Superman And Me

visitor named Robert recently stopped by my blog and asked me to provide a "succint statement of what [I] hold

to be true and how [I] measure truth." Below I am posting the same response Igave to Robert in my combox.

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I don’t think a single statement would ever be sufficient to encapsulate what I hold to be true. But here are some basic pointers in terms of thefour basic branches of philosophy:

1) Metaphysics: Objective reality. Three axioms establish this: existence exists, consciousness is

Consciousness of something, A is A. These are theaxioms of existence, consciousness and identity. The initial guiding principle of philosophy is the primacy of existence principle. It is the recognition that reality exists independent ofconsciousness. Reality is not the product of conscious intentions, nor does it conform to consciousness. Hence I reject the religious view of the world, which essentially holds that a form of consciousnesscreated the universe – i.e., all existence extraneous to itself - and/or directs the events which take place within it. This is a form of metaphysical subjectivism – the view that the subject holdsmetaphysical primacy over its objects.

2) Epistemology: Reason. Reason is the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses. Rationality is the commitment to reason asone’s only means of knowledge of reality and his guide to

action. The form in which he initially identifies and integrates the objects of his awareness is conceptual in

nature, whichis a volitional process, and the method by which he integrates what he perceives and identifies

into affirmations is logic, which is the art of non-contradictory identification. Reasonfunctions in accordance

with the primacy of existence principle, enabling man to distinguish between fact and fiction, the real and

the unreal, the actual and the imaginary. Reason is...