Volitional Science Lexicon
This section contains the basic definitions and postulates of Professor Andrew J. Galambos’ (1924-1997) Volitional Science.
“Precise definitions are essential for the development of any science. If you do not have precise definitions followed by specific postulates, you never can have a science.” – Andrew J. Galambos
Action, negative
Volitional behavior that is patterned upon opposition to someone else’s products or behavior.
Action, positive
Volitional behavior that is initiating the generation of new property. Only positive action can produce something useful.
Capital
Production of property in excess of consumption requirements and also used for further production.
Capitalism
Capitalism is that societal structure whose mechanism is capable of protecting all forms of property completely.
Contract
A voluntary agreement between two or more people who have property which they are desirous of exchanging the use and control thereof.
Corollary
A corollary is the restatement of information you already know into other words for a utilitarian reason.
Definition
An assigned meaning that is attributed to a word or a phrase or a concept, from which you never deviate.
Freedom
Freedom is the societal condition that exists when every individual has full (i.e. 100%) control over his own property.
Good
The subjective evaluation of a preferred action, or a preferred transition from one state to another.
Good, absolute
A subjective good to at least one person which is not imposed on any other volitional being. The absoluteness is in the fact that, independently of who defines the good, coercion is absent on a universal basis.
Government
Any person or organization that sells products or services to protect property, to which the owner of the property may voluntarily subscribe.
Happiness
Happiness is the totality of all the ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ (or goods and ungoods) that an individual has experienced from his birth to the moment of evaluation, suitably weighted for remoteness.*(*See: Law of Logarithmic Stimulation.)Happiness can be pursued successfully only by free men - that is, those who control, in full, their own property.The concept of happiness is completely subjective and has no maximum. This is very important because if it were not for the fact that it has no maximum, then human motivation would have an end.
History
There are those who create and those who destroy, and all of history is simply interplay between these two opposite directions with respect to property. One direction adds to property, and the other direction subtracts from property; one is positive, the other is negative.
Hypothesis
An organized connection of various facts which are derived from observation and which provide an attempt at an explanation.A hypothesis is not necessarily a correct explanation; it’s just an attempt at an explanation.
Justice
Justice is the elimination of injustice.Therefore Justice is the elimination of crimes to which there is no recourse. (See: Injustice)Justice, in a positive sense, is simply the natural, rational and moral - not artificial or coercive - consequence of any act.Restitution of property is the mechanism of justice.
Natural Republic
A contractual society.A Natural Republic is one where coercion is inapplicable, and the whole social structure is open to the general use of all on a proprietary, contractual basis.The Natural Republic is the maintenance mechanism for the product called Freedom.
Occam’s Razor
Named for William of Occam (1285-1349) “Essentials must not be multiplied beyond necessity.”Translated into modern terminology and applied it to physical science, it means: if you have two or more hypotheses which are competing with one another, choose the one with fewer unproven assertions.
Ownership
The total, permanent and moral control of property until voluntarily transferred by the owner, where possible.Note: Ownership of Primary Property can not be transferred from its creator.
Politics
Politics and ideology are two entirely different things; one involves coercion and the other involves ideas.[Note: This is not a definition. It is, however, a very important distinction.]
Postulate
A postulate is a proposition with a truth content which you did not derive from any earlier set of propositions by logical reasoning, but whose validity you accept as an input into the subject that you are developing.To be a successful postulate, one must have not only a true proposition, but also one with universal application.
Postulate of Volitional Science, First
All volitional beings live to pursue happiness.First Corollary: Morally acting volitional beings seek to profit; immorally acting volitional beings to seek plunder.Second. Corollary: All volitional beings live to acquire property.
Postulate of Volitional Science, Second
All concepts of happiness pursued through moral action are equally valid.
Progress
A change which increases a man’s over-all happiness and betters his over-all condition as an individual.
Property
Property is individual man’s life and all non-procreative derivatives of his life.‘Property’ is the supreme subject of volition, just as ‘energy’ is the supreme subject of physics.
State
A State is any person or organization that claims to protect property by coercing the owner of the property to use and pay for its ‘services, claiming ‘legality’ as its justification.
The Scientific Method
Scientific Method -1. Observation (for gathering data)2. Hypothesis formulation3. Extrapolation4. Observation (for corroboration)Plus Occam’s RazorThe Scientific Method is the only known reliable path to new knowledge.The major utility and beauty of the Scientific Method is that it makes an infallible system apply to fallible men. And every time fallible men make mistakes through the application of the Scientific Method, they learn what the mistakes are and learn how to correct them.The Scientific Method is the full, total substitute and alternative for coercion and, when properly understood and applied, will make it completely unnecessary to have violent and destructive and socially harmful practices.
Treason
Treason is a violation of your principles, whatever they may be. If you believe one thing and then act contrary to them, that is both hypocrisy and treason. It is hypocrisy from the philosophical standpoint and treason from the operational standpoint.
True Revolution
In the domain of volitional experience, the only true revolution is Capitalism - the Liberal Revolution.I would define the only possible revolution in volition as the one that turns man’s social structure around so that Freedom is a reality; wherein everyone is one hundred percent in control over his own property.
Truth
Truth is that which is observationally known to be corroborable and is common to all observers.
Universal Fallacy
The universal fallacy is that a non-proprietary administration of property is more efficient, more just, and, in general, is better for the individual people in the world than a proprietary administration of property.