I recently discovered that a full performance of Robin Field’s Reason in Rhyme: A Philosophic Oratorio is available online. (Warning: It’s an hour long, and if you start watching you won’t be able to stop.)

Anyone familiar with Robin’s work knows that to say this is worth watching would be a profound understatement. For those unfamiliar with his work, here’s an indication by way of a few excerpts transcribed from the performance. The excerpts, however, cannot begin to do justice to this man’s brilliance as a thinker and entertainer. If you want justice, you’ll simply have to enjoy the video (see below).

Here are a few excerpts to whet your whistle. These first few stanzas are from early in the performance:

Why should you study philosophy

With all there is to pursue?

Simply because your philosophy

Underlies all that you do Why bother checking your premises?

Why should you make that a goal?

Premises can be your nemeses

If they’re not under control What is regarded as knowledge

Is garbage we’ve got to outgrow

That which is taught in our colleges

Ain’t necessarily so . . .

Field then proceeds to review the history of philosophy—in poetry and song. And he weaves basic principles of Objectivism seamlessly and humorously into the mix.

Here’s another excerpt:

Existence is an axiom

Upon which all else rests

Regardless of who says so

And regardless who protests See, existence is self-evident

Which simply means you know it

It’s verified ostensibly

Which simply means you show it It cannot be refuted

It’s irrational to try it

The man who doubts existence

Has to use it to deny it . . .

An earlier title for this performance was Three Questions: A Philosophic Oratorio because Field addresses the following three questions in some detail: “What is so? How do you know? And so what should you do?”

Here’s another excerpt, this one pertaining to the first of those questions:

Reason is the faculty

From which all thought commences

It integrates material

Provided by the senses The senses gather data

And transmit it to the brain

In simplest form sensations

Are of pleasure or of pain And sensations are retained

By means of mental integration

This stage is called perception

More complex than mere sensation We share this stage with animals

It’s virtually static

Because this integration

Is completely automatic Man’s level is conceptual

Requiring his volition

This means that he must choose to use

Awareness for cognition Nothing forces man to think

On every new occasion

He makes that choice himself each time

It’s thinking or evasion The choice to think or not to think

Is man’s prerogative

This doesn’t change his nature though

He needs to think to live And all thought is done with concepts

Which identify a fact

To know what’s so man must be sure

His concepts are exact Since man is not infallible

And man is not omniscient

He needs to find a way to make

His thinking most efficient Logic is the method that

Gives thought the right restrictions

It puts it to a simple test

It's called non-contradiction See, a contradiction can’t exist

Or life would just be terror

To hold a contradiction

Is to know you've made an error We cannot eat and have our cake

No matter how we pray

It’s either-or, and facts are facts

The law is: A is A . . .

Like I said, you’ll want to watch this.

Although Robin doesn’t mention Ayn Rand in the performance—no doubt out of concern not to misrepresent her views—he does add this acknowledgment: “Reason in Rhyme is an entirely original work, and I am solely responsible for the ideas expressed here. However, I would like to acknowledge the enormous influence of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, which serves as the theoretical basis of my work. — Robin Field.”

Enjoy the performance. And look for my interview with Robin Field in the forthcoming (Summer 2016) issue of The Objective Standard.

https://youtu.be/KIs9xM7Sac8

Related: