Roger and all - The source_ of Purpose and Self-esteem is not Reason per se. Such basic non-optional values each derive from some basic fact about our nature - about a reason-based life. There is of course some causal mutuality amongst the three values and the virtues for attaining them. Clear purposefulness and good self-esteem facilitate the application of reason (thinking, work), while spastic purpose and self-complacency impede it. But it's a gross understatement to speak of reason 'helping' or unreason 'hindering' other values. To the extent that the pursuit and application of reason conks out the results can be poor career choices, dumb marriages, taking pride in the wrong things or failure even in well-chosen purposes. Can anyone think of a value that does not depend crucially on reason - conscious living - to be gained, kept? I question that it would be at all confusing and unhelpful to regard Reason as a notch or two more fundamental than the other two big ones. One red herring: When many people think "Reason" they think Objectivism, their own take on it, or generally some set of ideas. The "primacy of Reason" may thus evoke goals or personal targets being deduced rationalisically from big abstractions. Indeed, haven't Objectivists been known to deduce careers, spouses and who they want to be from half-digested First Principles? Pride and Purpose to all, Chuck