Heresy. Heresy is a concept generally related to religion. It refers to views that flout doctrinal orthodoxy. Such ideas are often consider...

History, Objectivism, and Sarah Palin. In the last week we have seen the meteoric rise of Alaska governor Sarah Palin within the GOP and am...

The force of logic Sometimes the most curious doctrines in Objectivism are not those that are explicitly formulated but rather those that a...

TV Tropes, the site dedicated to popular culture cliches, takes a hilarious look at the various cliches populating "Atlas Shrugged...

Kant contra Rand There appear to be many orthodox Objectivists still in denial about Kant’s influence on history. Despite never having read...

Who is this guy Mansel? Among academics, one of the most controversial aspects of orthodox Objectivism is its interpretation of modern phil...

Heterogeneity of human nature. Rand, as this blog has pointed out on countless occasions, rejected the traditional view of human nature. In...

W. G. Sumner contra Peikoff. The ideas of philosophy, claims Objectivism, determine the course of history. Very well. But where do these id...

The latest in our ever-popular series translating Objectivist jargon into ordinary usage: "Objective" = subjective The Objectivis...

Philosophy versus psychology. If we examine the theoretic rationalization constructed around the Objectivist philosophy of history, one thi...

Metaphysical presuppositions 2. Objectivism rejects what Peikoff labels eclectic theories of history—i.e., those theories that assume the ...

Metaphysical presuppositions 1. In the Epilgue to Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand , we find the following curious assertion: Philos...

"Now when pointing this out, I am not criticizing Rand. I disagree with the object of Rand's religious-like emotions. But I regard ...

”Philosophy” of history. Leonard Peikoff begins his lecture “Philosophy and Psychology in History” as follows: My subject today is the phil...

Conclusion. In Reason in Religion , the naturalist philosopher George Santayana sought to show how religion could be the “embodiment of rea...

Leonard Peikoff weighs in with a truly bizarre post-9/11 performance on Bill O'Reilly's show.

Objectivism's fondness for egoism and introspection leads naturally, if unwittingly, into solipsism and subjectivism. For an example of ...

One of the most unusual teachings of Ayn Rand's confused ethics is that to risk one's life for a stranger is profoundly "immora...

Abortion. Rand and her followers tend to be unapologetic defenders of abortion, including abortion right up to the moment of birth. Objecti...

Religion and the underclass. One of the most witty and clever critics of organized religion is Voltaire, the most popular intellectual of t...