The Philosophy of Objectivism
Date:
Jan 01, 1976
In this course, Leonard Peikoff presents the essentials of Ayn Rand’s philosophy and stresses their practical significance for each individual’s life.
Recorded live before New York City audiences in 1976, this course was endorsed by Rand in print as “the only authorized presentation of the entire theoretical structure of Objectivism, i.e., the only one that I know of my own knowledge to be fully accurate.” Rand attended the entire course and participated in eight of the twelve question-and-answer sessions.
In 1991, Peikoff reworked this course into his book
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Because this book’s formulations and logical structure are “immeasurably superior,” Peikoff regards his book (rather than his course) as “the definitive statement of Objectivism.”
Despite having been superseded, the course has continuing value because it offers us (1) a recorded statement of the essentials of Objectivism, (2) an opportunity to discover the differences between the course and the book and (3) the chance to hear Rand answer questions from the New York audiences.
Topics covered in the course include:
- Metaphysics and man’s metaphysical nature
- The foundations of epistemology
- The nature and function of concepts
- Rationality
- The foundations of ethics
- Virtue, practicality and happiness
- The principles of politics and the nature of capitalism
- Esthetics
- Objectivism’s relation to the past and the future
philosophyobjectivism
Parts:
12
Handout:
none
Publications:
-
Campus, 2018
(En)
- 1932 mins
-
e-Store
(En)
- 1950 mins
-
CD, 2000
(En)
- 1946 mins
- 33 CD set
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 147 mins
- Lesson 1 - What Is Man? Philosophy and Human Nature
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 163 mins
- Lesson 2 - The Objectivist Metaphysics: Axioms, Causality and the Primacy of Existence
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 164 mins
- Lesson 3 - The Foundations of Objectivist Epistemology
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 162 mins
- Lesson 4 - The Objectivist Theory of Concepts: What Concepts Are and How They Are Formed and Defined
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 165 mins
- Lesson 5 - The Objectivist Theory of Concepts: Concepts as Objective and Knowledge as Contextual & Hierarchical
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 160 mins
- Lesson 6 - The Objectivist Conception of Rationality, Certainty and Free Will
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 164 mins
- Lesson 7 - The Foundations of the Objectivist Ethics: Egoism and the Nature of Value
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 157 mins
- Lesson 8 - Objectivism and the Practicality of Morality: Virtue and Its Relation to Happiness
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 159 mins
- Lesson 9 - Objectivism and the Moral Foundations of Government
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 155 mins
- Lesson 10 - The Nature of Capitalism and Its Relation to Morality
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 169 mins
- Lesson 11 - Objectivism’s View of Art and Its Role in Man’s Life
-
YouTube, 2020
(En)
- 166 mins
- Lesson 12 - Ideas in History: Objectivism’s Relation to the Past and the Future