Hi Seamus. Here would be my answers:
1. Yes, plants value in the sense of acting to stay alive eg automtically seeking water, minerals and sunshine needed to survive.
2. Materialists consider living organisms to be “inanimate mechanisms” in that they would not recognize the facts of self-generated (goal directed) action. I believe “mechanism” implies something acting in response to things outside itself. If so, an “animate mechanism” would be a contradiction as organisms take self-directed actions. What would be the goal of the machine you mention?
3. Yes, awareness is the same as consciousness – Rand says consciousness is “the faculty of awareness”.
4. The “a priori deductions” Peikoff mentions on page 202 disregard the facts supporting the view that human consciousness is individual.I believe a “rationalization” is a type of evasion.
