept and cannot help you think clearly.

The key difference between percept and concept is effort. Percepts form automatically. Concepts require a decision, like learning to speak. To form a concept, you must study, check definitions, think, and dedicate time. Making a photo album is work: selecting, rating, and pasting photos.

The sequence to form a concept is: first, the entity exists, such as a soccer ball. Next, perception produces the percept automatically — a photo including its image, weight, and texture. Finally, the concept soccer ball is a photo album of these photos. The album is not automatic; it requires effort to gather and organize the photos. This illustrates creating a basic concept.

A concept is not the same as a word. The word is the sound or written sign; the concept is its meaning, as defined in a dictionary. Words without meaning cannot produce understanding. Even a parrot can say man without knowing what it means.

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Things Exist, Although Their Invisible Part Cannot Be Seen.

Everything that is perceived in the material world exists, even if its atoms are not seen.

The cells and atoms of an apple, or anything else, do not contradict what is perceived. If the world were not perceived, cells and atoms would never have been discovered.

Visible existence does not contradict the invisible; they form a continuum. For example, the trunk and roots of a tree are one unit. It is absurd to say a tree does not exist because you see only the trunk and leaves, not the roots. The root is not the cause, nor is the trunk and leaves the effect. The tree has a seen part and an unseen part, but neither causes the other.

The same applies to an iceberg: one part is visible, the other hidden, yet both exist together. Neither part exists first to cause the other.

The universe is similar: 5 percent visible (matter and energy), 95 percent invisible (energy and dark matter). Both exist simultaneously. One is not the effect of the other, and one is not the cause. Visibility does not imply conflict or separation.

Some philosophy professors argue an apple does not exist because atoms cannot be seen. Kant and Plato claim sensory perceptions cannot reveal reality. A child who says “dad” does not need to see his father’s cells to know he exists.

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Perception and Identity

Each sensory organ perceives according to its identity.

Every sensory organ is an entity that acts according to its nature. The eye sees, the ear listens, and the nose smells. No ear smells, no nose sees, no eye hears. Each organ is what it is and acts according to its nature, by causality.

A bat perceives a moth with sonar; a man perceives it with his eyes. The moth is the same, and both perceptions are valid. Animals need sensory organs to perceive reality. Reality exists independently, but when it is perceived, the perception reflects the identity of the sensory organ. Each organ perceives the same reality differently. In Ayn Rand’s words: “Existence is identity, consciousness is identification.”

Kant claimed sensory organs distort reality, so it cannot be known “as it is.” He proposed knowing reality without sensory organs, which is impossible, concluding that reality cannot be fully known.

Ayn Rand summarized Kant: “You are blind because you have eyes, deaf because you have ears, deluded because you have a mind, and the things you perceive do not exist because you perceive them.”

Kant changed philosophy, arguing that sensory perception creates only a representation in the mind, not reality itself.

Can man trust his senses? Not to see reality “as it is,” Kant says. For him, the world “in itself” is unknowable. Perception occurs in the brain and is therefore subjective. But is death subjective? No. In 1781, Kant published Critique of Pure Reason, undermining man’s confidence in reason.

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The Perceptual Level as Given and Absolute

The sensory organs are given, natural and absolute and the only means to know reality.

Natural selection designed the sensory organs of each animal species. Their function is to capture information from the environment so the species can survive.

The design and effectiveness of each organ come from the need to adapt. The human eye was shaped by natural selection over billions of years through slow, gradual evolution.

The same applies to other animals and insects. Bumblebees detect flowers using electrical charges: they carry a small positive charge, and flowers are naturally negative. Sharks have biological devices that sense electrical differences in water, prey, and themselves, like a missile tracking system. Jewel beetles detect fire with infrared sensors up to 70 kilometers away, locating charred trees — without predators — to lay their eggs.

Every species has sensory organs designed for survival. Their identity comes from the need to adapt, preserve life, and pass on genes. Each organ is natural, absolute, and valid for survival. They act according to their nature and identity.

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Unity, Similarities and Differences

The concept unit has a fundamental role in forming a concept.

Before speaking, a baby quickly learns the difference between perceiving something and perceiving nothing. That is when he grasps — without words — the concept of existence.

A few months later, he realizes that what he perceives are things. That is the concept of entity. Soon after, he distinguishes his pacifier from his bottle. That is the concept of identity. Later, he grasps unit — also without words.

The concept unit (from Latin unitas) refers to the indivisibility of something. It designates the essential quality that cannot be divided, lost, or destroyed. In mathematics, it represents the number one.

No animal except man understands unit. It is the basic concept underlying mathematical operations that enable humanity’s progress.

The unit is implicit in every concept. Forming a concept begins by identifying the common characteristic shared by the things in the group. For example, the concept triangle identifies the feature common to all triangles: three sides. Three sides is the unit. Triangles may vary in size or material, but all must have three sides.

Imagine a child forming the concept spoon. He notices that spoons share a concave surface attached to a handle and are used to eat liquids. This common characteristic is the unit that classifies them in the same group. The child focuses on this identical feature, even as each spoon differs in size and material.

Man does the same with oranges. He identifies the characteristics shared by all oranges — the unit —while recognizing that individual oranges vary in shape, weight, flavor, juice, peel thickness, and seed size. The unit is the shared characteristic, not any single orange in the material world.

Another example: when forming the concept pear, the common characteristics define the unit. The unit groups pears, even though individual pears differ in measurements.

The concept unit bridges metaphysics and epistemology. Studying oranges as entities is metaphysics. Classifying them by shared characteristics to form units is epistemology. The human mind selectively identifies these identical characteristics, even while individual measurements differ.

Thus, the common characteristics form the epistemological unit, while each real orange — with its variations — is the metaphysical unit. Both are units, but in different realms: metaphysics and epistemology.

Although incomplete, this explains how the concept unit connects metaphysics with epistemology.

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Concept Formation as Mathematical Calculation

Forming a concept involves a mathematical calculation, because it identifies a common characteristic to measure it.

Forming a concept involves a mathematical calculation. For example, “tree” identifies the colour “green” as the common characteristic that serves as the unit for measuring the hue of treetops, which must exist in some quantity.

A mathematical calculation uses units. To measure, you need a unit. To form a concept, you must also measure. It is necessary to understand what measurement is.

The Greek sophist Protagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things,” and he was right, but only at the epistemological level.

Knowing is measuring. You need to measure what you discover about the world in relation to your body. Humans invented units of measurement based on their bodies. For example: inches measure the thumb; spans measure the distance from thumb to little finger with an outstretched hand; feet measure a human foot; cubits measure from elbow to the end of an open hand; fathoms measure a pair of outstretched arms and help sailors gauge water depth. These are all units of distance that the senses can perceive. By sensing a meter, you get an idea of one hundred meters or kilometers, even if you cannot grasp them directly.

The chosen unit must match what is being measured. Kilos measure weight, meters measure distance, degrees Celsius measure temperature. What unit measures a concept? The common characteristic shared by the things that possess it.

For example, the concept “tree” identifies the colour “green” as the common characteristic to measure the tone of crowns. If something has a crown on a trunk, a shape similar to a sphere, and some shade of green, these shared characteristics define it as a “tree.”

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Omission of Measurements of Characteristics

The concept identifies the common characteristic of all entities that own it, but omits to measure its particular quantities, which must exist in some or any amount.

The function of omitting measurements in forming a concept becomes clear with Ayn Rand’s definition in Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology:

“The process of concept formation consists in mentally isolating two or more existents on the basis of their distinctive features, and retaining that feature by omitting their particular measures, according to the principle that measures must exist in some quantity, but they may exist in any amount. A concept is a mental integration of two or more units that possess the same distinctive characteristic(s), with their specific measures omitted.”

A small child lifting stones of different sizes is forming the concept of “weight.” The child notices that bigger stones weigh more than smaller ones. They identify the common characteristic “weight” while accepting it can exist in any quantity, as long as it is greater than zero.

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The Allegory of Photo Albums and Folders

The Allegory of Photo Albums and Folders serves to know how percepts and concepts are connected.

The Allegory of Photo Albums and Folders helps explain the internal structure of concepts that classify what you perceive in the real world.

Photos represent percepts, photo albums represent basic concepts, and folders represent concepts furthest from sensory perception.

Concepts closest to perception, like “soccer ball,” are photo albums containing only photos of soccer balls.

Concepts further from perception are folders. For example, “soccer” is a folder containing albums: one with soccer balls, one with soccer shoes, one with soccer fields. These albums sit inside the folder called “soccer.”

The concept “apple” is a photo album with apple photos; “pear” is an album with pear photos; “orange” is an album with orange photos. If these albums are placed in a folder, the folder is called “fruit.” “Fruit” contains multiple photo albums, each with the same type of fruit.

Concepts closest to sensory experience are photo albums. Concepts further away are folders. Folders can contain folders, showing levels of concepts depending on how far they are from perception. These levels will be studied below.

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Basic Concepts

A basic concept is a photo album that contains photos of the same type of things.

Basic concepts are closest to sensory perception and refer to things you can see and point to.

For example, the concept “apple” is a basic concept represented by a photo album containing photos of different types of apples.

Just as a photo album contains photos of the same type of things, a basic concept contains percepts of the same type of entities that exist in reality.

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1st Level Concepts

A 1st level concept is a 1st level folder containing photo albums.

The concept “fruit” is a first-level concept represented by a folder containing several photo albums, each with photos of the same type of fruit.

The concept “soccer” is also a first-level concept. It is a folder containing multiple photo albums: some with soccer balls, others with soccer shoes, others with soccer fields, and so on.

The best way to understand a concept’s structure is by making a cardboard model, for example with “fruit.” First, print or cut images of pears, apples, and bananas from magazines (any fruits will do). These images represent percepts.

Next, fold a letter-size piece of paper in two to make a photo album for pears. Glue the pear photos inside and write “pear” on the cover. This photo album represents a basic concept, closest to sensory perception. Repeat the process for apples and bananas.

Once the three photo albums are ready, place them in a cardboard folder and write “fruit” on the cover. This folder represents a first-level concept, slightly further from the perceptual level.

If a young child makes this model with their parents, both will learn how concepts are structured, from sensory perception to abstraction. Everyone gains mental precision, efficiency, and self-esteem.

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2nd Level Concepts

A 2nd level concept is a folder that contains 1st level folders.

A second-level folder contains first-level folders, for example, the concept “vegetable.”

The concept “vegetable” is a second-level folder that, when opened, contains folders such as “fruits,” “vegetables,” and “trees.”

The “fruit” folder and its photo albums have already been explained. The same logic applies to “vegetables” and “tree.”

Opening the “tree” folder reveals three photo albums: “deciduous trees,” “evergreen trees,” and “conifers.” The “conifers” album contains photos of junipers, redwoods, and pines.

Opening the “vegetables” folder shows three folders: “bulbs” with garlic, onion, and leek; “cabbages”; and “leaves.” The “leaves” folder contains three photo albums: lettuce, chard, and spinach, each with photos of that type of leaf.

The “bulbs” folder contains a garlic album, an onion album, and a leek album. Each album contains photos of the respective bulb.

The cardboard model described earlier can be expanded to create a second-level concept model. This shows, with total clarity, how a valid second-level concept is structured, how it classifies a large amount of information hierarchically, and the power of a concept when it is valid and clearly constructed.

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3rd Level Concepts

A 3rd level concept is a 3rd level folder that contains 2nd level folders.

Every third-level concept subsumes second-level concepts. For example, the concept “organisms” contains plants, animals, and insects.

In the allegory, “organisms” is a third-level folder, far removed from sensory experience.

The further a concept is from perception, the more perceptual information it can contain if it is well constructed. Poorly constructed concepts cause confusion, miscommunication, and error.

The concept “organism” is valid when the “organisms” third-level folder contains several second-level folders, such as “vegetables,” “insects,” and “mammals.” Opening the “vegetables” folder reveals first-level folders like “fruits,” “legumes,” and “trees,” each with photo albums containing photos of the same type of entities.

Another third-level concept is “culture.”

Making a model with cardboard folders, one inside the other, down to photo albums and photos, is the best way to understand a valid concept’s structure. It shows how percepts are classified hierarchically, ordered, and precise.

Higher human consciousness involves higher levels of abstraction. Man must acclimatize his mind to understand higher concepts clearly.

Clear higher concepts give man exceptional mental sharpness. They do not produce confusion or cognitive dissonance between entities, percepts, and concepts.

If concepts are like folders without albums, albums without photos, mixed photos, or everything mixed without logical order or hierarchy, they fail to refer to reality. Such concepts lack reason, do not support successful life decisions, and are worthless.

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Concepts of Consciousness

The concepts of consciousness refer to all psychological action of man.

The concepts of consciousness refer to all psychological actions, from perceiving to thinking, feeling, desiring, imagining, and deciding.

What are the percepts of these concepts? What can you point to and say, This shows what it means?

Psychological actions occur inside the skull and cannot be seen directly. However, the areas of the brain that activate can be measured with electroencephalography (EEG), which neuroscientists use to study brain activity.

They can also be seen indirectly through external expressions: laughing, smiling, frowning, opening the mouth in astonishment, opening the eyes in surprise, or showing fear, happiness, sadness, anger, or concentration while studying. Body language, captured in how a person walks, sits, or stands, adds to these percepts.

All these bodily gestures can be pointed at. They are the percepts of the concepts of consciousness. In the Allegory of Photos, Albums, and Folders, they are the photos in photo albums. For example, the album representing “joy” contains photos of people laughing, jumping, or dancing in joy.

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Intensity and Content of Consciousness

The intensity and content of consciousness depends on man’s own interests.

Concepts of consciousness have intensity and content. These depend on a person’s interests, shaped by cultural imprint.

Ayn Rand explains in Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology:

“A concept referring to consciousness is a mental integration of two or more instances of a psychological process that possess the same distinctive characteristics, omitting the specific contents and measures of intensity of action; all this under the principle that these omitted measures must exist in some quantity, but they can exist in any quantity (that is, a certain psychological process must have some content and some level of intensity, but it can have any content or level of the appropriate category).”

Imagine a man taking a math test who hates numbers. How intense is his awareness? Low. How do you know? A photo of him shows a bored facial expression.

Now imagine the same man scoring the winning goal in soccer. How intense is his consciousness? Very high. The photo shows him jumping for joy.

Another man, who loves math but hates soccer, would show the opposite intensity in the same circumstances.

This shows that consciousness actions vary in intensity and content. They depend on personal interest within the limits of cultural imprint.

In summary, a concept of consciousness has two characteristics: content and intensity. Both exist, but their quantities are omitted.

Since interests derive from cultural imprint, anyone who controls a person’s interests controls their consciousness.

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Definition of Concepts

To define a concept is to classify a smaller group in a larger group.

To define a concept correctly, you must identify the larger group in which the smaller group fits. For example, “mammals” is a smaller group within the larger group “animals.”

Aristotle defined man as a “rational animal,” with “rational” as his fundamental characteristic. The smaller group “rational” fits within the larger group “animal.”

The defining characteristic of a concept must be the most fundamental. It would be wrong to define man as an “animal that wears shoes,” because that is not essential. “Rational” is essential, because man could walk barefoot without losing his rational faculty.

Open a dictionary. Any word is defined by many other words. The first word is defined by a second; the second by a third; and so on, in layers. This is mind acclimatization to higher meaning.

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Concepts Influence Each Other

The meaning of one concept influences the others and vice versa.

Renewing the meaning of a single concept can renew all of a person’s knowledge.

When a person buys new curtains, the old furniture may look bad. Refinishing the furniture highlights the old carpet, and they may end up renovating the whole house. The same happens with concepts. Understanding axiomatic concepts, their corollaries, or the concept “entity” can lead to renewing all knowledge for one’s own benefit.

Just as new curtains affect old furniture, and new furniture affects the carpet, a renewed concept can renew all knowledge.

A well-defined concept positively influences poorly defined concepts, but the reverse is also true: a poorly defined concept can negatively affect a well-defined one. A bad concept is like a rotten apple spoiling the box.

Therefore, use the dictionary often to define key concepts precisely, such as “axiomatic concepts,” “I,” “entity,” “value,” “life,” and “moral.”

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A Concept Exists Within a Mental Context

For one concept, all the others act as its mental context.

The meaning of many concepts comes from cultural use — by imitation — but does not necessarily match the dictionary’s objective meaning. If many of a person’s concepts are like this, they become disconnected from reality, limited by cultural vision, and unable to grasp new meanings. Why? Because the meaning of each concept depends on the meaning of other concepts.

Something similar happens when reading a book a year later. The second reading is better understood because, over the year, the meanings of concepts have been enriched.

Did the words in the book change? No. But the book feels new because the concepts are clearer and influence each other, changing, to some degree, all knowledge.

Returning to the house metaphor, the timid person who started by changing the curtains ended up renovating the whole house. This illustrates reading the same book after a year: it is read in a renewed mental house, and the cognitive experience is completely different.

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The Hierarchy of Learning

The hierarchy when learning is that you go to school first, then to university.

The hierarchy of learning is illustrated by the Allegory of the Skyscraper. A tall building is constructed from the bottom up, with lower floors supporting the upper ones. Similarly, a valid concept is built from the bottom up, with percepts supporting the concept.

Just as the first floor supports the second, and the second supports higher floors, percepts support a concept. In the Allegory of Photo Albums and Folders, the photos in the album capture perceived reality.

Many people think with empty folders or albums without photos—these are floating concepts. A floating concept is like the top floor of a skyscraper hovering in the air without lower floors.

This allegory shows the hierarchical order of concepts, starting with perceptions. Before forming concepts, a child forms percepts. Before learning mathematics, they learn to count on fingers. Before attending university, they go to school. Before an Einstein, there was a Newton; before Newton, a Galileo; before Galileo, an Aristotle.

Learning is gradual. You must understand the simplest to grasp the complex. There are no shortcuts to knowledge.

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Reverse Engineering Applied to Concepts

To validate a concept, it can be reverse engineered.

Reverse engineering applied to concepts is like taking a bicycle apart and putting it back together to understand how and why its parts are connected.

Applied to a concept, reverse engineering is understood through the Allegory of Photo Albums and Folders. Opening folder after folder, from the outermost to the photo albums, and from the albums to the photos, lets a person reverse-engineer a concept. It allows distinguishing a valid concept from a floating one.

This process can also be done by asking simple questions in any debate: What does that word mean? What thing does that concept refer to? What can I point to with my finger?

Faced with political speeches, newscasts, teachers, and authorities, one must remain alert to distinguish valid concepts from invalid ones and demand precise definitions of terms.

It is a bad habit to be intimidated by the prestige of authorities. On a specific issue, even experts may be wrong. Ask: To what specific thing does X refer? This is the golden question for maintaining objective knowledge. It applies especially to the words of experts, from economics to health.

The allegories described are mental tools to clear the fog created by rulers and the ruled.

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Syntax

The “syntax” studies how grammatical sentences should be ordered to speak well.

To think like your own champion, it is necessary to use concepts anchored to percepts. It is also necessary to study syntax, since thoughts are built with sentences — the “units” of meaning combined in discourse.

According to the RAE Spanish dictionary, “syntax” is the part of grammar that studies how words and the groups they form are combined to express meanings, and the relationships established between these units.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, “syntax” is the linguistic discipline that studies the order and relationships of words or phrases in a sentence, as well as the functions they fulfil.

Children are taught grammar early, but few enjoy it, and the dislike often continues into adulthood. Conjugating verbs is painful in most languages. Words like syntax, phrase, morpheme, prepositions, conjunctions, participle, gerund, imperfect, pluperfect, adverbs, verbs, nouns, adjectives — just reading them makes many frown or look away. Yet, to think clearly, precisely, and fluently, you must study grammar and syntax.

Here only the most fundamental will be discussed:

The sentence is the “basic unit” that structures thought. A grammatical sentence is a unit of information delimited by phonic signs, such as commas, semicolons, and stops, which indicate it has concluded. It is an indivisible whole, with complete sense and syntactic autonomy.

There are simple and compound sentences. Simple sentences have all verbs referring to the same subject, for example: Peter eats little. John and Mary sleep a lot. Charles runs and jumps. Compound sentences have more than one verb in personal form: They will roast the meat on the grill, and they will prepare the salads at the table.

Every sentence is a unit understood from three perspectives: psychological, logical, and grammatical.

From the psychological perspective, a sentence is a psychic unit that, without contradicting logic, follows laws linked to the speaker’s intention. These are “psychic sentences,” identified in speech by their melodic curve.

Each language and accent has melodic curves and pauses forming the “psychic sentence.” A sudden pitch change, a long or short pause, or changes in voice volume all create psychic sentences. The curve can ascend or descend, linked to attention. If a sentence feels complete, attention slackens and the curve descends. If incomplete, attention remains tense. In questions, the curve generally rises. Psychic sentences end with a descending curve.

From the logical perspective, a sentence (proposition) has a subject and a predicate. Something is said about an entity, called the subject. For example: Volcanoes explode; The student studies; My father’s house. Each has an entity (subject) about which something is said (predicate).

From the grammatical perspective, every sentence has a syntactic nucleus — a verb in personal form (indicative, imperative, or subjunctive) in one of six grammatical persons (three singular, three plural). Sentences with a personal verb constitute a grammatical sentence.

The concept is the basic brick connecting a sentence with reality — from concepts to percepts, and from there to entities in the real world. Syntax is the ordering of concepts in sentences, the “basic units” to express ideas clearly.