The focus for the third day is on the process of conceptualizing as a whole. Topics include: how the formation of a concept commits one to a policy of inducing and deducing, the difference between first-level and higher-level concepts, how different sorts of higher-level concepts depend on earlier concepts, how first-level judgments (including first-level generalizations) are justified directly on the basis of perception and how higher-level judgments are based on lower-level ones, the distinction between the hierarchies of knowledge and of generality, the role of axiomatic concepts as integrators of knowledge, and how Rand’s conception of reason differs from both rationalism and empiricism.
This course includes a handout and transcript.
