In the past, before I knew Objectivism, I had some rationalist tendencies.
I was raised Catholic. For a long time, I thought that being Catholic was good because it provided a morality to guide my actions and do “good”. Although I was never really a believer, I ended up accepting religion- authoritarian. Sometimes I tried to practice “altruism” without paying attention to the self-evident and what I perceived in reality. For example, the fact that practicing altruism is self-destructive. Although I was aware of it, I continued to give more importance to ideas than facts and I was not interested in relating them. Sometimes I gave more importance to some people than to myself. For instance when I gave up my priorities to take care of someone who was not important to me. I felt that I had nothing to gain from morality. Parasites and predators took advantage and got their way.
When I discovered Objectivism, I was so impressed with the Objectivist philosophy that I tried to communicate it in order to make its value known to other people, although I was still a beginner. However, I was looking only at abstracts and I was not presenting any concrete examples. I was trying to present a logical structure, without grounding the ideas in specific real-life situations. For example, in conversations, I tried to back up my arguments inspired by Objectivism using an abstract approach, I never referred to reality- context and concretes. As a result, nobody understood what I was explaining.
After a while, I learned more about Objectivist philosophy. I also began to study philosophy in university, and I was able to compare it with other philosophies. Thus, by studying the axioms, the laws of logic and Aristotle, I came to better understand the importance of philosophy and Objectivism. I also understood that the human mind works only through the combination of ideas and concretes. It was only then that I really began to understand the importance of references in reality. I could say that it is only through the combination of the abstract and the concrete that one really begins to understand Objectivism and that is the way to communicate it. If one cannot give an example of the idea he presents, it is because he does not understand it (besides the fact that the example must be correct).
I recommend Ayn Rand’s novels as the best source to see how her philosophy works in practice.
I also recommend Leonard Peikoff’s course about rationalism.
