Back in December, Front Range Objectivism created a third FROG discussion group. 2FROG was just too large, and we’re trying to keep the FROG groups at about twelve plus/minus two people. I’ve opted to join 3FROG. Officially, that’s because I want to help steer this newer group in the right direction in my capacity as Overall FRO Leader. Honestly though, I’m not too worried about them. Mostly I’m just enthused to spend some time discussing Objectivism with some of the newer folks in FRO.
3FROG just began Ayn Rand’s anthology on aesthetics, The Romantic Manifesto. I’m pleased by that choice, as that covers a great deal of material that I’m just not terribly familiar with. More particularly, the essays often concern more psychological issues — like sense of life and emotions — that clearly bear on my own deep interest in Aristotle’s moral psychology.
On Saturday, I lead the discussion on the second essay, “Philosophy and Sense of Life.” Here are questions that I posed to the group.
- What is sense of life? How is it formed? How does it function in a person’s life? How does it relate to a person’s explicit philosophic principles? How does it relate to psycho-epistemology?
- How does a person identify his own sense of life? Why and how might that be difficult? What might be some clues? What is my own sense of life?
- Can a person change his sense of life? Why might he want to do so? How might he do so? Why might that process be difficult or even unpleasant? How might a person psychologically retrain himself?
- How can a person learn to better identify the sense of life of other people he knows and meets? Why and how might that be important?
What would you say in answer to those questions? They seem simple, but they’re actually quite involved! We discussed them for quite a while in 3FROG, and I’m happy to say that I have a better grip on the topic now than when I read the essay last week. As for my own answers, that will have to wait for some future day.
