Misplaced Pages

#657342

94-538: Ayn Rand Institute Other Objectivism is a philosophical system named and developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand . She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff ,

188-560: A "tired moron" and an "opportunist", respectively. In a 2010 podcast, Peikoff explained why he supports immigration restrictions in the current context of the welfare state , and why he does not see this as a contradiction to Objectivism's general rejection of immigration restrictions. In another 2010 podcast, Peikoff explained that he does not support the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City , arguing that property rights are always contextual and that preventing

282-410: A child too young to consent should be a crime and is evil. He also continues Rand's opposition to libertarianism, remaining sharply opposed to any description of Objectivist political philosophy as "libertarian" and to any collaboration with most libertarian groups. He has been critical of American foreign policy, considering both neoconservative and libertarian views self-sacrificial. He objects to

376-478: A concept 'dog'. Because of its characterization of concepts as "open-ended" classifications that go well beyond the characteristics included in their past or current definitions, Objectivist epistemology rejects the analytic-synthetic distinction as a false dichotomy and denies the possibility of a priori knowledge. Rand rejected "feeling" as sources of knowledge. Rand acknowledged the importance of emotion for human beings, but she maintained that emotions are

470-428: A concept, one mentally isolates a group of concretes (of distinct perceptual units), on the basis of observed similarities which distinguish them from all other known concretes (similarity is 'the relationship between two or more existents which possess the same characteristic(s), but in different measure or degree'); then, by a process of omitting the particular measurements of these concretes, one integrates them into

564-420: A consequence of the conscious or subconscious ideas that a person already accepts, not a means of achieving awareness of reality. "Emotions are not tools of cognition." Rand also rejected all forms of faith or mysticism, terms that she used synonymously. She defined faith as "the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one's senses and reason... Mysticism

658-526: A first-to-file basis are moral because she considered all property as fundamentally intellectual. Furthermore, the value of a commercial product derives in part from the necessary work of its inventors. However, Rand considered limits on patents and copyrights as important and said that if they were granted in perpetuity, it would necessarily result in de facto collectivism. Rand opposed racism and any legal application of racism. She considered affirmative action to be an example of legal racism. Rand advocated

752-514: A human cognitive need: it allows human beings to understand concepts as though they were percepts . Objectivism defines "art" as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments"—that is, according to what the artist believes to be ultimately true and important about the nature of reality and humanity. In this respect Objectivism regards art as a way of presenting abstractions concretely, in perceptual form. Philosophical system The elements that comprise

846-435: A method of defining human nature and the nature of the world in which we live. My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. Rand's philosophy begins with three axioms : existence, consciousness, and identity . Rand defined an axiom as "a statement that identifies

940-537: A million dollars in damages unless Peikoff turned over the pages. After consulting his lawyer, Peikoff released the pages to a representative of the Library of Congress. In his book The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics (which he co-wrote with physicist David Harriman), Peikoff argues that there is no problem of induction , because philosophy is itself an inductive science and, therefore, that any attempt to deny

1034-414: A person's actions promote and fulfill his own life or not is a question of fact, as it is with all other organisms, but whether a person will act to promote his well-being is up to him, not hard-wired into his physiology. "Man has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history." In Atlas Shrugged , Rand wrote "Man's mind is his basic tool of survival. Life

SECTION 10

#1732772381658

1128-416: A philosopher then affiliated with Peikoff and ARI, published his essay "A Question of Sanction", arguing for greater open-mindedness in working with other groups. Kelley sees Objectivism as an "open system" that can evolve beyond Rand's own writings and beliefs. Peikoff presented his objections to Kelley in an article called "Fact and Value," arguing that Kelley's case itself contradicted Rand's understanding of

1222-842: A philosophical position consist of statements which are believed to be true by the thinkers who accept them, and which may or may not be empirical . The sciences have a very clear idea of what a theory is; however in the arts such as philosophy, the definition is more hazy. Philosophical positions are not necessarily scientific theories , although they may consist of both empirical and non-empirical statements. The collective statements of all philosophical movements , schools of thought , and belief systems consist of philosophical positions. Also included among philosophical positions are many principles , dogmas , doctrines , hypotheses , rules , paradoxes , laws , as well as 'ologies, 'isms, 'sis's, and effects . Some examples of philosophical positions include: Philosophical positions may also take

1316-439: A physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally. Academic philosophers have generally paid little attention to or dismissed Rand's philosophy, although a smaller number of academics do support it. Nonetheless, Objectivism has been a persistent influence among right-libertarians and American conservatives . The Objectivist movement , which Rand founded, attempts to spread her ideas to

1410-619: A professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered". Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness , that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception (see direct and indirect realism ), that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through

1504-404: A proof that the axioms of existence, consciousness, and identity are true. It is proof that they are axioms , that they are at the base of knowledge and thus inescapable." Rand said that existence is the perceptually self-evident fact at the base of all other knowledge, i.e., that "existence exists". She further said that to be is to be something , that "existence is identity". That is, to be

1598-600: A single new mental unit: the concept, which subsumes all concretes of this kind (a potentially unlimited number). The integration is completed and retained by the selection of a perceptual symbol (a word) to designate it. "A concept is a mental integration of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristic(s), with their particular measurements omitted." According to Rand, "the term 'measurements omitted' does not mean, in this context, that measurements are regarded as non-existent; it means that measurements exist, but are not specified . That measurements must exist

1692-454: A social context." These rights are specifically understood to be rights to action, not to specific results or objects, and the obligations created by rights are negative in nature: each individual must refrain from violating the rights of others. Objectivists reject alternative notions of rights, such as positive rights , collective rights , or animal rights . Objectivism claims that the only social system which fully recognizes individual rights

1786-530: A specific and finite identity, just like everything else that exists; therefore, it must operate by a specific method of validation. An item of knowledge cannot be "disqualified" by being arrived at by a specific process in a particular form. Thus, for Rand, the fact that consciousness must itself possess identity implies the rejection of both universal skepticism based on the "limits" of consciousness, as well as any claim to revelation, emotion or faith-based belief. Objectivist epistemology maintains that all knowledge

1880-446: A specific course of action. [...] It is only a living organism that faces a constant alternative: the issue of life or death". Rand argued that the primary emphasis of man's free will is the choice: 'to think or not to think'. "Thinking is not an automatic function. In any hour and issue of his life, man is free to think or to evade that effort. Thinking requires a state of full, focused awareness. The act of focusing one's consciousness

1974-471: A statement that she would bequeath her manuscripts to the Library of Congress . She later had reservations, and the bequest was not part of Rand's will. However, after her death, the Library of Congress requested the manuscripts. In July 1991, Peikoff had an assistant deliver the manuscripts of Rand's novels, except for the first and last pages of The Fountainhead , which he had framed. In their stead, he had

SECTION 20

#1732772381658

2068-510: Is processed knowledge—whether on the sensory, perceptual or conceptual level. An "unprocessed" knowledge would be a knowledge acquired without means of cognition. The aspect of epistemology given the most elaboration by Rand is the theory of concept-formation, which she presented in Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology . She argued that concepts are formed by a process of measurement omission. Peikoff described this as follows: To form

2162-402: Is an essential part of the process. The principle is: the relevant measurements must exist in some quantity, but may exist in any quantity." Rand argued that concepts are organized hierarchically. Concepts such as 'dog,' which bring together "concretes" available in perception, can be differentiated (into the concepts of 'dachshund,' 'poodle,' etc.) or integrated (along with 'cat,' etc., into

2256-491: Is capitalism, specifically what Rand described as "full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism". Objectivism regards capitalism as the social system which is most beneficial to the poor, but does not consider this its primary justification. Rather, it is the only moral social system. Objectivism maintains that only societies seeking to establish freedom (or free nations) have a right to self-determination . Objectivism describes government as "the means of placing

2350-462: Is criminal hypocrisy. To send him there in order to preserve his father's rights is absurdity, since there are no parental or other rights in Cuba. To send him there because 'He needs a father, no matter what' is a mindless bromide. Does he need a father who has no choice but to watch his son being broken in mind and starved in body?" Peikoff claims that Palestinian people prior to the establishment of

2444-522: Is given to him, survival is not. His body is given to him, its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is not. To remain alive he must act and before he can act he must know the nature and purpose of his action. He cannot obtain his food without knowledge of food and of the way to obtain it. He cannot dig a ditch—or build a cyclotron—without a knowledge of his aim and the means to achieve it. To remain alive, he must think." In her novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged , she also emphasizes

2538-469: Is incapable of error. For example, optical illusions are errors in the conceptual identification of what is seen, not errors of sight itself. The validity of sense perception, therefore, is not susceptible to proof (because it is presupposed by all proof as proof is only a matter of adducing sensory evidence) nor should its validity be denied (since the conceptual tools one would have to use to do this are derived from sensory data). Perceptual error, therefore,

2632-522: Is logically prior to psychology and in no way dependent on it. The philosophers Randall Dipert and Roderick Long  [ ar ; arz ; es ; ru ; zh ] have argued that Objectivist epistemology conflates the perceptual process by which judgments are formed with the way in which they are to be justified, thereby leaving it unclear how sensory data can validate judgments structured propositionally. Objectivism includes an extensive treatment of ethical concerns. Rand wrote on morality in her works We

2726-468: Is no 'itself' until it is aware of something." Thus, Objectivism posits that the mind does not create reality, but rather, it is a means of discovering reality. Expressed differently, existence has "primacy" over consciousness, which must conform to it. Any other type of argument Rand termed "the primacy of consciousness", including any variant of metaphysical subjectivism or theism. Objectivist philosophy derives its explanations of action and causation from

2820-547: Is not motivated by a desire to live his own human life, but by a wish to live on a sub-human level. Instead of using "that which promotes my (human) life" as his standard of value, he mistakes "that which I (mindlessly happen to) value" for a standard of value, in contradiction of the fact that, existentially, he is a human and therefore rational organism. The "I value" in whim-worship or hedonism can be replaced with "we value", "he values", "they value", or "God values", and still, it would remain dissociated from reality. Rand repudiated

2914-497: Is not possible. Rand consequently rejected epistemological skepticism , as she said that the skeptics' claim to knowledge "distorted" by the form or the means of perception is impossible. The Objectivist theory of perception distinguishes between the form and object. The form in which an organism perceives is determined by the physiology of its sensory systems. Whatever form the organism perceives it in, what it perceives—the object of perception—is reality. Rand consequently rejected

Objectivism - Misplaced Pages Continue

3008-414: Is only the concept of 'Life' that makes the concept of 'Value' possible", and "the fact that a living entity is , determines what it ought to do". Rand writes: "there is only one fundamental alternative in the universe: existence or non-existence—and it pertains to a single class of entities: to living organisms. The existence of inanimate matter is unconditional, the existence of life is not: it depends on

3102-533: Is summarized by the oath her Atlas Shrugged character John Galt adhered to: "I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Some philosophers have criticized Objectivist ethics. The philosopher Robert Nozick argues that Rand's foundational argument in ethics is unsound because it does not explain why someone could not rationally prefer dying and having no values, in order to further some particular value. He argues that her attempt to defend

3196-497: Is the logical consequence of humans following evidence to its logical conclusion. The only alternative would be that they live without orientation to reality. A corollary to Rand's endorsement of self-interest is her rejection of the ethical doctrine of altruism —which she defined in the sense of Auguste Comte 's altruism (he popularized the term), as a moral obligation to live for the sake of others. Rand also rejected subjectivism. A "whim-worshiper" or "hedonist", according to Rand,

3290-425: Is the claim to some non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge, such as 'instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing. ' " Reliance on revelation is like reliance on a Ouija board ; it bypasses the need to show how it connects its results to reality. Faith, for Rand, is not a "short-cut" to knowledge, but a "short-circuit" destroying it. Objectivism acknowledges

3384-439: Is the means of human knowledge, it is therefore each person's most fundamental means of survival and is necessary to the achievement of values. The use or threat of force neutralizes the practical effect of an individual's reason, whether the force originates from the state or from a criminal. According to Rand, "man's mind will not function at the point of a gun". Therefore, the only type of organized human behavior consistent with

3478-475: Is to be "an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes". That which has no nature or attributes does not and cannot exist. The axiom of existence is conceptualized as differentiating something from nothing, while the law of identity is conceptualized as differentiating one thing from another, i.e., one's first awareness of the law of non-contradiction, another crucial base for the rest of knowledge. As Rand wrote, "A leaf ... cannot be all red and green at

3572-406: Is ultimately based on perception. "Percepts, not sensations, are the given, the self-evident." Rand considered the validity of the senses to be axiomatic and said that purported arguments to the contrary all commit the fallacy of the "stolen concept" by presupposing the validity of concepts that, in turn, presuppose the validity of the senses. She said that perception, being determined physiologically,

3666-473: Is verbally identified and serves as the basis of further knowledge. According to Rand, attaining knowledge beyond what is given by perception requires both volition (or the exercise of free will ) and performing a specific method of validation by observation, concept-formation, and the application of inductive and deductive reasoning . For example, a belief in dragons, however sincere, does not mean that reality includes dragons. A process of proof identifying

3760-543: Is volitional. Man can focus his mind to a full, active, purposefully directed awareness of reality—or he can unfocus it and let himself drift in a semiconscious daze, merely reacting to any chance stimulus of the immediate moment, at the mercy of his undirected sensory-perceptual mechanism and of any random, associational connections it might happen to make." According to Rand, therefore, possessing free will, human beings must choose their values: one does not automatically have one's own life as his ultimate value. Whether in fact

3854-579: The 2008 United States presidential election , Peikoff said, "I wouldn't dream of voting", saying that the Republicans should be "wiped out" or "severely punished" for their association with the religious right. Furthermore, he characterized Barack Obama as " anti-American " and a "lying phoney" with troubling connections to both Islam and Reverend Jeremiah Wright . He labelled Obama's running mate Joe Biden an "enjoyably hilarious windbag", and their Republican opponents John McCain and Sarah Palin as

Objectivism - Misplaced Pages Continue

3948-472: The Academy Award -nominated documentary by Michael Paxton . Peikoff views Objectivism as a "closed system" that consists solely of the philosophical principles Rand herself had articulated, and he considers disagreement with any of these principles a departure from Objectivism. The Ayn Rand Institute promotes Peikoff's view of Objectivism The closed vs. open issue came to the fore when David Kelley,

4042-752: The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) in 1985 and is the author of several books on philosophy. Leonard Peikoff was born on October 15, 1933 in Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada, to Samuel Peikoff, MD , a surgeon, and his wife Bessie, a band leader. He attended the University of Manitoba from 1950 to 1953 as a pre-med student. However, following his early discussions with Rand, he transferred to New York University to study philosophy, where he received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees in philosophy in 1954, 1957, and 1964, respectively. His doctoral dissertation adviser

4136-544: The Gulf War , anti-abortion and anti-obscenity views, and alleged failure to defend Salman Rushdie 's freedom of speech during The Satanic Verses controversy . In 2004, Peikoff endorsed John Kerry (despite thinking of Kerry as a "disgustingly bad" candidate) against George W. Bush (whom he called "apocalyptically bad"), on the basis of Bush's religiosity and his refusal to crush Islamic regimes, especially Iran, along with his "doomed" economic policies. In advance of

4230-473: The Kantian dichotomy between "things as we perceive them" and "things as they are in themselves". Rand wrote: The attack on man's consciousness and particularly on his conceptual faculty has rested on the unchallenged premise that any knowledge acquired by a process of consciousness is necessarily subjective and cannot correspond to the facts of reality, since it is processed knowledge … [but] all knowledge

4324-951: The State of Israel consisted solely of "nomadic tribes meandering across the terrain," and that "the Arabs" today have no concept of property rights; indeed, that their "primitivist" antagonism to such rights is the root cause of Arab terrorism. He argues that Israel is a moral beacon which should not return any territory to Arabs or even negotiate with them. Peikoff considers the nationalization of Middle Eastern oil properties developed by Western corporations—beginning with Iran in 1951—to be in violation of international law and refers to such efforts as "confiscation" and supports covert actions to reverse such efforts. He advocates bringing an end to what he claims are "terrorist states" and has routinely lobbied for regime change in Iran "as quickly as possible and with

4418-471: The 1960s motivated Rand to complete an extended monograph on concept-formation, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology . Rand included Peikoff's essay on the " analytic–synthetic dichotomy " when it was published in book form in 1979. Peikoff was also an active participant in Rand's 1969–71 workshops on the monograph, as well as subsequent, smaller philosophy workshops at Rand's apartment. Peikoff later used

4512-412: The 2006 elections, Peikoff recommended voting only for Democrats , to forestall what he sees is a rise in influence of the religious right , adding: Given the choice between a rotten, enfeebled, despairing killer [Democrats], and a rotten, ever stronger, and ambitious killer [Republicans], it is immoral to vote for the latter, and equally immoral to refrain from voting at all because "both are bad." Of

4606-465: The Living (1936), Atlas Shrugged (1957) and The Virtue of Selfishness (1964). Rand defines morality as "a code of values to guide man's choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life". Rand maintained that the first question is not what should the code of values be, the first question is "Does man need values at all—and why?" According to Rand, "it

4700-670: The Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later renamed the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Objectivism through lectures and educational seminars around the United States. Peikoff was among NBI's first lecturers, teaching a course on the history of philosophy. By the early 1960s, NBI had representatives in multiple cities who replayed taped versions of the lectures to local audiences. Discussions with Peikoff and Allan Gotthelf in

4794-479: The axiom of identity, referring to causation as "the law of identity applied to action". According to Rand, it is entities that act, and every action is the action of an entity. The way entities act is caused by the specific nature (or "identity") of those entities; if they were different, they would act differently. As with the other axioms, an implicit understanding of causation is derived from one's primary observations of causal connections among entities even before it

SECTION 50

#1732772381658

4888-425: The base of knowledge and of any further statement pertaining to that knowledge, a statement necessarily contained in all others whether any particular speaker chooses to identify it or not. An axiom is a proposition that defeats its opponents by the fact that they have to accept it and use it in the process of any attempt to deny it." As Objectivist philosopher Leonard Peikoff argued, Rand's argument for axioms "is not

4982-445: The basis in reality of a claimed item of knowledge is necessary to establish its truth. Objectivist epistemology begins with the principle that "consciousness is identification". This is understood to be a direct consequence of the metaphysical principle that "existence is identity". Rand defined "reason" as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses". Rand wrote "The fundamental concept of method,

5076-577: The best exposition of her philosophy, the only one she knew to be accurate. Peikoff's first book, The Ominous Parallels , was both an Objectivist explanation of the rise of the Third Reich and The Holocaust , and a warning that America was being led down the road to totalitarianism because of far-reaching philosophical and cultural parallels between the Weimar Republic and the present-day United States. In her introduction, Rand said it

5170-408: The concept of 'animal'). Abstract concepts such as 'animal' can be further integrated, via "abstraction from abstractions", into such concepts as 'living thing.' Concepts are formed in the context of knowledge available. A young child differentiates dogs from cats and chickens but need not explicitly differentiate them from deep-sea tube worms, or from other types of animals not yet known to him, to form

5264-614: The construction is a wartime necessity. Similarly, he supported the French ban on the burqa . In September 2012, Peikoff endorsed Mitt Romney for the Presidency, citing President Obama's alleged nihilism , taxation , economic and energy policies , Obamacare , and his use of executive orders . However, Peikoff was not enthusiastic in his endorsement of Romney, calling him an "appeasing, directionless" candidate with "no political convictions" who would be useful for buying time. For

5358-514: The equation of rational selfishness with hedonistic or whim-worshiping "selfishness-without-a-self". She said that the former is good, and the latter bad, and that there is a fundamental difference between them. For Rand, all of the principal virtues are applications of the role of reason as man's basic tool of survival: rationality, honesty, justice, independence, integrity, productiveness, and pride—each of which she explains in some detail in "The Objectivist Ethics". The essence of Objectivist ethics

5452-399: The facts that human beings have limited knowledge, are vulnerable to error, and do not instantly understand all of the implications of their knowledge. According to Peikoff, one can be certain of a proposition if all of the available evidence verifies it, i.e., it can be logically integrated with the rest of one's knowledge; one is then certain within the context of the evidence. Rand rejected

5546-619: The fewest U.S. casualties, regardless of the countless innocents caught in the line of fire," not ruling out the use of nuclear weapons, arguing that moral responsibility for innocent deaths would lie with their governments rather than the United States. In April 1992, Peikoff endorsed "any Democrat nominated by his party for the Presidency ", citing President George H. W. Bush 's "truly disgraceful" record, specifically tax hikes , support for new employee protections, his foreign trade policy, foreign aid to Russia, alleged hostility to Israel,

5640-602: The fiction not published in her lifetime; he has also written forewords for all the current printings of her fiction. For several years, he continued Rand's tradition of lecturing annually at Boston 's Ford Hall Forum , and his other lecture appearances have included an address to the cadets at West Point and another while cruising the Greek islands . In 1985, Peikoff founded the Ayn Rand Institute . Peikoff revised his 1976 lecture course on Rand's ideas into book form as Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand , published in 1991,

5734-656: The first comprehensive presentation of Objectivism. In the mid-1990s, Peikoff taught courses at the Ayn Rand Institute's Objectivist Graduate Center (which was renamed the Objectivist Academic Center in 2000), along with Harry Binswanger and Peter Schwartz . From 1995 through 1999, Peikoff hosted a nationally syndicated talk-radio show focusing on philosophy and culture. From February 2006 to June 2007, Peikoff posted an online Q&A featuring questions that had been e-mailed to him. This

SECTION 60

#1732772381658

5828-453: The form of a religion , philosophy of life , ideology , world view , or life stance . Leonard Peikoff Leonard Sylvan Peikoff ( / ˈ p iː k ɒ f / ; born October 15, 1933) is a Canadian American philosopher . He is an Objectivist and was a close associate of Ayn Rand , who designated him heir to her estate. He is a former professor of philosophy and host of a nationally syndicated radio talk show . He co-founded

5922-455: The idea that human knowledge and values are objective : they exist and are determined by the nature of reality, to be discovered by one's mind, and are not created by the thoughts one has. Rand stated that she chose the name because her preferred term for a philosophy based on the primacy of existence —" existentialism "—had already been taken. Rand characterized Objectivism as "a philosophy for living on earth", based on reality, and intended as

6016-406: The if stands for man's choice: "if you want to achieve a certain goal". Rand's explanation of values presents the proposition that an individual's primary moral obligation is to achieve his own well-being—it is for his life and his self-interest that an individual ought to obey a moral code. Ethical egoism is a corollary of setting man's life as the moral standard. Rand believed that rational egoism

6110-460: The importance of productive work, romantic love and art to human happiness, and dramatizes the ethical character of their pursuit. The primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality , as Rand meant it "the recognition and acceptance of reason as one's only source of knowledge, one's only judge of values and one's only guide to action". The purpose of a moral code, Rand said, is to provide

6204-421: The initiation of force and fraud . He opposes taxation , public education , welfare , and business regulations. He also opposes laws regulating pornography , euthanasia , or stem cell research . He is a supporter of abortion rights but criticizes defenders of abortion who label themselves " pro-choice ", arguing that the term ignores the deeper philosophical issues involved. He believes that circumcision of

6298-464: The initiation of physical force against the will of another is immoral, as are indirect initiations of force through threats, fraud, or breach of contract. The use of defensive or retaliatory force, on the other hand, is appropriate. Objectivism claims that because the opportunity to use reason without the initiation of force is necessary to achieve moral values, each individual has an inalienable moral right to act as his own judgment directs and to keep

6392-678: The morality of selfishness is, therefore, an instance of begging the question . Nozick also argues that Rand's solution to David Hume 's famous is-ought problem is unsatisfactory. In response, the philosophers Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl have argued that Nozick misstated Rand's case. Charles King criticized Rand's example of an indestructible robot to demonstrate the value of life as incorrect and confusing. In response, Paul St. F. Blair defended Rand's ethical conclusions, while maintaining that his arguments might not have been approved by Rand. Rand's defense of individual liberty integrates elements from her entire philosophy. Since reason

6486-521: The one on which all the others depend, is logic . The distinguishing characteristic of logic (the art of non-contradictory identification) indicates the nature of the actions (actions of consciousness required to achieve a correct identification) and their goal (knowledge)—while omitting the length, complexity or specific steps of the process of logical inference, as well as the nature of the particular cognitive problem involved in any given instance of using logic." According to Rand, consciousness possesses

6580-475: The only rational claims that can be believed based on the available evidence. They conclude that the same process of induction is essential to every rational field (except mathematics ) and that, as a result, truth in any such field possesses the same objectivity as that of physics . Peikoff supports laissez-faire capitalism , arguing that the role of government in society should be limited to night-watchman state conceptions of protecting individuals from

6674-410: The operation of reason is that of voluntary cooperation. Persuasion is the method of reason. By its nature, the overtly irrational cannot rely on the use of persuasion and must ultimately resort to force to prevail. Thus, Rand argued that reason and freedom are correlates, just as she argued that mysticism and force are corollaries. Based on this understanding of the role of reason, Objectivists claim that

6768-630: The pages photocopied so that the manuscripts would be "complete". On August 16, 1998, the Los Angeles Times published an article about Peikoff, including a joke he made about "stealing" the pages from the Library of Congress. The library demanded that he deliver the pages to them, deeming them to be U. S. government property. A complaint from the United States Department of Justice followed in October 2000, claiming over

6862-590: The police , to protect men from criminals— the armed services , to protect men from foreign invaders— the law courts , to settle disputes among men according to objective laws", the executive , and legislatures . Furthermore, in protecting individual rights, the government is acting as an agent of its citizens and "has no rights except the rights delegated to it by the citizens" and it must act in an impartial manner according to specific, objectively defined laws. Rand argued that limited intellectual property monopolies being granted to certain inventors and artists on

6956-437: The principles by reference to which man can achieve the values his survival requires. Rand summarizes: If [man] chooses to live, a rational ethics will tell him what principles of action are required to implement his choice. If he does not choose to live, nature will take its course. Reality confronts a man with a great many "must's", but all of them are conditional: the formula of realistic necessity is: "you must, if –" and

7050-456: The process of concept formation and inductive logic , that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (see rational egoism ), that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism , and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into

7144-412: The product of his effort. Peikoff, explaining the basis of rights, stated, "In content, as the founding fathers recognized, there is one fundamental right, which has several major derivatives. The fundamental right is the right to life. Its major derivatives are the right to liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness." "A 'right' is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man's freedom of action in

7238-623: The profound importance of philosophy. When Rand moved to New York City in 1951, Peikoff decided to study philosophy at New York University . While studying at NYU, he frequently discussed philosophy privately with Rand in depth across a range of issues. Peikoff, along with Nathaniel Branden , Alan Greenspan , Barbara Branden, and a number of other close associates, who jokingly called themselves " The Collective ", met frequently with Rand to discuss philosophy and politics, as well as to read and discuss Rand's then-forthcoming novel, Atlas Shrugged , in her Manhattan apartment. In 1958, Branden founded

7332-434: The public and in academic settings. Rand originally expressed her ideas in her novels—most notably, in both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged . She further elaborated on them in her periodicals The Objectivist Newsletter , The Objectivist , and The Ayn Rand Letter , and in non-fiction books such as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and The Virtue of Selfishness . The name "Objectivism" derives from

7426-528: The relationship between cognition and evaluation, facts, and moral values. Peikoff concluded that Kelley was not a genuine Objectivist and urged anyone agreeing with Kelley to leave the Objectivist movement. Ultimately, Kelley responded by founding the Institute for Objectivist Studies in 1990, which later changed its name to The Objectivist Center and finally The Atlas Society . Peikoff inherited many of Rand's manuscripts . During her lifetime, Rand had made

7520-402: The retaliatory use of physical force under objective control—i.e., under objectively defined laws"; thus, government is both legitimate and critically important in order to protect individual rights. Rand opposed anarchism because she considered that putting police and courts on the market is an inherent miscarriage of justice . Objectivism claims that the proper functions of a government are "

7614-495: The right to legal abortion . Rand believed capital punishment is morally justified as retribution against a murderer, but dangerous due to the risk of mistakenly executing innocent people and facilitating state murder. She therefore said she opposed capital punishment "on epistemological, not moral, grounds". She opposed involuntary military conscription . She opposed any form of censorship , including legal restrictions on pornography , opinion or worship , famously quipping; "In

7708-451: The same time, it cannot freeze and burn at the same time... A is A ." Objectivism rejects belief in anything alleged to transcend existence. Rand argued that consciousness is "the faculty of perceiving that which exists". As she put it, "to be conscious is to be conscious of something ", that is consciousness itself cannot be distinguished or conceptualized except in relation to an independent reality. "It cannot be aware only of itself—there

7802-744: The teaching of " intelligent design " in public schools. Rand opposed involuntary taxation and believed government could be financed voluntarily, although she thought this could only happen after other reforms of government were implemented. Some critics, including economists and political philosophers such as Murray Rothbard , David D. Friedman , Roy Childs , Norman P. Barry , and Chandran Kukathas , have argued that Objectivist ethics are consistent with anarcho-capitalism instead of minarchism . The Objectivist theory of art derives from its epistemology, by way of "psycho-epistemology" (Rand's term for an individual's characteristic mode of functioning in acquiring knowledge). Art, according to Objectivism, serves

7896-517: The terms "isolationist" or "interventionist" to describe his foreign policy views, stating that the only "intervention" the United States should enact is war and "only and when it is in self-defense." Peikoff campaigned for Elián González ' to remain in Florida, rather than returning to his father in Cuba , stating, "To send a child to rot in the prison of Cuba for the alleged sake of his own well-being

7990-564: The three approaches to cognitive integration—disintegration, integration, and misintegration—and applies the hypothesis to physics , philosophy , education , politics , and other fields. His articles have appeared in publications as diverse as Barron's and The New Scholasticism , and his television appearances have ranged from Bill Maher 's Politically Incorrect and Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor to C-SPAN panel discussions. He also appears in Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life ,

8084-449: The traditional rationalist / empiricist dichotomy, arguing that it embodies a false alternative: conceptually based knowledge independent of perception (rationalism) versus perceptually based knowledge independent of concepts (empiricism). Rand argued that neither is possible because the senses provide the material of knowledge while conceptual processing is also needed to establish knowable propositions. The philosopher John Hospers , who

8178-737: The transcripts of these workshops to create an expanded edition of Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology , which he co-edited with Harry Binswanger. Following the dissolution of NBI in 1968, Peikoff continued to give private lecture courses on a variety of topics to large Objectivist audiences, and recordings of these have been sold for many years. His lecture courses include: The History of Philosophy (in two "volumes" of lectures), An Introduction to Logic , The Art of Thinking , Induction in Physics and Philosophy , Moral Virtue , A Philosophy of Education , Understanding Objectivism , The Principles of Objective Communication , and Eight Great Plays . Rand endorsed his 1976 lecture series on Objectivism as

8272-466: The transition to statism, every infringement of human rights has begun with a given right's least attractive practitioners". Objectivists have also opposed a number of government activities commonly endorsed by both liberals and conservatives, including antitrust laws, the minimum wage , public education , and existing child labor laws. Objectivists have argued against faith-based initiatives , displaying religious symbols in government facilities, and

8366-748: The treatise, What Art Is: the Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kahmi, despite these authors' other differences with him. Peikoff's 1983 lecture course Understanding Objectivism was edited into a book of the same title by Michael Berliner, editor of the Letters of Ayn Rand , and Peikoff's theory of logical induction , first presented in the lecture courses Induction in Physics and Philosophy and Objectivism Through Induction , has been developed further by David Harriman in his book, The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics . In his 2012 book The DIM Hypothesis, Peikoff defines

8460-532: The validity of induction contradicts itself by implicitly accepting the validity of induction. Peikoff and Harriman also argue that scientific claims verified by induction should be considered true until new evidence warrants modifying or amending them because scientific knowledge derived from induction is contextual. In other words, those who on the basis of conclusive evidence make inductive scientific claims regarding science cannot argue that their claims are subject to no possible modification but can argue that they are

8554-502: Was influenced by Rand and shared her moral and political opinions, disagreed with her concerning issues of epistemology. Some philosophers, such as Tibor Machan , have argued that the Objectivist epistemology is incomplete. Psychology professor Robert L. Campbell writes that the relationship between Objectivist epistemology and cognitive science remains unclear because Rand made claims about human cognition and its development which belong to psychology, yet Rand also argued that philosophy

8648-490: Was replaced with a podcast that debuted on October 22, 2007, and continued until October 31, 2016. Peikoff's lectures or books have been used extensively in the works of Allan Gotthelf , Harry Binswanger , Andrew Bernstein , and Tara Smith , writers who are associated with the Ayn Rand Institute, and also in works such as David Kelley 's The Evidence of the Senses , George H. Smith 's Atheism: The Case Against God , and

8742-429: Was the first book by an Objectivist philosopher other than herself. Rand named Peikoff the legal heir to her estate. As the executor of Rand's will, Peikoff handles the copyrights to all of her works, with the exception of Anthem , which has passed into the public domain . He has supervised the editing and release of Rand's unpublished works in several volumes, which includes her letters, philosophical journals, and

8836-546: Was the noted American pragmatist philosopher Sidney Hook , and his dissertation dealt with the metaphysical status of the law of noncontradiction . He taught philosophy for many years at various colleges. Ayn Rand Institute Other Peikoff first met Ayn Rand through his cousin Barbara Branden (then Barbara Weidman) in California when he was 17. He reports that this meeting with Rand made him aware of

#657342