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...
Aaron Smith is an instructor and fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He is an instructor for ARI’s Objectivist Academic Center, ARI Campus and ARI’s internship program. He teaches and designs educational content for the Institute’s intellectual training and e-learning programs. He writes, speaks and gives interviews for the Institute and provides intellectual and editorial support to a variety of ARI’s programs.
Dr. Smith received his PhD in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University where his research focused on Aristotle’s theory of knowledge. Prior to joining ARI in 2013, he was a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he taught courses in ancient Greek philosophy, moral theory and epistemology. He is also a graduate of the Objectivist Academic Center and an alumnus of ARI’s Advanced Education Program.
In 1961 Ayn Rand was invited to speak at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, America’s oldest continuously operating free public lecture series. This marked the beginning of Rand’s relationship with the Forum.
Over the years,...