Objectivist Round-up, July 2025

1. The Ayn Rand University press recently published Harry Binswanger’s 1975 doctoral dissertation, The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts.

2. The ARU press also published a collection of essays by Binswanger, Ayn Rand’s Philosophic Achievement and Other Essays.  You can read the Philosophic Achievement essay here and here.  I found this interesting:

Ayn Rand’s esthetics depends upon her entire philosophical base, from metaphysics through ethics. Yet her basic explanation of art is quite simple: “What an art work expresses, fundamentally, under all of its lesser aspects is: "This is life as I see it." ...

The history of esthetics is perhaps even bleaker than the general history of philosophy. The 2300 years stretching from Aristotle’s Poetics to The Romantic Manifesto is practically a void; philosophers of art have seemed to be discussing some mysterious, inaccessible entity — not art. Their sterile disquisitions on “the sublime and the beautiful” and their contrived theories of “art as play” or “art as pure form” bear no discernible relationship to the actual paintings, dramas, symphonies, and sculptures that constitute the history of art.

The history of esthetics isn’t my strong suit, but I doubt nothing useful was written for 2300 years and that no one ever said something to the effect that art expresses, “this is life as I see it.”  Binswanger’s essay is rather abstract so it’s difficult to critique.  Some years ago I did a series on Ayn Rand’s originality.  See here, here, and here.

3. Objectivist Conference 2025 is happening in July in Boston.  

4. James Valliant is interviewed about the Leonard Peikoff and Kira Peikoff situation.

-Neil Parille

Objectivist Round-up, June 2025

 1. The Ayn Rand Institute Archives are now searchable, but the on-line Archives seem limited to Rand’s letters.

2. Sam Tannenhaus just published his long-awaited biography of William Buckley, coming in at 900 pages (plus endnotes).  I was naturally interested in what he said about Ayn Rand.  It’s only one paragraph and oddly refers to Rand as an “[Alfred J.} Nock disciple.”  He confirms (citing an interview of Buckley by Anne Heller) that Rand’s first words to him were, “You are too intelligent to believe in God.”  I was surprised that Tannenhaus (who wrote a biography of Whittaker Chambers) didn’t mention Chambers’ review of Atlas Shrugged in National Review.

-Neil Parille

Objectivist Round-up, May 2025

1. Harry Binswanger doesn’t like Harvard, and in particular its philosophy department.  I’m no historian of philosophy, but I have read some works by the philosophers he mentions, and like many Objectivists, Binswanger wants to give the worst possible interpretation to these thinkers.

2. Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate discuss whether important to know Rand’s life to understand her philosophy.  After listening to it three times, I’m not sure what Ghate and Brook think.  In any event, contrary to Ghate, Rand’s post-Atlas Shrugged depression is well-documented.  Ghate strangely says it’s hard to know much about Rand’s personality f you didn’t know her.  Brook says, quoting Leonard Peikoff, that Rand didn’t consider herself a genius.  This, if true, must be the first case of false humility in Rand’s life.  Allan Gotthelf once told Rand, “You’ve done for consciousness what Aristotle did for existence,” to which Rand responded, “that’s true.”

The Curse of Ayn Rand's Heir (Neil Parille)

The Atlantic Magazine published a lengthy article, The Curse of Ayn Rand’s Heir, which discuses Leonard Peikoff and his relationship with Rand and the Objectivist movement and also Peikoff’s daughter Kira’s conservatorship action (which she ultimately withdrew).  I thought the article was fair and balanced, to coin a phrase.  I note that the author, Chris Beam (who interviewed me for an hour or so), mentions that before his marriage to his nurse Grace Davis, Peikoff gave Kira $2 million, so maybe Peikoff’s contention (through his spokesman James Valliant) that he was cash strapped has some truth to it.  (Before the marriage and the $2 million payment, Peikoff bought a $3.5 million home for him and Davis to live in).  The article mentions that Peikoff is leaving Rand’s books to a committee but doesn’t speculate as to how Davis will be able to pay the mortgage and other expenses after he passes.  (Something tells me that Davis and her son – who lives at the house – aren’t planning on “downsizing” after Peikoff goes to his reward.)  Some Objectivists claimed the article was a “hit piece” noting that The Atlantic has a reputation for being left of center.  But I think anyone who reads the piece can see that Beam (whose politics I don’t know) just wanted to tell an interesting story.  Had he wanted to attack Peikoff, he could have dwelled on Peikoff’s rewriting of Rand’s posthumous material, his breaks with other Objectivists, and the restrictive policy of the Ayn Rand Archives.  He mentions these things in passing.

As Greg Nyquist said a while ago, no one seems particularly interested in what Rand would have wanted.  Of course we may never know.  When Rand died Peikoff was childless so she may have assumed that Peikoff would leave his estate to Objectivist causes.  Yet at the end of the day it’s hard to imagine that Rand would have wanted a fair portion of her estate to go to people who probably never heard of Objectivism until recently.  In any event, I think my conclusion stands: while Peikoff may be competent, it certainly looks like he is being taken advantage of.

Objectivist Round-up, April 2025

1. Carl Barney has funded The Leonard Peikoff Library, a website containing all of Leonard Peikoff’s lectures and courses.

2. Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) philosopher Greg Salmieri is asked how much of Kant Rand read.  He says he doesn’t know because we don’t have any books by Kant that she “marked up.”  Salmieri says that Rand likely learned a lot about Kant from Peikoff and she may have studied the various arguments in the Critique of Pure Reason with him.  Brook asks Salmieri about Rand’s take on Kant and he says it’s correct albeit on a high level.

3. The Ayn Rand Fan Club has a typically insightful discussion of Objectivity in Objectivism.  There is an interesting quote from Peikoff who says, in effect, that people couldn’t think rationally before Rand wrote Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.  

4. For whatever reason, many ARI-associated Objectivists have now decided that the Russia/Ukraine war is of existential importance and the United States must go full-bore into supporting Ukraine.  They seem to have combined their dislike of Trump with their dislike of Russia.  Putting aside the merits of all this, the ARI has forgotten the semi-isolationism of Rand and Peikoff.  (For example, in The Ominous Parallels, heavily edited by Rand, Peikoff praised those who wanted to keep the US out of World War Two and said President Roosevelt manipulated the US into an unjust war with Japan.)

ARI Speaks for Rand (by Neil Parille)

The Ayn Rand Institute’s (ARI) Chief Philosophy Officer Onkar Ghate and philosopher Ben Bayer have a new video, Why the Ayn Rand Institute Comments on Current Events.  The discussion is defensive, trying to justify the large amount of time spent on current affairs, including topics that Rand didn’t — or couldn’t have — commented on such as Israel, immigration, Donald Trump, COVID and Ukraine.  These topics get at least as much attention as Rand’s philosophy.  For example, the on-line journal of the ARI (New Ideal), lists 277 articles on Objectivism and Philosophy versus 330 articles on Culture and Politics.

Ghate and Bayer dutifully report that the ARI does not claim to speak for Ayn Rand.  This is incorrect, e.g.  “The Anti-Intellectuality of Donald Trump: Why Ayn Rand Would Have Despised a President Trump.”  Not only that, but the founder of the ARI (Leonard Peikoff) has repeatedly claimed to speak for Rand.

One thing I find interesting is that of four issues the ARI seems most concerned about – abortion, immigration, Israel (and the greater Middle East), and Donald Trump  – Rand wrote  about only one (abortion).  Bayer admits that these positions often get criticism from some ARI supporters. Consider immigration. Although ARI doesn’t seem to have an official position on the question, their denizens tend to support what is called “open immigration.”  A person should be free to enter and reside in the United States (or any other country) so long as he doesn’t have a criminal background.*  (ARI supporter Harry Binswanger opposes screening, saying the border between two countries should be no different than the border between New York and Connecticut.)  

Objectivist Round-up, March 2025

1.      Ayn Rand Institute philosopher Ben Bayer attacks Christianity.  While there are things to disagree with, Bayer actually has read some primary sources and doesn’t repeat any of the usual Objectivist urban legends about religion.

2.     Harry Binswanger just posted some Objectivist trivia questions.  Bonus points if you can name the four U. S. states that Ayn Rand didn’t mention in Atlas Shrugged.

3.     The ARI has released Raymond Newman’s interview with Ayn Rand.  The interview took place during the end of 1980 (Rand died in March 1982).  Rand is a little slow but still sharp.

4.      According to the ARI, there are “thousands” of handwritten pages in Rand’s papers that are now being transcribed (later in the article it looks as if the material is roughly 3,000 pages).  These include some of her early notes on philosophy.  While the Archives have never (best I can tell)  provided a complete list of all Rand’s papers, I wouldn’t have gotten the impression from reading the introductions to the posthumously published works that this much material remains to be published.

Objectivist Round-up, February 2025

1. Shoshana Milgram, who has been working on a biography of Ayn Rand for at least twenty years, gave an interesting talk at OCON 2024 – “Behind the Scenes: Ayn Rand’s West Point Lecture (1974–2024).”  Rand gave her Philosophy: Who Needs It? lecture there.  I listened to almost all of it and no mention of any biography.

2.  Multi-millionaire Objectivist supporter Carl Barney will be creating a “Great University” in March 2025 to “foster reason, objectivity, and the pursuit of truth into the American culture and, indeed, worldwide.”

3.  The Ayn Rand Institute just published The Art of Thinking, transcripts of lectures by Leonard Peikoff given in 1992.

Objectist Round-up, January 2025

1. The Ayn Rand Letter (1971-1976) is now out in a moderately priced paperback edition.

2. The Ayn Rand Fan Club has a review of the Objectivist response to Donald Trump’s election.  Co-host William Swig notes that in 2020, Yaron Brook said the country is done with if Trump got elected.  As Swig notes, there is a tendency in Objectivism to say “the end is near” going back to Rand’s essay, “The Fascist New Frontier.”

3. The Ayn Rand Fan Club has an interesting discussion of “the tribalism charge in Objectivism.”  ARI Objectivists, for whatever reason, seems to use this charge to attack people and ideas that don’t like in a similar way the left attacks its opponents as “fascists.”  ARI philosopher Greg Salmieri was asked if Objectivism is tribalistic and he said, in effect, that all groups are.  I’d mention that maybe half of the early Objectivist leadership was related to each other either biologically or by marriage.  The ARI strikes me as somewhat “tribalistic.”  While their breaks with other people or groups seem reasonable from their perspective, the implication of these breaks – that they alone are competent to opine on Objectivism and even whom Rand would vote for – strikes me as tribal.

4. Up-and-coming Objectivist psychologist Gena Gorlin has an interesting overview of psychology.  Gorlin says she agrees with Rand’s 1971 statement that psychology, as a science, is “barely making its first steps.”  Rand probably said this as a jibe against Nathaniel Branden.  In any event, I find Gorlin’s view surprising for someone with a doctorate in psychology.  Psychology has been studied on a scientific basis for well over a century.  (Many authors associate it with Wilhelm Wundt’s 1879 laboratory.)  Certainly, the study of intelligence is anything but its infancy phase.  The validity of IQ tests, the correlation between IQ and life outcomes, and the high heritability of intelligence (50% to 80%) are well-established.