How We Know

Harry Binswanger, a philosopher who was an associate of Ayn Rand, presents a theory of knowledge based on Rand's Objectivist philosophy. Advocating a "bottom-up," inductive approach to cognition, the book covers the gamut of topics starting with the axioms of existence, identity, and consciousness, then taking up concept-formation, propositions, logic, and principles. A chapter on free will, treated as the choice to exercise reason, presents the author's interpretation of Rand's view on volition, supplemented by his own analysis.