Ayn Rand held that "philosophy is primarily epistemology"—the "science devoted to the discovery of the proper methods of acquiring and validating knowledge." Therefore, "it is with a new approach to epistemology that the rebirth of philosophy has to begin." This class is to be a survey of Rand’s new approach to epistemology—the most original and least widely understood aspect of her thought.

Rand did not write a systematic presentation of her entire epistemology, but her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology presents "one of its cardinal elements—the Objectivist theory of concepts," and she discusses other elements of the epistemology in numerous other articles. Leonard Peikoff has provided a systematic presentation in his Objectivism: the Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Drawing on these works, this class will highlight the structure of the epistemology, helping students to appreciate how Rand’s theory of concepts forms the core of a distinctive and powerful theory of knowledge.

The course will be a good introduction to the Objectivist epistemology for beginning students, and it will contain new ideas that should be of interest to advanced students.