Aristotle is the father and chief defender of the view that the human mind can achieve a deep and rich understanding of the world in terms of fundamental principles derived ultimately from sense-perception. Aristotle’s theory of knowledge represents a high point in the history of human thought. But the writings in which he expressed that theory are obscure, and most readers find it difficult to appreciate their significance or even understand them.

In this course, Dr. Gregory Salmieri—an expert in Aristotle’s philosophy—guides students through this challenging material. He explains Aristotle’s most important insights into the nature of knowledge and the methods by which knowledge is achieved, and he identifies and discusses the texts in which these insights can be found.

Supplemental materials include Dr. Salmieri’s translations of all the passages he discusses (with ample surrounding context) and recommendations for further reading for those interested in deeper study.

This course includes a handout.

This course was recorded at the 2010 Objectivist Summer Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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 authority in ethics, but which distilled and retained Judaeo-Christian morality’s fundamental principle—duty or moral law—and its fundamental virtue, voluntary obedience to the law.

This course examines the major conceptual elements of Kant’s moral philosophy and analyzes Kant’s lasting influence on subsequent ethics. This course is Part 2 of a two-part course on Kant’s philosophy. Part 1 addresses Kant’s theoretical philosophy.

This course was recorded at the 2011 Objectivist Summer Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

This course includes a handout.

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 important ideas. By analyzing the content and methodology of his mature philosophical system, the course acquaints you with the essential elements and spirit of Kant’s philosophy and gives you a richer appreciation of his profound influence. This course is Part 1 of a two-part course on Kant’s philosophy. Part 2 addresses Kant’s moral philosophy.

This course was recorded at the 2007 Objectivist Summer Conference in Telluride, CO.

This course includes a handout.

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 and least widely understood aspect of her thought. The course emphasizes the structure of the Objectivist epistemology and the central role played by Rand’s theory of concepts. The course covers some applications and extensions of Rand’s ideas (including aspects of Leonard Peikoff’s theory of induction) that illustrate the power of her epistemology.

This course was recorded at the 2006 Objectivist Summer Conference in Boston, MA.

This course includes a handout and transcript.

In this six-lecture course recorded in July of 2010 at the Objectivist summer conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Leonard Peikoff discusses the final parts of his then book-in-progress The DIM Hypothesis, published in 2012.

Here is a description of the book from the back cover of the softcover edition:

“In this far-reaching study, Peikoff identifies the three methods of integrating data, as when connecting diverse experiments by a scientific theory, or separate laws into a Constitution, or single events into a story. The first method, in which data is integrated through rational means, he calls Integration. The second, which employs nonrational means, he calls Misintegration. The third is Disintegration—which is nihilism, the desire to tear things apart.

“In The DIM Hypothesis, Peikoff demonstrates the power of these three methods in shaping the West, by using the categories to examine the culturally representative fields of literature, physics, education, and politics. Extrapolating from the historical pattern he identifies, Peikoff concludes by explaining why the lights of the West are going out—and predicts the most likely future for the United States.”

Note: Since the lectures that compose this course predate the book’s completion, the book supersedes the course. If and when there are disagreements between the two, listeners should assume that the published book represents Peikoff’s viewpoint.

(A handout for this course, prepared by Peikoff, can be found here.)

Disclaimer: Although Dr. Peikoff granted permission for the creation of this course in a new format, he has not reviewed or approved any of its content.

In this six-lecture course recorded in July of 2007 at the Objectivist summer conference in Telluride, Colorado, Leonard Peikoff discusses the first parts of his then book-in-progress The DIM Hypothesis, published in 2012.

Here is a description of the book from the back cover of the softcover edition:

“In this far-reaching study, Peikoff identifies the three methods of integrating data, as when connecting diverse experiments by a scientific theory, or separate laws into a Constitution, or single events into a story. The first method, in which data is integrated through rational means, he calls Integration. The second, which employs nonrational means, he calls Misintegration. The third is Disintegration—which is nihilism, the desire to tear things apart.

“In The DIM Hypothesis, Peikoff demonstrates the power of these three methods in shaping the West, by using the categories to examine the culturally representative fields of literature, physics, education, and politics. Extrapolating from the historical pattern he identifies, Peikoff concludes by explaining why the lights of the West are going out—and predicts the most likely future for the United States.”

Note: Since the lectures that compose this course predate the book’s completion, the book supersedes the course. If and when there are disagreements between the two, listeners should assume that the published book represents Peikoff’s viewpoint.

(A handout for this course, prepared by Peikoff, can be found here.)

Disclaimer: Although Dr. Peikoff granted permission for the creation of this course in a new format, he has not reviewed or approved any of its content.

These historic lectures present, for the first time, the solution to the problem of induction, and thereby complete, in every essential respect, the validation of reason.

Dr. Peikoff begins by identifying the axioms of induction and the method of establishing their objectivity, including the role of measurement-omission. This enables him to make clear the parallels between concept-formation and generalization-formation and leads him to discover the real distinction between induction and deduction.

Dr. Peikoff goes on to discuss the methods used in science to prove non-axiomatic generalizations and advanced theories. He stresses, with many examples (from Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Maxwell and others), the roles of experimentation and of mathematics.

The course then considers the similarities between philosophy and physics. Dr. Peikoff shows that the differences affect only the form (but not the essence) of induction and illustrates this fact by analyzing the inductive proof of typical Objectivist principles.

The course concludes that (apart from mathematics) the same process of induction is essential to every rational field, and that, as a result, truth in any such field, including philosophy, possesses the same objectivity as that of physics, the archetype of science itself.

Disclaimer: Although Dr. Peikoff granted permission for the creation of this course in a new format, he has not reviewed or approved any of its content.

This course was recorded at Second Renaissance Conference 2002 in Palo Alto, CA.

Ayn Rand defined psycho-epistemology as “the study of man’s cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious.”

In these lectures extending material presented in “Psycho-Epistemology I”, Dr. Binswanger introduces and defines a new sub-discipline: applied psycho-epistemology.

Topics include:

• The goal of applied psycho-epistemology
• Psycho-epistemology as one’s automatized “mental software”
• Mental filing as link formation
• Factors affecting information retrieval
• Definition as the process that organizes your knowledge by essentials
• How to concretize properly

Ayn Rand defined psycho-epistemology as “the study of man’s cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious.”

In these illuminating lectures on this new science, Harry Binswanger presents Ayn Rand’s revolutionary theories and offers his own penetrating observations on the role of the subconscious in thinking and on the specific operations by which one “programs” one’s subconscious.

Topics include:

• The conscious mind as the manager of the subconscious
• “Filing” and “retrieving” data
• What is and what is not directly volitional
• A new view of creativity

Atlas Shrugged has been aptly described as “a hymn to logic.” But today, logic textbooks contain only sterile, formalistic diversions from real-life issues. In this course, given at Objectivist Summer Conference 2018 (OCON), Harry Binswanger instead focuses on the most personally important — and most neglected — topic in logic: concepts. It is proper conceptualization, Binswanger argues, not facility with syllogisms, that makes the difference between clarity and confusion, rational and irrational functioning, adhering to reality and wandering through dreamland. Drawing on Ayn Rand’s revolutionary identifications in logic, these five classes focus on the proper formation, definition, maintenance, and use of concepts. Emphasis is given to working on practical exercises. The course is based on the material in chapters six and seven of How We Know: Epistemology on an Objectivist Foundation, and it builds on Binswanger’s OCON 2016 and 2017 courses, The Foundations of Knowledge and Concepts and Propositions.