library.

This is our small collection of lectures and interviews. They are available to club members wishing to borrow them. Some are from members' private collections and are so marked. ARI has made available a significant collection of their own for clubs to check out - ARI Video Tape Lending Library.

Introductory :: Harvard Lectures :: Interviews :: Audio Lectures

Introductory / Video: An Introduction to Objectivism by Leanord Peikoff
Harvard Lecture Series / Video: Objectivism: Ayn Rand’s Philosophic Revolution by Harry Binswanger
In her novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, and in eight nonfiction books, Ayn Rand presented her unique philosophy, a systematic philosophy of reason, egoism, and capitalism.
She named her philosophy “Objectivism” because it proceeds from the axiom that “existence exists” and champions objectivity in all areas — cognition, values, law, and art. Ayn Rand described Objectivism as “a philosophy for living on earth,” and part of Objectivism is the recognition that a rational philosophy of life is a crucial, practical need of every individual.
Objectivism offers a radical alternative to any system you have ever encountered. It opposes both religion and the philosophy that has dominated Western culture since Immanuel Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” two centuries ago — the philosophy of subjectivism and collectivism. In this talk, Dr. Binswanger, an associate of the late Ayn Rand, will defend her claim to have presented the first fully rational and consistent philosophy.; Rights — Reason — Reality: Ayn Rand’s Answer to the Intellectual Crisis of Our Time by John Ridpath
We have entered the last decade of one of history’s most paradoxical centuries: a century of astonishing scientific advance, technological innovation and rising living standards; but also a century of dramatic economic failures, world wars, murderous tyrants and philosophical collapse into pragmatic cynicism and crusading irrationality.
In this talk, Dr. Ridpath will examine, within this twentieth-century context, the significance of the work of novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand.
He will discuss: the apparent crises and the actual crisis of our century; the role of philosophy in human life and human history; the disastrous trends toward altruism and statist collectivism in twentieth-century North American culture; and the philosophy of Ayn Rand, which, in its advocacy of the individual rational mind, the virtue of self-interest, capitalism and individual rights, is the philosophical antidote to the real crisis of our time.; Ayn Rand’s Theory of Free Will by Harry Binswanger
Does the individual make genuine choices, choices that are entirely self-generated? Or is he fundamentally passive, merely reacting to antecedent factors beyond his control?
According to the theory of free will, the individual is fundamentally in control of his own life, forges his own character, and is morally responsible for his own actions. Ayn Rand advanced an original theory of free will that locates free will in a single basic choice: to think or not to think.
In this talk, Dr. Binswanger presents and defends Ayn Rand’s theory of free will, and explains its vital significance for understanding oneself and human nature generally. Dr. Binswanger argues that one’s volitional control over the operation of one’s own mind is an axiom which has to be implicitly assumed as true even by those, such as Marx, Freud, and Skinner, who attempt to deny it.; The Problem of Universals: Failed Attempts and Ayn Rand’s Solution by Gary Hull
In this talk, Dr. Hull explains the essence of the problem of universals as it has been approached by philosophers from Plato on, and how a false view of concepts leads to destructive ideas such as animal “rights” and “sexual harrassment.” He then presents Ayn Rand’s revolutionary solution — a solution which proves that concepts are objective.; Bridging the “Is”-“Ought” Gap: How to Derive Morality from Facts by Harry Binswanger
Can morality be proved? Can an objective, scientific system of moral values be rationally derived from the facts of reality?
Most philosophers accept David Hume’s argument that this is impossible, that an unbridgeable gulf separates values from facts. Dr. Binswanger first refutes Hume’s argument for the fact-value dichotomy, and then offers a step-by-step account of Ayn Rand’s derivation of a moral code based on one’s own life as an ultimate value.; The Mind as Hero in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged by Dr. Andrew Bernstein
Traditionally the great heroes admired by mankind, in both literature and life, are men of distinctively physical prowess. But it is the men of the mind — the scientists, the thinkers, the producers — who are truly the greatest achievers. These are the life-giving creators whose work makes possible human success, prosperity, happiness.
Atlas Shrugged stands in sharp contrast to the anti-mind mentality. Ayn Rand dramatizes the power of the mind in a story that is, in effect, an ode to the scientific, technological, and industrial revolutions. Atlas Shrugged is like an epic poem, but unlike those of Homer and Virgil it does not glorify martial prowess, warfare, and destruction but reason, science, technology, production.
The heroic view of the mind presented by Ayn Rand stands opposed to two philosophical ideas dominant in Western civilization: the self-sacrifice ethics and the “ivory-tower” view of reason’s impracticality. Plato and Kant, the leading purveyors of the “ivory-tower” view, have cut the mind off from practical reality, leading to the widespread conclusion that heroism is either physicalistic or non-existent.
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand has revolutionized our understanding of “heroism.” She has presented a new, more advanced, intellectual hero. John Galt is a hero representing the best of modern civilization — with its science, its medical research, its technological progress, its life-giving intellectual achievements.
When this new realization catches hold among men — when millions of human beings strive to actualize their rational potential — then we will be in the midst of cultural Renaissance.
When that day comes, Atlas Shrugged will have been the cause.; The Virtue of Selfishness: Ayn Rand’s Radical Code of Morality by Peter Schwartz
Ayn Rand originated a revolutionary theory of ethics, one in which human life is the standard of value and the practice of rational self-interest is the supreme virtue. In this talk, Mr. Schwartz offers an introductory overview of the Objectivist ethics.
He discusses how Ayn Rand validates her theory and how she answers the fundamental question of what in reality gives rise to the phenomenon of values. He contrasts the ethics of self-interest with its opposite: the ethics of altruism. He also demonstrates why, under a rational code, the moral is the practical. Finally, he explains the link between self-sacrifice and dictatorship, showing why individual rights and freedom can be values only if selfishness is a virtue.; A Utopia of Greed: Ayn Rand’s Moral Defense of Capitalism by Richard M. Salsman
Utopias have motivated men for centuries. But they always envision the sacrifice of the individual. In practice they have caused mass murder. Yet no one challenges their morality.
Until Ayn Rand. She rejects the morality of traditional utopias, as well as the cynicism of those who reject idealism as such. Ayn Rand offers both a moral and practical utopia that enshrines rational selfishness, individualism, and laissez-faire capitalism.
In this talk, Mr. Salsman explain why Ayn Rand sees capitalism as an “unknown ideal,” and describes how she views its history, its moral basis, and its ideal nature.; Your Professors’ War Against the Mind: The Black Hole of Post-Modernism and Multiculturalism by Gary Hull
Multiculturalism and deconstructionism — the twin doctrines of academia’s latest assault on reason — are working to destroy students’ ability to think and to value. These two movements teach that objectivity is a myth and that all ideas are distorted by the lens of “race, class, and gender.”
In this talk, Dr. Hull explains the essence of Post-Modernism and how philosophers for the past 200 years have systematically divorced reason from reality, culminating in today’s rejection of objectivity. The answer to these destructive trends, he shows, is provided by the philosophy of Objectivism.; Capitalism and the Environment: The Virtues of “Exploitation” by Richard M. Salsman
Man achieves his survival by using his mind to alter his environment to suit his needs and improve the conditions of his existence. It is this process — expressed in science, technology, and capitalism that has allowed man to rise from the hunger, drudgery, and misery of primitive existence to the comfort of modern civilization. But it is precisely this process that is under attack by the reactionary “greens” — who want to return man to the pre-industrial era — even to the Stone Age.
In this talk, Mr. Salsman does not merely discredit the scientific claims of environmentalism; he demolishes its moral and philosophical base. He demonstrates that: (1) the doctrine that nature has “intrinsic value,” i.e., some sort of mystical value entirely apart from its relation to man, is nothing but the desire to destroy human values, (2) the improvement of the environment — for man — can be provided for only by laissez-faire capitalism, and (3) that it is the environmentalist movement itself that is today’s greatest danger to human health and happiness.; Debate: “Selfishness: Moral Offense or Moral Ideal?”
Harry Binswanger vs. Harvard Law Prof. Randall Kennedy.; Pro-Choice Is Pro-Life: The Philosophical Basis of a Woman’s Right to Abortion by Andrew Bernstein
This talk is a defense — on philosophical grounds — of the right to abortion. To validate this right requires a rational theory of rights, one grounded in fact, not faith or feeling. In establishing the basis of this right, Dr. Bernstein also demonstrates that anti-abortionists have no rational basis for using the phrase “right to life.”
Dr. Bernstein presents the scientific arguments used by anti-abortionists, then demonstrates the errors in those arguments: failure to recognize the biological nature of the fetus; equivocation on key terms; and obliteration of the distinction between actual and potential.
Dr. Bernstein grounds his view of rights in an ethics of rational egoism and contrasts it with the theory of self-sacrifice espoused by anti-abortionists.
Both political conservatives and liberals deny the principle of individual rights and the egoist ethics on which rights depend. Only Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism validates both rights and egoism, thereby providing the only valid philosophical basis of a woman’s right to abortion.
Interviews / Video: Ayn Rand on “The Tomorrow Show”
On July 2, 1979, Ayn Rand was interviewed by Tom Snyder, proving to be an articulate and entertaining guest.

Lectures / Audio: Consciousness as Identification by Harry Binswanger
from Aneel; Moral Virtue by Leonard Peikoff
from Aneel; Psycho-Epistemology I by Harry Binswanger
from Aneel; Psycho-Epistemology II by Harry Binswanger
from Aneel; Selected Topics in the Philosophy of Science by Harry Binswanger
from Brett; The Philosophic Corruption of Physics by David Harriman
from Brett