Human knowledge is conceptual in nature. However sense perception and volition must be discussed first.
Consciousness begins as a tabula rasa ( blank slate ). Information is gathered by the senses. The validity of the senses is an axiom. For example, when you see a pencil in water, it looks as if it were bent. The senses do not straighten the pencil out ( because in reality it is straight). The senses simply report it perceives. Some have used this as an example to declare that the senses are not trustworthy. But, a bent pencil is exactly what you should be seeing ! The pencil appears bent because light waves travel at a different speed through water.
The integration of sensations into percepts is automatic. The integration of percepts into concepts is not automatic. Consciousness is an active process. We must choose weather to think or not to think. You can focus your thoughts, drift in and out of focus, or evade focusing. Consciousness is what leads to values, evasion is the essence of evil.
Actions have causes and involve choices. One can act in accordance with their values or not. Volition is a philosophic axiom.
Quicky notes:
Concerning the aspects of objects, the age old question of them being "in the mind" or "in the object", objectivism holds that they are objects as perceived.
Concerning determinism - man's actions do have causes, but he chooses the causes that shape his actions
To ask for proof of freewill, presupposes the reality of it !
One must accept volition in order to deny it !
Chapter 3 - Concept Formation
Man's distinctive method of cognition is the ability to regard entities as units. Units of course are measurable. Concepts and mathematics are tied together.Anything that exists can be measured including color, for example, one can measure the frequency of a wave to determine color.
The next step in concept formation is the mental integration of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristics, with their particular measurements omitted. For example, when we say the word "car" it represents a car in reality but not any particular type of car.
Concepts are also formed by abstract thinking and ultimately leads to defining entities.
Concepts integrate and condense a group of percepts into a single mental whole. "A word is worth a thousand words."
This is a metaphysical basis for conecpts. Concepts are condensations of data formed by a volitional process.
Knowledge is the grasp of an object through an active, reality-based process chosen by the subject.
To be objective in one's conecptual activities is volitionally to adhere to reality by following certain rules of method.
Logic is a volitional consciousness's method of conforming to reality. It is the method of reason. It requires a recognition of context and hierarchy.
Knowledge is contextual. Concepts are a realational form of knowledge. There is only one universe, everything in reality is interconnected. Knowledge is also hierarchical. For example, to understand the word organism, one must know what animal, life, man, and tree mean.
Proof is a form of reductionism. One way to determine a conclusions validity is to trace back its hierarcy of premises.
