The Objectivism Book Study met through 2022 to study Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, by Leonard Peikoff.

In this session we continued exploring the Objectivist understanding of essences and universals. We proposed two ways Christians might view Leonard Peikoff’s (and Ayn Rand’s) conclusions about these topics.

Jacob Brunton proposed that Christians could adopt Peikoff’s method of forming concepts, but also reject some of Peikoff’s positions on Metaphysics. Peikoff rejects Platonic Realism and Aristotelian Realism, but Brunton would maintain that Christians are not required to reject those ideas.

I (Cody Libolt) agreed that Christians are not required to reject those ideas, but I did agree with Peikoff’s overall framing of the debate between the variants of Realism, Nominalism and Randian Objectivism. I agreed with Peikoff’s understanding of the term “real” in a philosophical context.

In the second half of the discussion, we explored an example of how we might discuss “essence.” We compared the essence of human maleness vs. human femaleness. We also discussed what it means to be a masculine vs. an effeminate man. Here’s a related resource I recently came across.

Listen to the podcast in the player below, or view the video here.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

List of Dates and Readings

Why Christians Should Reconsider Ayn Rand

About Us (For the New Christian Intellectual)

Ayn Rand and Christianity?

Christianity + Western Civilization

The Plunder of the Egyptians

Americanism Book Study

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