[Lecture Four] Objective Communication
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 36 minutes
Course summary: In this course, Dr. Leonard Peikoff explores the nature of intellectual communication. The course blends student work and examples with Peikoff’s own commentary to elicit the principles of effective communication in writing, speaking, and arguing. In these lectures, he identifies the essential issues unique to the nature of each method of presenting ideas and offers guidance about how to craft one’s thinking around the specific way one will deliver it to an audience. Read more »
In this lecture: In this lecture, Dr. Peikoff explains how the principles of communication apply specifically to extemporaneous speaking. He discusses how the questions of pace, exactness of formulations, monitoring the audience, and notes all apply to oral presentations. The lecture also features more written examples to illustrate the broader principles discussed in the course.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download below a PDF study guide for the entire course.
| What are three distinct values to extemporaneous spoken presentations compared to reading a prepared speech? |
| What philosophic principle underlies the crucial need to monitor one’s pace in oral delivery? Why does this not apply in the same way in writing? |
| What fact of human biology applies in considering the special importance of pace in oral presentation? |
| Why are the necessarily inexact formulations in extemporaneous presentation not a barrier to objectivity? |
| How does the “circling around” that Dr. Peikoff discusses parallel the question of appropriate pacing? |
| Using examples, describe ways of implementing the five strategies for slowing down one’s pace. |
| When monitoring one’s audience for engagement, what are the four techniques for maintaining or recapturing their attention? |
| What degree of specificity should one aim for in presentation notes? |
| How can notes be an aid to timing of a presentation? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 2:10:21 | Last week, in explaining the concept of objectivity, you said that objectivity is independent of consciousness, vs. subjectivity, which is based on consciousness. Many areas of thought seem to border the two. How does one differentiate when presenting ideas between objective and subjective? |
| 2:12:04 | In preparing for an oral presentation, is it ever appropriate to write the entire speech first, then take brief notes and key words from the original written draft to use in the oral presentation? |
| 2:13:29 | Is writing a false statement another way of being non-objective in addition to the three ways you mentioned last week? |
| 2:15:39 | Do you know of any place where you can buy a copy of Atlas Shrugged in German? |
| 2:15:48 | Would you consider giving a course in grammar in the business world? I could really use it, and I’m sure that others could too. |
| 2:16:17 | Self-monitoring has always appeared to me to be an art. How can one learn to stay relaxed while groping? How does one avoid looking sloppy in attempting to circle around? |
| 2:17:42 | When slides are used in a presentation, does this take away from the extemporaneous virtues you discussed? |
| 2:19:02 | What do you think of visual aids, videotape, and so on and so on. Do you have any tips on their use? |
| 2:20:11 | Where does this course lie between extemporaneous talk and complete reading and why? |
| 2:22:12 | Regarding Excerpt J with the correction you suggested, doesn’t the argument imply that if today’s politics were okay, the government subsidies of art would not be objectionable? |
| 2:24:07 | Do you think it might also imply that the arts today are a lofty sphere and that he is, in effect, in favor of non-objective modern art? |
| 2:25:46 | In the first paragraph of Excerpt F, the author implies that all lecturing is spoon-feeding and then, in the next paragraph, he makes a distinction between the spoon-feeder and the non-spoon-feeder. |
| 2:27:47 | In evaluating the improper placement of words or sentences, should one strictly evaluate it on an objective basis—that is what the author said—or should one give the author the benefit of the doubt—this is what he could have meant? |
| 2:28:44 | You explained the problems involved in starting an article and writing an article. What about ending an article? Where does one stop? |
| 2:30:23 | Suppose you give an extemporaneous delivery and it turns out very well and the audience responds to it and the whole thing is taped and you have a secretary transcribe it. Do you then print it as it stood? |
| 2:34:07 | Was “Philosophy: Who Needs It” originally written out? |
| 2:34:28 | Can you explain the difference between the terms “reality” and “existence”? |