This course is an in-depth treatment of three important issues in Ayn Rand’s moral philosophy: the virtue of justice, the evil of the initiation of physical force, and the virtue of independence. This course is adapted from recorded lectures that Dr. Leonard Peikoff gave at a conference for fans of Ayn Rand in 1989. The lectures are based on Dr. Peikoff’s work for his book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, published in 1991.
The section on independence is of particular interest because Dr. Peikoff discusses at length his earlier, mistaken account of the Objectivist virtue of independence when drafting his book on Objectivism. In that discussion, Dr. Peikoff draws an important methodological lesson for understanding philosophical principles.