[Lecture Two] Understanding Objectivism
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Course summary: In this course, Dr. Peikoff explores the proper methodology for understanding Objectivism, and philosophy more generally. The end goal in grasping any complex set of ideas, he notes, is to keep them tied to reality. This course features lecture material by Dr. Peikoff as well as exercises and demonstrations from the live audience. The main methodological topics covered are the need for concretization, the role of definitions in concept formation, the understanding of hierarchy, reduction of concepts to the perceptual level, and the role of context in epistemology. Peikoff also presents essential material on the main cognitive and methodological mistakes that can be made in attempting to understand Objectivism, namely empiricism and rationalism. The course concludes with a discussion of the importance of moral judgment. Read more »
In this lecture: Using the Objectivist idea of “life as the standard of value,” Dr. Peikoff demonstrates the method for how one can digest and understand key philosophic ideas. By using an audience volunteer, Peikoff illustrates the steps in a progression from confusion and rationalism to increasing clarity and 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.
| What is the main difference between a wholly correct statement of a philosophic point and an example of understanding that concept? |
| Explain how to establish a proper context for discussing a key philosophic idea. |
| How does specifying and grasping the exact meaning of a concept play a vital role in ensuring that the right context is set up? |
| When is giving a definition helpful, and when can it be harmful in thinking about how to digest an idea? |
| What does it mean to oscillate between definitions and concretes? |
| Indicate, using an original example, what a process of reduction is. |
| How does the iterative expansion and contraction of the topic help one to understand more fully? |
| Following the exercise that Dr. Peikoff suggests at the end of the lecture, choose one or two terms to provide a definition of, to list a few concrete examples of, and to list attributes that are not definitional. |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 2:00:07 | Do you find images or mental pictures helpful in connecting concepts to reality? |
| 2:01:05 | Isn’t the confusion between a concept’s meaning and its definition the very error involved in the whole philosophic distinction between necessary and contingent truths? |
| 2:02:12 | Can we expect the struggle to learn Objectivism to be as difficult as learning the violin or how to type? Must it always be darkest just before the dawn? |
| 2:05:21 | Is it possible to understand Objectivism without intensive study? Did Ayn Rand understand it before she developed it? |
| 2:07:02 | You said you struggled against rationalism for fifteen years. And you had the advantage of an association with Ayn Rand. Will your course make it possible for us to grasp Objectivism in less time? Why? |
| 2:10:31 | If one is attempting to understand any given principle, how is it that you can say that the method of understanding includes obtaining the right conclusions first as a part of the correct methodology? |
| 2:11:50 | Is the point that Ayn Rand makes in Galt’s speech, that “life is the standard of value and the moral code which man has chosen” a point about moral codes or about “life is the standard of value”? |
| 2:12:53 | What is the difference between getting in touch with the concretes that underlie the meaning of a concept vs. concretes that symbolize or stand for concepts, for example, a heroic fictional character? |
| 2:14:25 | What’s the difference between looking at the carrot and saying it’s self-evident that life is the standard of value and using the carrot to point to the proof? What’s the difference between self-evidence and “pointers”? |
| 2:16:52 | Wouldn’t the idea of something being self-evident be intrinsicism? |
| 2:18:00 | What is the current status of the movie version of Atlas Shrugged? |