Objectivism - Leonard Peikoff  ## Metadata - Author: **Leonard Peikoff** - Full Title: Objectivism - Category: #books ## Highlights - Ayn Rand discusses the role of philosophy in her West Point lecture “Philosophy: Who Needs It.” Without abstract ideas, she says, you would not be able to deal with concrete, particular, real-life problems. You would be in the position of a newborn infant, to whom every object is a unique, unprecedented phenomenon. The difference between his mental state and yours lies in the number of conceptual integrations your mind has performed. You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jkfbc355pqcymnj7mqbkgdtx)) ## New highlights added February 9, 2025 at 9:29 PM - In order to approach philosophy systematically, one must begin with its basic branches. Philosophy, according to Objectivism, consists of five branches. The two basic ones are metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the universe as a whole. (The Objectivist metaphysics is covered in the present chapter on “Reality.”) Epistemology is the branch that studies the nature and means of human knowledge (chapters 2-5). These two branches make possible a view of the nature of man (chapter 6). Flowing from the above are the three evaluative branches of philosophy. Ethics, the broadest of these, provides a code of values to guide human choices and actions (chapters 7-9). Politics studies the nature of a social system and defines the proper functions of government (chapters 10 and 11). Esthetics studies the nature of art and defines the standards by which an art work should be judged (chapter 12). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jkq2bkq8wcvv9ma8hwjcmjrf)) - **P**olitics is to economics as mind is to body, or as an abstraction is to one of its concretes. Politics identifies the principles that should govern every social field. The right political system thus includes as one of its aspects the right economic system. Morality determines politics, as its application to organized human interaction—and politics then determines economics, as *its* application to the field of production and trade. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jkq2yhx13xb6k405w64qfn7m)) - “Capitalism,” in Ayn Rand’s definition, “is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.”[1](private://read/01jgd3hwk5k72mdqhwjpybthwe/#en311) This is a definition in terms of fundamentals and not of consequences. “Capitalism,” by contrast, may not be defined as “the system of competition.” Competition (for power and even for wealth) exists in most societies, including totalitarian ones. Capitalism does involve a unique form of competition, along with many other desirable social features. But all of them flow from a single root cause: freedom. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jkq33hnggjf6exq17bsqyj9b)) - What capitalism guarantees is that, if a man does choose to think, he *can* act accordingly. No one has the power to neutralize the mind; no one can force on another his ideas, his values, or his errors. A system geared to the basic social need of reason, freedom, is geared thereby to all the needs of man’s life. Capitalism is the only system that makes possible the achievement of virtue—of *any* proper virtue and, therefore, of every moral value. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jkq34e4b8kmh1dde78mcmc2f))