Introducing the Stephen Boydstun Corner


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Introducing the Stephen Boydstun Corner

I have had this corner on my mind for the longest time, but I have not had the time to properly deal with the consequences. Still, the best way to start something is to start. So I wrote to Stephen and told him what I was thinking. I am more than pleased to say that he accepted.

Stephen has an impressive body of work, but it is a bit scattered, thus often difficult to access. He has a site for Objectivity (a link to which I keep on the Portal page), but that is difficult to research for many people and quotes need to be copied by retyping.

So I thought having a Stephen Boydstun Corner on OL would be a good thing since it carries a lot of targeted traffic of people who are likely to gain value from his writing.

As with all other Corners of Insight, this in no way reflects on Stephen agreeing with anything other than things like the normal posting guidelines that apply to everybody. That includes agreeing with me. His mind is his own. Anyway, my idea is to expand with people of good will, not restrict.

I have taken so long to do this because my time is really limited and I wanted to contribute more than I can. But I think Stephen will manage nicely and I will help out as much as I can in moving stuff around, being available for technical matters, etc. I have attributed him with moderator powers for his corner.

There are three reasons why I consider this corner to be particularly valuable:

1. Stephen is one of the few people on earth at the present who has published an academic periodical on Objectivism-related subjects.

2. In his work, he sees Objectivism through the lens of great academic learning. His familiarity with philosophical and scientific technical material is overwhelming at times. At least to me it is. And he applies this knowledge to Objectivist theories and concepts, and vice-versa.

3. He has wonderful reading suggestions in philosophy and science. I believe having them (and his comments) in one place is of high value to many, especially those who like to educate themselves.

On a personal note, I have difficulty keeping up with some of his writing since I do not read technical stuff very quickly. It takes time that I often don't have to make sure I understand properly. So I am glad there is now a central place bearing his work that should be easy to research before too long. I can easily go back to review the things I missed.

In a time of terrible things happening in this world, a bit of sunshine is always welcome. Setting up the Stephen Boydstun Corner is one such sunny day for me.

Michael

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Introducing the Stephen Boydstun Corner

I have had this corner on my mind for the longest time, but I have not had the time to properly deal with the consequences. Still, the best way to start something is to start. So I wrote to Stephen and told him what I was thinking. I am more than pleased to say that he accepted.

Stephen has an impressive body of work, but it is a bit scattered, thus often difficult to access. He has a site for Objectivity (a link to which I keep on the Portal page), but that is difficult to research for many people and quotes need to be copied by retyping.

So I thought having a Stephen Boydstun Corner on OL would be a good thing since it carries a lot of targeted traffic of people who are likely to gain value from his writing.

As with all other Corners of Insight, this in no way reflects on Stephen agreeing with anything other than things like the normal posting guidelines that apply to everybody. That includes agreeing with me. His mind is his own. Anyway, my idea is to expand with people of good will, not restrict.

I have taken so long to do this because my time is really limited and I wanted to contribute more than I can. But I think Stephen will manage nicely and I will help out as much as I can in moving stuff around, being available for technical matters, etc. I have attributed him with moderator powers for his corner.

There are three reasons why I consider this corner to be particularly valuable:

1. Stephen is one of the few people on earth at the present who has published an academic periodical on Objectivism-related subjects.

2. In his work, he sees Objectivism through the lens of great academic learning. His familiarity with philosophical and scientific technical material is overwhelming at times. At least to me it is. And he applies this knowledge to Objectivist theories and concepts, and vice-versa.

3. He has wonderful reading suggestions in philosophy and science. I believe having them (and his comments) in one place is of high value to many, especially those who like to educate themselves.

On a personal note, I have difficulty keeping up with some of his writing since I do not read technical stuff very quickly. It takes time that I often don't have to make sure I understand properly. So I am glad there is now a central place bearing his work that should be easy to research before too long. I can easily go back to review the things I missed.

In a time of terrible things happening in this world, a bit of sunshine is always welcome. Setting up the Stephen Boydstun Corner is one such sunny day for me.

Michael

Michael, Thank you for doing this. Stephen is one of the bright lights in our movement.

Jim

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  • 6 months later...

He has a site for Objectivity (a link to which I keep on the Portal page), but that is difficult to research for many people and quotes need to be copied by retyping.

Actually, I did not find it on the Portal Page. It was easy enough to find "boydstun objectivity" via a search engine and I printed a couple of pages to put into my Ayn Rand folder (manilla folder; on the shelf with the Ayn Rand books). His work deserves the widest possible attention, certainly among Objectivist, for whom the basic principles can be assumed, and from which discussion can advance.

I say thee yea, Steve Boydstun.

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  • 10 months later...

Here is an index of his work. This is also available on his profile page.

Objectivity

Objectivity Archive
Subject Index Key

"Universals and Measurement"
I. Orientation
II. AnalysisAffordance of Ratio or Interval Measures

II. AnalysisAffordance of Ordinal Measures / Superordinates and Similarity Classes / Amended Measure-Definitions of Similarity and Concepts

III. GenesisElaboration of Identity / First Words, First Universals / Analytic Constraint

Notes

References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comments on III. A, B, C
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Piece-Wise Ordinal / Entity Measure / Category Theory
Abstractions / Particulars / Themes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Judgments and Measurement"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Capturing Concepts"
Introduction
I. Categorical Perception
II. Reference and Specification
III. Measure and Matter
IV. Abstraction
V. Identity and Definition
References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Follow-up

Proper-Noun Concepts

Definite Concept and Phrase-Length
The Concept Thought
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Capturing Quantity"1, 2, 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Randian Axioms and Postulates in Metaphysics"
Basics / Identity with Measurement
I. Exclusions of Non-Contradiction: Entities
. . .Part 1 – Identity as to Kind
. . .Part 2 – Identity as to Particularity
II. Exclusions of Non-Contradiction: Actions
III. Exclusions of Non-Contradiction: Attributes
. . .Part 1 – Locke
. . .Part 2 – Leibniz I
. . .Part 3 –
. . .Part 4 –

Metaphysics and Life
There Is and I Am
Your Love of Existence
Thought's Living Existence

Beauty, Goodness, Life

Philosophy of Perception

Sensory Qualities: Their Relation to Sensory System and World
Primary/Secondary Qualities
Peirce on Perception and Conception
Perception and Objectivity (& Supplement)
Object and Content

Intuition
"Peirce contra Intuition and Self-Evidence"
. . .Introduction
. . .I. Anselm of Canterbury
. . .II. Roger Bacon
. . .–––Avicenna
. . .–––Neoplatonists
. . .–––Plato

Logic
Origin of 'A is A' Formula
Between False, Invalid, and Meaningless
Meaningless Tautology
Normativity of Logic – Kant v. Rand
Normativity of Logic - Robert Hanna
Predication on Identity
Contradiction with the Individual Concrete
Identity Manifold
Philosophy of Logic
Modal Logic
Quantum Logic
Why Be Logical?
Epistemology and Logic

Integration

From Integrity to Calculus

Integration in Rand – from integrity to calculus

to Piaget, Montessori, and Helmholtz

Theory of Truth

Objectivist Theory of Truth

“Perception and Truth – Kant and Rand”

. . I. Sense and Mind – Rand

. . II. Empirical Realism – Kant A, B, C, D, E

. . III. Empirical Judgment – Kant and Rand A, B, C, D, E

"Truth of Geometry"

. . .Part 1 – Aristotle
. . .Part 2 – Locke and Leibniz
. . .Part 3 – Kant, Precritical
. . .Part 4 – Kant, Critical (forthcoming)
"Analytic-Synthetic Distinction"
. . .Part 1 – Quine
. . .Part 2 – White and Rand-Peikoff
. . .Part 3 – Objective Analyticity

Change and Causality
Induction and Causality
Causal Power of Attributes
Inhering, yet Causing
Rand's Law of Causality without Uniqueness
Identity to Causality / Meyerson / Ockham
Ontology of Time
Gradients and Drivers
Types of Cause

"Induction on Identity"
Introduction
I. Varieties of Induction
II. Ockham – Contingency
III. Nicolaus – Experience of Substance
IV. Nicolaus – Reasoning to Substance
V. Hume – Experience of Cause and Effect
VI. Hume – Reasoning to Cause or Effect
VII. Hume – Necessity
VIII. Hume – Uniformity
IX. Existence is Identity

"Volitional Synapses"
Conscious Controls / Psychoneural Relation
Hypothetical Necessity
Physical and Organic Determinism / Deterministic Error

Ayn Rand Society 2007
Foundations of Ethics: Objectivism and Analytic Philosophy – Irfan Khawaja
Addendum to My Comment – Concerning Nozick 2001
Concerning Paul Bloomfield's Comment

Mathematics in Science
Functions of Mathematical Description in Astronomy and Optics, Illustrations from Antiquity
Angular Momentum and Causation
Rainbows
Aristotle
Ibn Sahl
Ibn al-Haytham / Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi / Kamal al-Din al-Farisi / Roger Bacon
—Theodoric of Freiberg A, B

Philosophy of Science
Between Realism and Constructive Empiricism
Thomas Kuhn

Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Transactional Interpretation

"Space, Rotation, Relativity"
I. Descartes / Huygens
II. Newton / Leibniz
III. Kant
IV. Ampere / Faraday / Maxwell / Einstein

Scientific Cosmology
Copernican Revolution and Significance
Universe as a Concrete
Totality Referent
– General Relativity and Cosmology – a, b
Einstein Online
Total Angular Momentum of Universe
By Microwave and Radio
– Endless Existence – a, b
– Roger Penrose – Cycles of Time

Kant
Metaphysics of Kant and Rand
Space, Rotation, Relativity – Kant
Kant and Principia
Kant from A to Bxxx (&)
Mysticism – Kant and Rand
Categories
"Kant's Wrestle with Happiness and Life"
. . .Part 1 – to 1781
. . .Part 2 – towards 1785
. . .Part 3 – into 1785
. . .Part 4 – Moral Worth, Necessary and Free – A, B

Dewey and Peikoff on Kant's Responsibility

Nietzsche v. Rand
Your Moral Ideal
Claiming Nobility
Parallels and Influence
"Truth of Will and Value"
. . .Part 1 – Before Zarathustra
. . .Part 2 – Zarathustra and Beyond
. . .––––––– Rand 1929–38 A, B, C
. . .––––––– Rand 1938–46 A, B, C, D, E
. . .––––––– Rand in Full

Rand and Biology
– Rand's Concept of Biology Part 1 / Part 2
Reservation on Evolution
Scientific within Rational
Vegetative Robots and Value

Rational Egoism
Function of Mind
Function of Ethics
A Rejection of Egoism
Supported Choice to Live
Desire to Value
Altruism
Sacrifice
Value Out There
– Visibility, Benevolence, and Egoism – a, b

Ayn Rand
Original, True, Important
To Think
Blok
Universals
Three Treasures
Rejection
– Objectivist Label – a, b
Soul, Structure, Struggle

Edited by Stephen Boydstun
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  • 5 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

Guyau (S.B.) is the smartest poster on this board.   Half the books I own  were recommended by Guyau.   Jeezus Stephen,  you cost me a fortune!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...

I have moved this whole Stephen Boydstun section to "Further Corners of Insight" simply because of this one thread. I actually want to delete it, but that is not right.

At some time in the past (probably due to disagreeing with my support of President Trump), Stephen deleted all of the content in this section except this thread. What's more, he did not inform me. In respect to those other posters on this thread, I'm keeping this up for the historical record. After all, OL is a record for posterity of what transpired in our subcommunity during this time.

If I remember correctly, there were posts by other OL members on some of the threads Stephen deleted. That prompted me to look and I saw some shenanigans by other OL posters who had moderation powers.

So I fixed what I could and I have eliminated all moderation on OL by others except me (and Kat, of course :) )

I apologize to any OL members who had their content deleted by Stephen and others.

I don't think it is recoverable.

Michael

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Hi Michael, I wanted to let you know that although it was on account of your advocacy for Mr. Trump, that I stopped posting at your site in late 2016, the reason I removed my Corner papers (about a year ago) was only because of the ads that were interspersed in my text. They were rather zany and used motion to capture attention. Any interspersed ads at all made my serious work no longer a serene and uninterrupted setting for the reader-attention required to grasp it, and no longer a setting with the respect the works deserved. I am grateful you got my name off your large-lettered sectors of the Corners, and it would be pleasing to me were you to remove the remains of it in the small-letter access, thence my name from your forum cover. --Stephen

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54 minutes ago, Guyau said:

... the reason I removed my Corner papers (about a year ago) was only because of the ads that were interspersed in my text.

Stephen,

Only?

Really?

Forgive me if I find this hard to believe since you did not let me know about it as was your custom with other complaints. 

In my mind, I have little doubt if I were not supporting Trump, you would have contacted me instead of taking down the content on the sly.

I don't mind that you don't want to be here although I admit I like your work so I have a druther. That's your choice.

I do mind--and mind a lot--that you disrespected the members of this forum by doing what you did.  

54 minutes ago, Guyau said:

I am grateful you got my name off your large-lettered sectors of the Corners, and it would be pleasing to me were you to remove the remains of it in the small-letter access...

I'm not in a mood to be pleasing to you about this.

Enough of rewriting history in the Objectivist subcommunity.

Let the ARI folks do that.

What you did happened. It's staying up.

Michael

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  • 2 weeks later...

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