Why is the notion of “discovery” contradictory?
Ayn Rand indicates the illogical and contradictory nature of the concepts of “discovering” “natural law” and the “natural rights” this “discovery” argument creates when she stated that her theory was “objective.” Her “Objectivist” political theory “holds that good is neither an attribute of ‘things in themselves’ nor man’s emotional state, but an evaluation of the facts of reality by man’s consciousness according to a rational standard of value. . . The objective theory holds that the good is an aspect of reality in relation to man – and that it must be discovered, not invented, by man.” [Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p. 22] However, this is playing with words. If something is “discovered” then it has always been there and so is an intrinsic part of it. If “good” is “discovered” by “man” then “good” exists independently of people — it is waiting to be “discovered.” In other words, “good” is an attribute of “man as man,” of “things in themselves” (in addition, such a theory also impli
