Objectivism Through Induction
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
- 12 lectures, 18 hours
- Recorded in 1997
In this course, Dr. Peikoff demonstrates how to grasp philosophic ideas and principles in the same way that they were discovered—through induction from the facts of reality. Working through a process of generalizing from observed facts, Peikoff shows how a student can come to grasp and validate key ideas in Objectivist philosophy. Key concepts covered in the course include the idea of objectivity in both knowledge and values, egoism, reason as man’s means of survival, and the metaphysical status of sex.
Download the entire course (747 MB) to listen in the audio player of your choice—or listen online starting with Lecture One below. If listening to the course from this website, be sure to make a note of the current lecture and timestamp before leaving so that you can easily resume where you left off.
Study Guide
This course includes a study guide, featuring questions and other material designed to help you digest the course content. This material accompanies the individual lectures and is also available below as a PDF.
Lecture Guide
Summaries of the lecture content are provided below for your reference and convenience.
| Lecture 1 | In this lecture, Dr. Peikoff introduces the purpose of using induction to reach all of one’s philosophic ideas. He describes how induction helps us avoid rationalism and to become clearer thinkers. He then applies the method to the law of cause and effect. |
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| Lecture 2 | This lecture examines the facts of first-hand observation that lead to the conclusion that reason is man’s basic means of survival. Dr. Peikoff breaks the induction down into three stages and contrasts the kinds of factual material necessary to make the induction with the misleading, rationalistic, and unwarranted ideas that might be used. |
| Lecture 3 | This lecture begins the examination of the inductive validation of egoism. Dr. Peikoff examines the issues of what is the good, what are values, and what is goal-directed action. The lecture also addresses how to properly differentiate egoism from other approaches. |
| Lecture 4 | This lecture begins with the completion of the induction of the concept of egoism by focusing on the cognitive contrast to altruism. It then begins the consideration of how to induce the concept of justice. |
| Lecture 5 | This lecture concludes the induction of justice through an examination of the action component of justice, the concept of “deserved,” and the integration with other points. Dr. Peikoff also begins the induction of the first epistemological concept of the course by examining the idea of objectivity. |
| Lecture 6 | This lecture works through the induction of the concept of objectivity in the Aristotelian sense. It covers the distinction between percepts and concepts, the discovery of logic, the ideas of validation and proof, and the contrasts of objectivity. |
| Lecture 7 | In this lecture, Dr. Peikoff demonstrates the crucial inductive steps that Ayn Rand had to take to develop the concept of objectivity beyond what Aristotle achieved. He discusses the crucial role of measurement omission and the broader theory of concept formation in her development. |
| Lecture 8 | This lecture examines the idea that force is evil in a moral context, even aside from a political context. It investigates specifically the issue of the initiation of physical force. Dr. Peikoff focuses special attention on understanding how force works to negate the mind and to answer common objections to this idea that are rooted in rationalism or misconceptions about the mind. |
| Lecture 9 | This lecture examines the topic of sex as metaphysical. It approaches the topic within the context of the normative branches of philosophy. The material demonstrates the process of induction for a topic where more direct observations must be matched with broader observations. |
| Lecture 10 | This lecture focuses on the question of how we induce the objectivity of values. It builds on the earlier lecture on inducing the idea of objectivity more generally. It concludes with an extensive question period on topics throughout the course. |
| Lecture 11 | This lecture deals with the idea of the arbitrary as neither true nor false. It reviews the types of claims and how they can be categorized as well as reviewing how one should treat these claims. |
| Lecture 12 | In this lecture, Dr. Peikoff reviews the answers to the course final exam and live and written questions from the audience. |