[Lecture Twelve] Understanding Objectivism
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 29 minutes
Note: Lecture Eleven has been omitted at the request of Dr. Peikoff.
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: This lecture examines a vital question when it comes to judging people, the issue of intellectual honesty. Dr. Peikoff examines the factors that enter into the question of judging honesty, including the specific ideas involved, the important contextual issues, and the application of judgment in the course of a philosophic life.
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.
| Why is it so vital to assess the degree of honesty in a person with whom one disagrees on fundamental questions? |
| What is the minimum required of a wrong belief to suggest that it can be held honestly? |
| What are the three categories of inherently dishonest ideas? Why does holding these ideas necessitate a dishonest approach to dealing with ideas? |
| What are some of the major factors that condition how we evaluate a person’s context for holding an idea? |
| What signs might one look for in an argument that illustrate a mind that is honest versus dishonest in its approach? |
| How can one use the distinction between the implicit and explicit meaning of ideas in judging a person’s honesty about a given idea? |
| What is the role of dependence and conformity in judging dishonesty? |
| How does the approach to judging intellectual honesty help us answer the question of whether philosophy puts us in constant opposition to other people? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 1:57:11 | Can you say that, to the extent that a person is irrational and holds beliefs not based on reason, he is dishonest? |
| 1:58:16 | Can some people be low enough in their cognitive development owing to bad upbringing or environment, so that you can’t criticize them for being dishonest because they remain intellectually not convinced? |
| 2:00:17 | Suppose a person’s conscious conviction on a particular issue is in the form of a floating abstraction and therefore not fully understood, and he acts on an emotion that is in conflict with his conscious conviction. Is he being immoral? |
| 2:02:36 | According to today’s lecture (Lecture 10, when the question was asked), an Objectivist could find Ayn Rand’s novels boring or unenjoyable. Have you had any experiences regarding this? |
| 2:14:48 | It’s easy for you to dismiss outright the Libertarian biographies of Ayn Rand because you knew her so closely. But there are no other sources of such information. Maybe it would be useful if you could comment at length on at least one of these books so that we can know which facts are true and which is misrepresentation. Ayn Rand is very dear to us as a great person, not only as an author. |
| 2:16:58 | Is it possible to vote for a non-Objectivist candidate in a presidential election without compromise? |
| 2:17:26 | Why don’t you like to talk about philosophy at parties? |
| 2:19:12 | Why wasn’t Eddie Willers taken to Atlantis? |
| 2:20:08 | You seem to suggest that a woman has to choose between a career as a mother and a career outside the home. I want both, and I believe I can devote myself to both. |
| 2:20:51 | Does a parent have a moral right to impose a religious attitude or philosophy on an adolescent, or is it better to let a child chew on various religious philosophies and reach their own conclusions? |
| 2:22:19 | How do I bring up a child in an atheistic household without causing him psychological problems dealing with his classmates? |
| 2:23:37 | Could you comment on the appropriateness of listening to a concert held in a church? |
| 2:26:16 | What about Miss Rand’s view of pain, guilt, and fear? Didn’t she see them as fundamentally unimportant and doesn’t that lead to de-emphasizing these emotions and therefore to repression? |
| 2:27:18 | I’m impressed with the turnout for your course. However, in general, all I can see in the world is a negative response to the ideas you propose. In your experiences, do you see any trend that indicates that Objectivist views are more accepted now, especially in the intellectual sphere? |