Robert L. Campbell views Nathaniel Branden's The Art of Living Consciously as an example of a popular book, written by a clinical practitioner, which nonetheless has many important implications for academic researchers. These include questions about: the correct theoretical understanding and successful measurement of self-esteem; the nature of free will; and the relationship between "cognitive" and "social" issues in psychological research.

The doctrine of the arbitrary assertion is a key part of Objectivist epistemology as elaborated by Leonard Peikoff. For Peikoff, assertions unsupported by evidence are neither true nor false; they have no context or place in the hierarchy of conceptual knowledge; they are meaningless and paralyze rational cognition; their production is proof of irrationality. A thorough examination of the doctrine reveals worrisomely unclear standards of evidence and a jumble of contradictory claims about which assertions are arbitrary, when they are arbitrary, (...) and what ought to be done about them when they are. A wholesale rejection of the doctrine is recommended. (shrink)