Ayn Rand Institute Courses & Lectures

Grammar is the science that studies the methods of combining words into sentences. Discover how this normally dry subject is transformed into an engrossing epistemological field of study.

This course was adapted from a series of lectures on the history of Western philosophy given by Dr. Leonard Peikoff to fans of Ayn Rand in the early 1970s.

Topics include: background material on Rand and the era in which she wrote the novel; an overview of the story; an analysis of the principal characters; detailed discussion of the main theme and a number of related sub-themes.

This documentary-style course traces Rand’s life (1905-1982) from the perspective of her goal to become a writer. Photographs, film clips, and audio of Rand’s own personal recollections enliven this narrative of her prolific career.

This series of lectures was given by Leonard Peikoff in 1987, partway through the writing of his book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand.

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.

Atlas Shrugged has been aptly described as "a hymn to logic." But today, logic textbooks contain only sterile, formalistic diversions from real-life issues.

This course applies the principles of Objectivism to the question of how to present ideas effectively. Based on a ten-lecture course given in 1980 by Dr. Leonard Peikoff, this course identifies certain principles of intellectual communication and applies them to three areas: writing, speaking and arguing.

In this course, Leonard Peikoff presents the essentials of Ayn Rand's philosophy and stresses their practical significance for each individual's life.

This course covers the standard topics taught in introductory courses in Aristotelian logic. It defines the principles of valid reasoning, and discusses prevalent logical fallacies.