Abstract

Robert L. Campbell examines Ayn Rand's handling of the distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge. Using interactivist developmental psychology, he shows how human knowledge and goals develop through a hierarchy of knowing levels, and elaborates a significant differentiation between what is subconsciously known or believed and what is merely implied. He applies these distinctions to three problem areas in Rand's treatment of the implicit: the notion of a "pre-moral" choice to live, the peculiar status of implicit concepts, and Rand's ambivalence as to whether skills constitute knowledge