ROBERT L. CAMPBELL explains how Ayn Rand 's epistemology drew on ideas and findings from the Cognitive Revolution, the change in American psychology during the 1950' s that re-established mental processes as an object of study and overthrew behaviorism. Particularly noticeable is Rand 's reliance on George Miller's conclusions regarding limited cognitive capacity, and her broad agreement with Noam Chomsky's devastating critique of B. F. Skinner 's behaviorism. Both Rand 's points of contact-and differences-with the Cognitive Revolution are discussed. Once (...) the impact of the Cognitive Revolution on Rand is recognized, her insistence that philosophy owes nothing to psychology becomes harder to defend. (shrink)

“Through centuries of scourges and disasters, brought about by your code of morality, you have cried that your code had been broken, that the scourges were punishment for breaking it, that men were too weak and too selfish to spill all the blood it required. You damned man, you damned existence, you damned this earth, but never dared to question your code. . . . You went on crying that your code was noble, but human nature was not good enough (...) to practice it. And no one rose to ask the question: Good?—by what standard? (shrink)

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. (shrink)