Unity in Epistemology and Ethics
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
- 4 lectures, 7 hours
- Recorded in 1996
In these four lectures, Dr. Peikoff explores the role of unity in the Objectivist philosophy. He explores how the perspective of unity helps to further illuminate different elements in the philosophy that might otherwise seem unconnected. He considers the connections between history and philosophy, the role of simultaneous differing definitions, and the virtue of integrity as an illustration of unity in human character.
Download the entire course (288 MB) to listen in the audio player of your choice—or listen online starting with Lecture One below. If listening to the course from this website, be sure to make a note of the current lecture and timestamp before leaving so that you can easily resume where you left off.
Study Guide
This course includes a study guide, featuring questions and other material designed to help you digest the course content. This material accompanies the individual lectures and is also available below as a PDF.
Lecture Guide
Summaries of the lecture content are provided below for your reference and convenience.
| Lecture 1 | In this lecture, Dr. Peikoff analyzes and illustrates the idea that all knowledge and everything in the universe is interrelated. He demonstrates that human cognition always features the processes of differentiation and integration, with a special emphasis on the crucial role of integration that leads to unity. |
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| Lecture 2 | In this lecture, Dr. Peikoff demonstrates that seemingly opposite fields of human knowledge—history which looks backwards at what was and philosophy which discusses what should be—actually depend on each other in crucial ways. Through extended application of the spiral approach to knowledge, he concretizes this with examples from multiple branches of philosophy. |
| Lecture 3 | This lecture presents Dr. Peikoff’s understanding of why certain philosophic concepts require two definitions to achieve the unity of knowledge about different perspectives on the proper use of those concepts. He works through key examples of concepts that have simultaneous but dual definitions, and he then shows the unity that brings these together. |
| Lecture 4 | Dr. Peikoff explores the question of whether practicing morality is easy or difficult. |