Epistemology as Dependent Upon the Primacy of Existence

Epistemology studies the nature and means of human knowledge—the processes by which knowledge is acquired and the rules concerning its validity. Implicitly, this means that man can gain knowledge only by engaging in certain processes, and not others. If man could gain knowledge in any way he saw fit, there would be no place for a science studying the ways in which man can acquire it—“how does man gain knowledge and validate his conclusions?” would be properly answered by “however the hell he wants!”, there would be no need for a complex study of this topic.

What this means in explicit terms is that epistemology does and must rest upon the primacy of existence—there is no such science as epistemology if consciousness has metaphysical primacy. If it was the case that consciousness was primary, then reality–existence–would necessarily have to conform to ones thoughts—your conclusions would per se be correct, there would be no such thing as falsehood and no need for a theory of knowledge. It is only because existence exists and knowledge must therefore conform to reality, rather than the other way around, that there are certain specific processes that are required to gain knowledge.

If the mind wishes to know existence, therefore, it must conform to existence. On the opposite metaphysics, Ayn Rand holds, epistemology would be neither necessary nor possible. If thought created reality, no science offering guidance to thought would be applicable; consciousness could assert whatever it wished, and reality would obey.¹