Concepts, though fundamental, are only tools—only means to an end. The end is the practical, productive, rational use of your mind to achieve your values, secure your survival, and enhance your life. That is the...
Ayn Rand stated the theme of Atlas Shrugged as: “the role of the mind in man’s existence—and, as corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest.” This course discusses the manner...
This multi-session workshop is open to students and alumni of the Objectivist Academic Center, and those they refer who are serious students of Objectivism but who have not, as yet, joined the OAC. The bootcamp...
This is an invitation-only live course (Oct. 2021 – Jun. 2022) of Ayn Rand University, a new kind of university which provides advanced live courses in philosophy and communication from an Objectivist perspective. ARU courses include...
In this collection of talks spanning more than a decade, Leonard Peikoff reflects on a wide range of topics of significant importance to his life, both personally and professionally. Several of these discussions are informal:...
Free, unregulated financial markets serve the vital function of providing capital to the producers. Yet, through the ages, banking and other financial activities have been viewed as corrupt and exploitative. From the money-changers of the...
Available with Spanish subtitles!
¡Disponible con subtítulos en español!
In 1962, Ayn Rand was invited to write a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times. Her first column was a brief introduction to her philosophy, Objectivism. In...
No thinker has had a greater influence on philosophy in the last two centuries than Immanuel Kant. Building on his metaphysics and epistemology, Kant proposed an ethics that dispensed with the need for a divine...
No thinker has had a greater influence on philosophy in the last two centuries than Immanuel Kant. This course presents the historical context in which Kant developed his metaphysics and epistemology and explains his most...
In this Summer 2021 seminar, graduate students and young professionals in philosophy examine the best secondary literature on Ayn Rand's epistemology, and do an intensive chapter-by-chapter reading of her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.
This course is...
Ayn Rand held that “philosophy is primarily epistemology,” the “science devoted to the discovery of the proper methods of acquiring and validating knowledge.” This class surveys Rand’s “new approach to epistemology” — the most original...
In these lectures, Leonard Peikoff argues that a great work of art has life-serving values to offer even when its philosophic content is untrue. Through analysis of some great works of literature, and a number...
Tara Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas. Her main interests concern the nature of values and virtues, and the requirements of objective law.
Dr. Smith is author of Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System (2015); Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (2006); Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality (2000); and Moral Rights and Political Freedom (1995) as well as a number of articles in such venues as The Journal of Philosophy, American Philosophical Quarterly, Law and Philosophy and Social Philosophy and Policy. Smith’s current research focuses on intellectual freedom.
Dr. Smith is the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism and holds the Anthem Foundation Fellowship. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Available with Spanish subtitles!
¡Disponible con subtítulos en español!
Who was Ayn Rand? What kind of person did it take to create the fictional heroes of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and to develop a new philosophy...