This course extensively analyzes Ayn Rand's groundbreaking principle that the mind cannot function under coercion and uses this principle as a case study in philosophic methodology. Central topics include the nature of coercion, coercion as "negating and paralyzing" the mind, "mental paralysis" as a psycho-epistemological phenomenon, initiatory vs. retaliatory coercion. Methodological issues include the error of under-specifying the context of knowledge needed to reach a new conclusion, the error of dropping a principle's context of application, "non-neutrality" as a precondition of the growth of knowledge, rationalism vs. objectivity.

Revised version of course offered in 1998.