by Leonard Peikoff

1. The Historical Background. A summary of those issues essential for an understanding of recent philosophic trends.

2-3. Aristotelian Logic Is Banished From Philosophy. The father of contemporary Philosophy: Immanuel Kant. The Kantian revolution in philosophy—the analytic-synthetic dichotomy—Kant's famous argument: the "deduction of the categories"—reality as unknowable "things-in-themselves"—the phenomenal and noumenal worlds. Kant's ethics: the morality of duty—the attack on happiness— the Categorical Imperative.

4. A New "Logic" Leads to an Old Politics . . . Hegel. Reality as a dialectic process—the Absolute—the coherence theory of truth—Hegel's concept of freedom—the absolutist state.

5. . . . and to an Epidemic of Irrationalism. 19th-century German romanticism. Schopenhauer: the metaphysics of the Will—the irrationality of the universe. Nietzsche: the philosophy of Power— "Beyond Good and Evil." Marx: Communism—dialectical materialism—the economic interpretation of history—advocacy of world revolution. 6. The Virus Reaches the Defenders of Science. Comte: the philosophy of Positivism—the origin of "altruism." Mill: Utilitarianism—a collectivist defense of capitalism. Spencer: reality as unknowable—Social Darwinism.

7-8. Truth, Logic and Values Are Divorced From Reality. Pragmatism. The Pragmatic theory of meaning: C.S. Peirce—the Pragmatic theory of truth: William James— Pragmatism fully developed: Dewey's instrumentalism. Logical Positivism. The linguistic theory of logic—the verifiability theory—knowledge as probability— rejection of metaphysics.

9. Language Is Formally Divorced From Reality.The Analysts. Philosophy as the analysis of propositions: G.E. Moore—Bertrand Russell—Ordinary Language Analysis: the later Wittgenstein—the emotive theory of ethics.

10. Nausea Becomes a Metaphysical Emotion. Existentialism: Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre. The rejection of reason—the absurdity of the universe—Death and Nothingness—fear, trembling and dread. Zen Buddhism.

11-12. Man Finds His Defender: Objectivism. The primacy of existence vs. the primacy of consciousness—the subjective, the intrinsic and the objective—the Objectivist theory of concept-formation—the derivation of the Objectivist ethics and politics from its metaphysics and epistemology.

This is Part 2 of the two-part course.

(Audio CD; 26-CD set; 31 hrs. 36 min.)