Rand held that art, particularly literature, was indispensable in depicting a moral ideal, her own new moral ideal emphatically included. Through examining Rand’s fiction we will learn about her new vision of the ideal.
This self-paced course is based on an original 16-unit live seminar by Onkar Ghate, Aaron Smith, and Ben Bayer, exploring Objectivism through Ayn Rand’s novels. That course has been divided into two smaller courses using the original recordings and course content. Each of these courses is designed for students to take on their own schedule, and provides the educational value of graded assignments and (optional) live discussions with an instructor. Together, the two courses comprise our Objectivism through Ayn Rand’s Fiction track. They must be taken in order as the content of each presupposes completion of the preceding courses.
To begin to understand Rand’s distinctive worldview and to learn her new philosophy, Objectivism, there is no better place to start than with the study of her novels. They are self-consciously philosophical works, containing abstract themes, characters driven by opposing moral principles, and conflicts rooted in clashing worldviews. Spending time analyzing these, to understand the characters’ inner and outer conflicts and the opposition they face from elements within their society, illuminates Rand’s ideas.
This is what we will do in the course. We will examine the heroes and villains in her novels from the perspective of their basic ideas, values, motivations and goals in life. We will consider how Rand’s new ideas in morality—about what is good and evil—shape her stories and convey to you, the reader, how a radically different way of life from the one we’ve been traditionally presented with is both possible and desirable. Rand’s novels convey new ways of looking at an impressively wide range of subjects, from love and sex, to pride and selfishness, to work and joy, to honesty and integrity, to faith and reason. To explore these is to explore Rand’s own worldview.
