[Lecture Six] The Art of Thinking
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Course summary: In this course Dr. Peikoff explains what happens in the mind when one thinks and offers a structure for how to get better at thinking. He applies the key principles of Objectivist epistemology to everyday thinking. The course explains the mental process of changing one’s mind, the role of integration and essentialization in proper thinking, and the application of thinking in principle and what certainty means. Read more »
In this lecture: Dr. Peikoff discusses what it means to be certain about a topic and illustrates the ways that certainty is the result of the earlier methods he analyzed in the course. He shows what contextual knowledge is, how it guides us in determining the state of our certainty, and how we specify our context as a means of reaching certainty. The lecture reviews the four areas that have proven the most difficult for students to grasp the Objectivist position on certainty.
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 is the epistemological basis of certainty? |
| What facts give rise to the distinction between provisional and certain? |
| How does one determine a standard of evidence? |
| In what specific ways can you be certain of the future? |
| When is it appropriate and not appropriate to use statistics? |
| Is it always necessary to specify the context of one’s claims? |
| Does specifying context help you avoid being wrong? |
| What is the difference between revising one’s ideas and discovering that one was wrong? |
| Is it possible to say that one can make errors of knowledge avoidable? If so, how? |
| What is the difference between an error of method and a limitation of knowledge? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 1:28:20 | Is a standard of proof an item of knowledge and, if so, how can you be certain of it? |
| 1:35:38 | How would you differentiate the natural and social sciences? |
| 1:35:59 | Regarding statistics and the plane example. |
| 1:37:24 | You said that statistics are applicable only when you’re ignorant of a concrete, but they are applicable in many other cases? |
| 1:42:32 | You said that certainty is a subcategory of knowledge. What would be an example of knowledge that is uncertain? |
| 1:44:07 | What is the difference between “data” and “statistics”? |
| 1:45:35 | What about the context of a “mirage” where you see it, but it’s not actually there? |
| 1:47:07 | Is horizontal integration sometimes necessary to establish certainty and, if so, does this necessitate defining the concept of “proof” broadly enough to include horizontal integration? |
| 1:51:03 | Is an adult who doesn’t have the proper method of knowledge innocent like the child, even though erroneous, or is he blameworthy because he doesn’t have the proper method? |