To learn Objectivism, which is the name of a particular philosophical system, Ayn Rand’s, you must see it as addressing the questions of philosophy, often in novel ways. To learn philosophy, you must understand the questions it asks and why they arise. Neither of these tasks is easy, in part because the questions philosophy raises are abstract and difficult, and because the answers offered to these questions are often intricate and subtle. This course provides training in the essentials of argument identification and evaluation and aims to give you a more first-handed understanding of (i) some important philosophical questions and issues, and (iii) Objectivism’s perspective on these questions and issues. This is the first instance of the Philosophical Skills course during the 2022-23 school year.

October 2022 – March 2023