Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand

by Leonard Peikoff Narrated by Johanna Ward

Overview

This brilliantly conceived and well-organized book is based on a lecture course given by Dr. Leonard Peikoff in 1976, prepared with the help of Ayn Rand and entitled “The Philosophy of Objectivism.” Ayn Rand said of these lectures: “Until or unless I write a comprehensive treatise on my philosophy, Dr. Peikoff's course is the only authorized presentation of the entire theoretical structure of objectivism-that is, the only one that I know to be fully accurate.”

As Rand's designated heir and foremost interpreter, Peikoff here reveals both the abstract fundamentals of objectivism and its practical applications, covering topics from certainty to money, from logic to art. With much new material that Rand offered only in private conversations with Peikoff, these clear, cogent chapters illuminate objectivism and its creator with startling clarity.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Peikoff, a leading scholar and advocate of Rand's work, offers a lengthy study of her philosophical views. (Dec.)

Library Journal

Peikoff, Rand's heir and authorized evangelist, tries to present the definitive apologetic for her individualist gospel. Libraries could certainly use a book explaining a writer whose works still sell half a million copies a year. But Rand's success is rooted in the unsubtle but dramatic Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged , not in tracts like Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal . And this book mostly summarizes those tracts. There are sophisticated defenses like those in Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia ( LJ 1/15/75) for some Rand doctrines, but Peikoff, as official expositor, is bound to the received word. Odd claims like, ``monopolies achieved under capitalism . . . depend on merit and do no harm'' abound. In pursuit of Randian orthodoxy, he must denounce leftists, but he goes further and holds that ``historically, from the Sherman Act to Herbert Hoover to the Bush Administration, it is the conservatives, not the leftists, who have always been the major destroyers of the United States.''-- Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa

From the Publisher

A revelation...Peikoff is an extraordinary communicator...He brings the most difficult intellectual ideas within the grasp of the general reader.”—Detroit Free Press

Praise for Leonard Peikoff
 
“Offers a truly revolutionary idea…The book is clear, tight, disciplined, beautifully structured, and brilliantly reasoned. Its style is clear and hard as crystal—and as sparkling… As to my personal reaction, I can express it best by paraphrasing a line from Atlas Shrugged: ‘It’s so wonderful to see a great, new, crucial achievement which is not mine!’”—Ayn Rand
 
“Extraordinarily perceptive…frightening insights…Everyone concerned with the collectivist trend in today’s world should read this book.”—Alan Greenspan
 
“A fascinating weave of German history, philosophic determinism, and Objectivist polemic.”—Chicago Tribune

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169661200
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2007
Edition description:	Unabridged

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