Böcker utgivna av AYN RAND INST

"The truth or falsehood of all man's conclusions, inferences, thought and knowledge rests on the truth or falsehood of his definitions." -Ayn RandAyn Rand taught the importance of knowing exact definitions. In the course of her re-conceptualization of key philosophic issues, she formulated brilliant new definitions of many concepts. Building on her base, Leonard Peikoff has nearly doubled the number of philosophic terms formally defined by Objectivists.This glossary was originally conceived as a compilation of these formal definitions. After reviewing the literature, however, we decided to broaden its scope to include terms that meet at least two of the following three criteria: (1) the term has a formal definition (or near to it); (2) it is philosophically important; (3) its meaning is dramatically clarified by Objectivism.Thus, in addition to formal definitions, this glossary includes characterizations that are near-definitions of terms (though not meeting the requirements of formal definitions), statements of philosophic principles, and descriptions of axiomatic concepts. (Since axiomatic concepts can be defined only ostensively, the entries for these terms are merely descriptions.)

Based on a lecture course given by Leonard Peikoff in 1972, this book provides essential knowledge for everyone whose life pursuits are threatened by our culture's widespread irrationality. "To fight for your values in a world such as ours, you must regard yourself as a psychotherapist of an entire culture," states Dr. Peikoff in his opening lecture. "Its present state at any given time cannot be understood except as an outgrowth from its past. The errors of today are built on the errors of the last century, and they in turn on the previous, and so on back to the childhood of the Western world, which is ancient Greece." For example, he says, the phenomenon of progressive education can be explained only by reference to John Dewey: "But Dewey simply applied to education the principles of William James, and James made an obvious deduction from Hegel, and Hegel is a minor variant on Kant, and Kant was trying to answer Hume, who was the last consistent consequence of thetrend inaugurated by Descartes and Locke, who were simply reformulating, in a somewhat more secular way, the principles of Augustine, who was reformulating in a somewhat more religious way the principles of Plato, who was trying to answer the dilemma posed by Heraclitus and Parmenides, who took off from four sentences of Thales with whom we are beginning tonight."

Ayn Rand's novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are classics of American literature, taught in schools nationwide. Her philosophy of Objectivism has ignited an intellectual movement across the globe. Forty years after her death, Rand's cultural presence continues to grow. This book sheds light on some little-discussed yet interesting facets of Rand's life and career. The essays collected here, presenting curated sidelights rather than a sustained narrative, are deeply sourced in the Ayn Rand Archives - the world's most comprehensive repository of materials about Rand's life and work - and many are accompanied by images of handwritten drafts, manuscripts and other documents from the Archives.

Where did defenders of Roe v. Wade go wrong? Why did they lose the moral high ground? What does it take to defend abortion rights in the United States? To defend abortion as an inviolable right, it has to be understood as a claim of uncompromising justice. The hard-hitting essays in this book make that case. Challenging both defenders of Roe and its conservative critics, Ben Bayer lays out a rational, secular defense of the right to abortion based on Ayn Rand's philosophy. Bayer shows how the principles of Rand's individualist ethics enshrine a woman's right to her own happiness, without limitation by any competing "rights" of the fetus. Can the controversy over abortion be settled by scientific facts alone? No, Bayer explains, because philosophical reasoning is needed to interpret the relevance of the science. Ultimately the right to abortion-which Bayer argues should be legal until birth-allows a woman to protect what's sacred about life: her own life and future.