Ayn Rand defines an axiom as "a statement that identifies the base of knowledge and of any further statement pertaining to that knowledge, a statement necessarily contained in all others, whether any particular speaker chooses to identify it or not. An axiom is a proposition that defeats its opponents by the fact that they have to accept it and use it in the process of any attempt to deny it."
She identifies three basic axioms:
1. Existence exists. Before one can consider anythng else, there must be something to consider.
2. We exist possessing consciousness. Consciousness is the faculty of perceiving that which exists. The statement “There is something—of which I am aware” is equivalent to the statement “There is something—of which I am aware.”
3. The law of identity. A = A. To be is to be something, to have a nature, to possess identity. If something exists, then something exists.
Do you agree with these? If so, how would you refute them?