[Lecture Eight] The Philosophy of Objectivism
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 36 minutes
Course summary: This twelve lecture course presents the entire theoretical structure and key ideas of Objectivism. It covers all the major branches of philosophy and how Objectivism answers the essential questions in those areas. Ayn Rand attended the lectures and participated in a majority of the question and answer sessions after the lectures. Peikoff later used this material as the basis of his definitive book on Objectivism. Read more »
In this lecture: This lecture features an extended discussion of four of the Objectivist virtues, namely independence, integrity, honesty, and productiveness. By demonstrating how each virtue is an implementation and extension of the virtue of rationality, Peikoff highlights the unique perspective captured by each. The lecture also explores how the soul-body question arises in ethics, how the topic of evil arises, and finally how to understand the nature of happiness. Ayn Rand participates in this lecture’s question and answer session.
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 difference between the intellectual and the existential aspects of the virtue of independence? Describe examples that illustrate each. |
| What is the unique perspective that the virtue of integrity has on the idea of loyalty? How is it applied? |
| What does the mind-body question have to do with integrity? |
| Why is integrity such a controversial virtue? |
| Using an example, explain when compromise is and is not consistent with the virtue of integrity. What are the deeper reasons why this distinction is existentially necessary. |
| Explain how the virtue of honesty can be described as refusing to hide from reality. |
| How is the Objectivist validation of the idea of honesty different from the conventional account? |
| What existential facts make productiveness a necessary virtue? |
| What is the role of a central purpose in man’s life? |
| What are some of the ethical consequences of the soul-body dichotomy? |
| How are the mistaken views of sex both rooted in the mind-body dichotomy? What are the consequences of the wrong views? |
| Explain the moral/practical dichotomy by using two real world examples of how people make this mistake. |
| What is the fundamental reason that explains why evil is impotent? Why do other views contradict this view? What has facilitated evil’s apparent practical success in the world? |
| What is the deepest root of the idea that happiness is the natural state of existence but it also the sign of achievement? |
| How is setting happiness as the standard of ethics actually an anti-life approach? |
| What does Objectivism mean by the benevolent universe premise? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 1:48:00 | Since certainty involves a context of many items of knowledge and since man is limited by the crow epistemology, a consciousness cannot perceive at once that a fact does not contradict any of his other knowledge. How then does one know he is certain? Is he signaled by a feeling presented to the conscious mind from the subconscious? |
| 1:50:35 | If later evidence overturns an earlier conclusion for which there had been contextually conclusive evidence, is it correct to say that the earlier conclusion did represent knowledge in its context? Or only that the earlier conclusion was justifiably regarded as knowledge but was, in fact, an error? |
| 1:51:46 | A conclusion is certain when, in a given context, all the available evidence supports that conclusion and no alternative conclusion qualifies as even possible. But doesn’t there have to be even more than a certain amount of evidence in favor of the conclusion? For example, in a murder trial, prosecution establishes only that the defendant said that he wished the victim were dead. There are no other suspects. It seems that in this case all the available evidence points toward the defendant being guilty and there’s no evidence to implicate anyone else, yet there is not enough evidence to convict the defendant. |
| 1:54:01 | What is the epistemological status of an idea that has no evidence to support it but nothing known to contradict it? |
| 1:55:11 | Do you see the value of developing a specific application of logic to the evaluative function of consciousness, i.e., a logic of decision-making or logic of choice? Has anyone made any major contribution to this area? |
| 1:57:17 | Please discuss the problem of individuation and its relation to the Medieval clash over universals. |
| 2:00:48 | If A.J. Ayer came out in favor of unbridled laissez-faire capitalism, could he be said to know that capitalism is the only moral political-economic system in the light of his undercutting everything that makes it possible? |
| 2:01:55 | Can any mystic or relativist claim to know any abstract knowledge? |
| 2:03:02 | Although you can say man that must choose to value his life, that it is not automatic, doesn’t a child’s sense of life suggest that he values life naturally, almost automatically? |
| 2:04:18 | Alleged counterexamples to the Objectivist concept of life as a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action are lemmings running into the sea, a mother bird sacrificing itself to an animal for the sake of its young, etc. Would you comment? |
| 2:06:05 | Is man justified in taking an animal’s life when his survival does not depend on it? |
| 2:07:45 | Are there moralities or theories of value other than Objectivism that are neither intrinsic nor subjective, but objective? |
| 2:08:30 | Are values as such objective? That is, how does the intrinsic-subjective vs. objective issue apply to the non-moral values of plants? |
| 2:10:33 | On what basis does an individual’s choice of career derive? In other words, what is the cause of different and specific values that account for one rational man’s desire to be, for example, an astronaut and another’s to be a physicist? |
| 2:12:22 | In “The Metaphysical vs. the Man-made” Miss Rand states: “One must never accept man-made evils in silent resignation, one must never submit to them voluntarily.” This does not mean, does it, that one must existentially fight through letters to the editor, writing articles, etc. about every man-made evil that is rampant in our society? Non-acceptance means a firmly thought-out non-agreement and nothing more, correct? When, if ever, is one morally compelled to take action against an evil? |
| 2:16:33 | At one point you stated that animals adapt to surroundings whereas man conquers his surroundings. However, in dealing with the benevolent universe, you said man should adapt to the universe. Please explain. |
| 2:17:44 | Can happiness come from the process of pursuing values as well as from achieving them? |
| 2:18:35 | In Anthem, Ayn Rand writes “there are no words holier than ‘I will’.” What is the metaphysical status of the “will”? |
| 2:19:34 | Isn’t the value of a business commodity more apparent than that of an artistic commodity? People can fail to recognize the value of Objectivism, but rarely fail to recognize the value of a good, cheap car. The great artists may be unappreciated, but all seem to recognize the value of a great businessman. Please comment. |
| 2:21:;54 | Can you explain the fact that there are people who profess to be complete subjectivists, rejecting all principles, and yet they somehow seem to be moderately happy and successful in their lives? |
| 2:25:17 | Does not volunteering the entire truth on a certain matter constitute a lie? |
| 2:26:30 | Is it really objectionable and hypocritical to recite the words “so help me God” when taking an oath? |
| 2:27:04 | Ayn Rand’s perspective on not volunteering the entire truth. |
| 2:30:18 | Last week Miss Rand voiced a strongly pessimistic view of the future. How can she say she is glad to be old when one of the most important concepts of her philosophy is that irrationality is never to be taken seriously? |
| 2:33:59 | If the universe is benevolent, why does Kira, in We the Living, die? Why does Miss Rand project her as dying just as she’s about to achieve her life’s goal of freedom? |