In this course we will study Kant’s mature theoretical philosophy—i.e. his metaphysics and epistemology—through a close reading of his magnum opus, The Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), and closely related materials. Our goals will be to learn the basic elements of Kant’s transcendental idealism, to identify Kant’s philosophical objectives, and to evaluate his methodology. Thence we will be able to understand Kant’s place in the history of western philosophy. The course will emphasize the skills of textual and theoretical interpretation and of philosophical evaluation.

This course teaches the basic principles and methods of objective communication. We’ll treat communication as a science, as a skill that has certain objective principles that can be learned and applied to the improvement of one’s work. Through written assignments, lectures and writing analysis, students are encouraged to think critically about communication—their own and that of others. There are two parts to the course: Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s course “Objective Communication” and live classes on nonfiction writing taught by Keith Lockitch.

This course is a critical examination of Aquinas’ Summa contra Gentiles, focusing on the arguments he presents in defense of the existence and nature of God, and of God’s relationship to the universe and to man. Topics to be covered include: the relationship between reason and faith; the arguments for the existence of God; the nature of God’s intellect; the Problem of Evil; the doctrine of Original Sin.

A legal system is a foundation of a civilized society. The law defines how political institutions function and comprises the rules that define how citizens interact in their daily lives. This course will study legal systems as an intellectual achievement distinct from political or constitutional theory. The course will cover, among other topics, different legal systems, how these legal systems evolved, different types of legal rules, and how legal rules function through legal institutions like courts.

This is an ongoing live course 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 weekly live classes conducted by videoconference and taught by experts in Objectivism.

To join this or other ARU courses, sign up as an auditor, or apply to be a graded student at Ayn Rand University.

In this course we will cover a variety of topics, including the Frankfurt School and the New Left, environmentalism, feminism and gender studies, post-structuralism and postmodernism, postcolonialism, intersectionality, and how all of the above have paved the ground for CRT itself, which will be our focus in the last weeks. We will examine what all these ideas actually are, where they come from, what is their impact on the culture, and what are their strong points and shortcomings.

This is an ongoing live course 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 weekly live classes conducted by videoconference and taught by experts in Objectivism.

To join this or other ARU courses, sign up as an auditor, or apply to be a graded student at Ayn Rand University.

This is the second year of a two-year seminar exploring Objectivism in depth, with a focus on understanding its core principles in the context of the history of philosophy and other thinkers’ answers to major philosophical questions. Year 1 focused especially on ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. Year 2, the current course, focuses on foundational issues and the guidance Objectivism offers in epistemology, ethics, and politics.

This is an ongoing live course 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 weekly live classes conducted by videoconference and taught by experts in Objectivism.

To join this or other ARU courses, sign up as an auditor, or apply to be a graded student at Ayn Rand University.

This is a guided study of Leonard Peikoff’s “Eight Great Plays” course, in which Dr. Peikoff selects eight masterpieces of world literature and analyzes them as great works of drama and as works that implicitly convey complete philosophies of life. ARU faculty supplement Dr. Peikoff’s lectures with live discussions and assignments that further explore the plays and the principles underlying Ayn Rand’s view that art is an indispensable need of human life.

This is an ongoing live course 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 weekly live classes conducted by videoconference and taught by experts in Objectivism.

To join this or other ARU courses, sign up as an auditor, or apply to be a graded student at Ayn Rand University.

This course will trace the development of man’s understanding of motion and gravitation, starting with the earliest astronomical observations of pre-Greek civilizations, and culminating in the achievements of Isaac Newton. How did mankind progress from a state of total ignorance about the stars, planets, Sun, and Moon to our first scientific understanding of these bodies and the laws that govern their behavior? No prerequisites or background in physics are required.

Ayn Rand’s major novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, are self-consciously philosophical novels, containing abstract themes, characters driven by opposing moral principles, and conflicts rooted in clashing worldviews. And more than that, Rand’s fictional heroes discover and embody new philosophical ideas, original to Rand. To begin to understand Rand’s distinctive worldview and to learn her new philosophy, Objectivism, there is no better place to start than with careful consideration of the content and meaning of her novels.

This is an ongoing live course 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 weekly live classes conducted by videoconference and taught by experts in Objectivism.

To join this or other ARU courses, sign up as an auditor, or apply to be a graded student at Ayn Rand University.

To learn Objectivism–a particular philosophy–you must see it as addressing the questions of philosophy. To learn philosophy, you must understand its questions and why they arise. Neither of these tasks is easy, because the questions philosophy raises are abstract and difficult, and the answers offered are often intricate and subtle. This course provides training in identifying and evaluating arguments.