[Lecture Five] Objectivism Through Induction
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Course summary: 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. Read more »
In this lecture: 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.
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.
| Explain the bridge between judging and acting on judgment of inanimate things and the introduction of the action context in judging people. |
| Why is it important to identify the range of patterns possible in a given context to be able to induce a concept, using Dr. Peikoff’s example of judgment and a child in school? |
| How do we proceed to bring in the concept of “deserved” in our induction of judgment? |
| Explain how the future versus past perspective in regard to justice is a false alternative. |
| What is the difference between making mistaken egoistic choices and still being egoistic and choosing bad values and claiming egoism? |
| How does the unit perspective apply to the process of induction? |
| Why do concepts in epistemology presume instances of them before inductive processes identifying them? |
| Why is the fact of fallibility not sufficient to explain the need for objectivity? |
| What facts about the mind do you need to have before you can even confront the problem of error? |
| How is concept formation different from induction? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 41:07 | Is a person who pursues bad values and claims it’s for his own sake an egoist? |
| 47:09 | Is it wrong to classify Epicurus or Nietzsche as egoists since they certainly don’t subscribe to the concept of choosing and acting creatively to achieve the values that lead to your own life and happiness? |
| 49:12 | Could you comment on the nature of moral emotions as such? Is it a primitive response to an automatic value? |
| 52:04 | You don’t talk about the unit perspective. Does the unit perspective have a role in the forming of inductions? If yes, what is it? |
| 54:25 | You said that Ancient Greece and America were the only egoistic societies. Doesn’t slavery in Greece and in the South in America detract from that? What about Italy during the Renaissance? |
| 1:25:34 | I don’t understand the difference between concept-formation and induction. |
| 1:27:36 | Is induction used in concept-formation? |
| 1:29:44 | Do you know when the first time the word “objectivity” was used? |
| 1:31:00 | You discussed only the pure cases of egoism and altruism. Is it possible to induce why a mixed union of egoism and altruism is wrong? In other words, the way it stands in most people’s minds. Example: I’m mostly egoistic, but occasionally go to extended family events, including religious weddings, even though I don’t really care about these people. |