About LOGIC
LOGIC is a student-run philosophical organization at UCLA started in 2004. In 2006, we achieved 501(c)(3) status and became an official Objectivist club affiliated with The Ayn Rand Institute. Though our numbers were modest at first, our club membership steadily grew, and our email list now contains over 700 registered members. One of our most successful events, "Totalitarian Islam's Threat to the West" (a panel including Dr. Daniel Pipes, Dr. Wafa Sultan, and Dr. Yaron Brook), garnered an audience of over 500 students and members of the UCLA and broader Southern California communities.
Each academic year, we strive to widen our range of programs, thereby reaching a larger and more diverse audeince.
Mission Statement
LOGIC's mission is to promote the philosophy of Objectivism, both academically and in practice. For its members, LOGIC seeks to be a forum for philosophical inquiry and study. For the community at large, LOGIC engages in high-quality event programming and other outreach activities to promote the knowledge and acceptance of Objectivism in particular, and of rational discourse more generally.
Basic Principles
LOGIC takes the field of philosophy very seriously, as most take the fields of mathematics, physics, etc. Philosophy is not the province of whim or fancy, nor a game for the so-called intellectuals--it is a necessity of successful human life. As Ayn Rand discovered, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: rational, conscious, and therefore practical; or contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal.
Objectivism is not just another philosophy that you might find interesting. We are not just a group of Ayn Rand admirers. LOGIC has discovered that Ayn Rand's ideas are true--and you can validate Objectivism as true for yourself, simply by exercising your rational faculty. Objectivism begins with an absolutist metaphysical base--the axioms:
- Existence - Otherwise put, what is is. Before there can be any discussion about what is, we must start with a proper understanding of existence as such.
- Consciousness - The function of the human mind is to grasp that which exists. As Leonard Peikoff discovered, "...consciousness is inherent in your grasp of existence. Inherent in saying 'There is something--of which I am aware' is: 'There is something--of which I am aware.' " (Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, pg. 5) Consciousness is the faculty that perceives reality.
- A is A - A thing is what it is. Ayn Rand's "Law of Identity" is a statement about that which exists--that all existents have a specific nature; that a thing cannot both be something and its opposite; that A is not both A and not A; that contradictions do not exist.
- Metaphysics: objective reality
- Epistemology: reason
- Ethics: rational egoism
- Politics: absolute, objective individual rights (i.e. capitalism)
