A ''Beta'' Version of Logical Structure Is Printed

On June 9, printed and spiral-bound copies of The Logical Structure of Objectivism, by William R Thomas and David Kelley, arrived at the offices of IOS. This was the so-called "beta" version of the work, which will be used in conjunction with Thomas's six-lecture course at the 1999 IOS Summer Seminar, also called "The Logical Structure of Objectivism." Because this version is intended for use only in conjunction with the limited-enrollment class, just eighty copies were printed. After the class's students have had a chance to suggest improvements and corrections, the institute will seek to have the work published professionally. Logical Structure will then be offered for sale through Principal Source.

The project had its origins almost three years ago, at the 1996 IOS Summer Seminar, when David Kelley first delivered a series of lectures designed to set forth clearly the evidence and reasoning that support the philosophy of Objectivism. Kelley presented the lectures again at the 1997 IOS Summer Seminar in Charlottesville, Virginia, and then began thinking about the possibility of a printed version. In March 1998, William R Thomas joined IOS as its first visiting fellow and began the task of laying out the philosophy, using the method of diagramming logical arguments set forth in Kelley's logic text, The Art of Reasoning.

According to Thomas:

The level at which this book is aimed is the intermediate level of a nonscholar who's seriously interested in philosophy and would like a systematic understanding of Objectivism. This is the level at which you can formulate the principles of the philosophy and can see how the essential principles relate to each other—and you're more explicitly aware of what evidence can be brought to support the different claims of the philosophy. That's the level we're trying to reach. And the purpose is to create an intermediate-level training manual for Objectivists. It will be a manual that allows people who have a strong intuitive understanding of Objectivism to become more systematic in the knowledge of the philosophy.

In its current form, the book runs to 270 pages and seven chapters: Knowledge; Life and Needs; Material Values and Reason; Spiritual and Social Values; Virtues; Social Virtues; and Freedom and Government. There are sixty-three subsections dealing with such topics as "reason and objectivity," "self as a cardinal value," and "government and law." The essence of one such subsection is set forth on pages 18 and 19 of this issue of Navigator, under the heading "Why Man Needs Art." Embedded in the book's text are forty-eight diagrams, exemplified by the one concerning art on page 19 within.