Entailed in the conceptual method of functioning is the ability to regard concretes as instances or units of the class
to which they belong; this is essential to the concept-forming process. In a brilliantly original analysis of the nature
of concept-formation, Ayn Rand writes:
The ability to regard entities as units is man's distinctive method of cognition.... A unit is an existent regarded as a separate
member of a group of two or more similar members....^4
A concept is a mental integration of two or more units which are isolated according to a specific characteristic (s) and united by a
specific definition....^5
The range of what man can hold in the focus of his conscious awareness at any given moment, is limited. The essence of his
cognitive power is the ability to reduce a vast amount of information to a minimal number of units; this is the task performed by
his conceptual faculty.^6(For a detailed epistemological analysis of the nature and formation of concepts, Miss Rand's monograph is
strongly recommended. My own brief discussion, above, leans heavily on Miss Rand's monograph, but does not
begin to convey the scope of her work in this area.)
The process by which sensations are integrated into percepts is automatic; the integration of percepts into concepts
is not. It is a volitional process that man must initiate, sustain, and regulate (Chapter Four). Perceptual information
is the given, the self-evident; conceptual knowledge requires a volitionally initiated process of reason. " Reason,"
again quoting Miss Rand, "is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses."^7
To define man as a rational animal is not to imply that he is an animal who invariably functions rationally, but
rather to identify the fact that his fundamental distinguishing characteristic, the attribute that essentially
differentiates him from other animals, is his ability to reason—to apprehend reality on the conceptual level of
consciousness. The hallmark of that ability is his power of propositional speech.
One of the most important consequences of man's possession of a conceptual faculty is his power of self-awareness.
No other ani-