Je lance un podcast de présentation de l’Objectivisme pour les débutants ! (Disponible également sur Spotify, Substack, Overcast, Pocketcasts et très bientôt sur Apple Podcast et Deezer…)

Dans ce premier épisode :

• Brève présentation du podcast.
• La vie d’Ayn Rand.
• Pourquoi s’intéresser à la philosophie ?
• Au cœur de l’Objectivisme : la raison.
• La nature systématique et hiérarchique de l’Objectivisme.
• Comment Ayn Rand a présenté l’Objectivisme

SOURCES

Lorsqu’aucun nom n’est précisé, l’auteur des propos est Ayn Rand. Si jamais un propos tenu au cours du podcast vous semble avoir besoin d’être sourcé et ne l’est pas ici, contactez moi, je ferais mon possible pour compléter ce manque.

La vie d’Ayn Rand

[03:22] Le nom « Ayn Rand »

• BRITTING Jeff, Ayn Rand (Overlook Illustrated Lives. New York: Overlook Duckworth), 2004, « Looking Out (1905-1914) », p. 2 : « she didn’t adopt the name Ayn Rand until her arrival in the United States in her early twenties » et « Freedom to Write (1926-1935) », p. 33 : « A new country, language, and profession raised the issue of adopting a new name. Vocal in her opposition to the Bolsheviks and confident of one day achieving fame in the United States, she was mindful of the price her family might pay for her outspokenness. While still in Russia—a letter from her sister reveals—she picked « Rand » as her new surname and considered « Lil » as a possible first name. Ultimately, she selected « Ayn, » which she derived from a Finnish name. »
• BERLINER Michael S. (éd.), Letters of Ayn Rand, New York, Plume, 1997, « To Mr. Craig » : « In answer to your question, I must say that “Ayn” is both a real name and an invention. The original of it is a Finnish feminine name which is spelled in Russian thus: “Aйнa”. Its pronunciation, spelled phonetically, would be: “I-na”. I do not know what its correct spelling should be in English, but I chose to make it “Ayn”, eliminating the final “a”. I pronounce it as the letter “I” with an “n” added to it. », p. 40, « To Allee Chatham » p. 279 : « I was glad to hear that you consider me a desirable relative, but I am sorry to disappoint you, because Rand is only my pen name; so we are not related. »

[03:34] Non religiosité de la famille

• Day at Night, 29 mars 1974. [11:21] : « I had practically no religious training. My parents formally had a religion but fortunately didn’t impose it on me in any serious way. »
• BRITTING Jeff, Ayn Rand, op. cit., « Looking Out (1905-1914) », p. 3 : « Though Anna Borisovna and Zinovy Zacharovich were of Jewish background, he was agnostic and she was only nominally observant. (Though they ate matzoh during Passover, a Christmas tree decorated the apartment in winter.) »

 [03:52] Toujours la même philosophie

• « About the Author », postface du roman Atlas Shrugged : « I have held the same philosophy I now hold, for as far back as I can remember. I have learned a great deal through the years and expanded my knowledge of details, of specific issues, of definitions, of applications—and I intend to continue expanding it—but I have never had to change any of my fundamentals. »
• The Tomorrow Show avec Tom Snyder, 1979, Sur YouTube à [08:06] : « — When did you discover, or think up, or allow Objectivism to become your philosophy? — From the time that I remember myself, which is two and a half. The first incident in my life I can remember, I was two and half, and from that time to the present time I never changed my convictions. Only, at two and half I didn’t know as much as I know now. But the fundamental approach, it was the same. »

[04:07] Idées précoces

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #3 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 86-87 : « As I said, I was about eight, perhaps even under that. Now, I wasn‘t supposed to read newspapers, as I said, but I usually managed to read at least part. […] And I remember very clearly the line: “If a child does not acquire ideals from school, he will never have them.” I, to this day, remember the violent anger that I felt against it. And the reason I remember this incident is because I know very clearly that at that age already I had some sort of ideals. It would be very hard for me now to say what they were specifically. They mainly took the form of stories that I invented or . . . with no intention yet of being a writer, but simply that I had a sort of value world of my own. […] But even at that time, I would not have omitted myself from any generality about mankind. »
• Ibid, p. 112 : « — What would have been your conscious convictions at that time about the issue of reason? — Well, that, Barbara, was an absolute and I can‘t remember when it started. I can’t remember any time when it wasn’t. The issue of: everything has to be proved, and if something cannot be proved by reason, then it’s nonsense and the contempt for any irrationality — I can‘t name when it was different. That was a chronic leitmotif. So that everything I tell you sort of indicates my interest in morality, like the man-worship, you see, and values, the issue of reason was under it as a kind of absolute that isn’t even an issue. And here I remember fighting with Mother and with anyone. If they ever talked about faith or anything that one must just believe. »

[04:24] Influence de La Vallée Mystérieuse

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #2 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 76-78 : « Now, I remember one illustration (I remember several) but the particular one that impressed me was a picture of that Englishman, you see, standing at a wall with a sword or something waiting for someone in the process of their escape from this valley. […] And he was a perfect drawing of my present hero. […] — What was the specific nature of his heroism? What sort of things did he do in the story? — Enormous, audacious, defiant independence. […] — Did this story . . . did the hero act as a personal inspiration for you in any way? — Oh, yes, oh, yes. In this sense, that it was a concrete view of what one should be like… »
• PEIKOFF Leonard, dans PAXTON Michael, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (New York: Doubleday), 1998, p. 35-36 : « She told me several times that that was the book she read at nine, The Mysterious Valley, and that Cyrus, the British hero of that story, was her first real concept of a hero. That she was in love with him, so far as you could be at the age of nine. And that all of her later heroes were developments from that. » Timecode dans le documentaire éponyme de 1996 : [09:13—11:07].

[04:37] Décision de devenir romancière

• « To the Readers of The Fountainhead » (1945), dans Letters of Ayn Rand, op. cit., « Appendix », p. 669 : « I decided to be a writer at the age of nine — it was a specific, conscious decision — I remember the day and the hour. »

[04:47] Naissance de sa passion pour le cinéma

• BRITTING Jeff, Ayn Rand, op. cit., « Looking Out », p. 7 : « In 1913, at the age of eight, Rand attended St. Petersburg’s first motion picture exhibitions and, fascinated by the action-oriented silent films, she began writing scenarios. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #2 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 80 : « And then by the time I was eight, you see, I could write already then, and we were taken that summer to see movies for the first time; Mother decided we were old enough, so by that time I started writing. When I was eight I wrote two movie scenarios. »

[04:56] Point de vue sur la révolution de février

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #2 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 57 : « That was the big issue. Individualism. Inasmuch as everybody was talking politics to begin with. The first, the springboard for it, was the fact that I was very much in sympathy with the February Revolution. Because, you know, it was the “bloodless revolution,” where everybody was for freedom. And the whole atmosphere, though it was in a kind of a sentimental Russian way, nevertheless it was all the glorification of freedom. In my terms, it was the individual. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #3 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 105 : « And I told Mother and the older people — I was not secretive in this sense at all — that I‘m in love with Kerensky. »

 [05:12] Rejet immédiat du communisme

• We the Living, 60th Anniversary ed. (New York : Signet / New American Library, 1996), « Foreword », p. xv : « When, at the age of twelve, at the time of the Russian revolution, I first heard the Communist principle that Man must exist for the sake of the State, I perceived that this was the essential issue, that this principle was evil, and that it could lead to nothing but evil, regardless of any methods, details, decrees, policies, promises and pious platitudes. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #3 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden, 1960, transcript, p. 108 (Ayn Rand Archives) : « — You know, I told you about what I wrote in the preface of We the Living, that I realized what’s wrong with the Russian Revolution; it was the communists’ living for the state. And from that time on . . . — You realized that when? — At the age of twelve, that same fall, in October. That started from the October Revolution, which I was passionately against. »

[05:20] Expropriation de la pharmacie

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #4 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden, 1960, transcript, p. 108 (Ayn Rand Archives) : « p. 133-134 : « Then the first really bad thing was when they nationalized Father’s business. And his business was right on the same floor as our apartment […]. They simply marched in and closed off the door connecting the apartment. And they put a big red seal on it. And that was that. […] — Were you there when they marched in? — Oh, yes. […] — But you understood that this was the principle of Communism? — Oh, yes. Very clearly. Very clearly. And, incidentally, I was against them long before that happened, from the first time that I heard what their slogans were. »

[05:24] Victor Hugo

• Day at Night, 29 mars 1974. [13:42] : « …Victor Hugo, whom I discovered at thirteen, and that was the greatest literary experience I ever had. Incomparable and incommunicable. I admired him enormously. The sense of life that he communicated, the glamour, the grandeur of men was so high above anything I have encountered in any other books — and certainly was in another universe compared with the reality of Soviet Russia — that, to this day, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Victor Hugo. And it’s from him in effect that I learned the art of the Romantic novel, in a serious sense of the word. »
• « Introduction to Ninety-Three » (1962) dans The Romantic Manifesto, Second Revised Edition, New York, Signet / New American Library, 1975, chap. 10, p. 154 : « I discovered Victor Hugo when I was thirteen, in the stifling, sordid ugliness of Soviet Russia. One would have to have lived on some pestilent planet in order fully to understand what his novels — and his radiant universe — meant to me then, and mean now. […] He helped to make it possible for me to be here and to be a writer. If I can help another young reader to find what I found in his work, if I can bring to the novels of Victor Hugo some part of the kind of audience he deserves, I shall regard it as a payment on an incalculable debt that can never be computed or repaid. »

[05:52] Conditions de vie en Russie et en Ukraine

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #4 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden, 1960, transcript (Ayn Rand Archives), p.132-133 : « The third day, the people were not on the square, but fighting began in the streets. And what I saw was that on the corner of the square and the street branching off from it there were lines of soldiers shooting down the street. […] It was literally as if the terror grew, because you began to see armed soldiers in the streets, with bayonets, and a kind of loose, hooligan manner, and you had the sense of total chaos and that you‘re in the power of something brutal and incomprehensible. »
• Ibid, p.143 : « That is when we began to starve, literally. Because food was difficult to obtain to begin with. […] That’s when we began to eat nothing but millet and Mother insisted on obtaining raw onions and onions fried in linseed oil — because she had read that that‘s prevention against scurvy. There were enormous epidemics of that—it’s not an epidemic because not contagious — but scurvy became the big problem because of monotonous diets. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #6 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden, 1961, transcript (Ayn Rand Archives), p.187-188, 190 : « Because that was the real time of starvation for us. I remember a day when all we had in the house was one pot of dried beans, no, peas, you know the kind of split peas, that Mother had cooked and we all had our portions, and there was only one portion left for Father, and he was late coming home. I couldn‘t stand up, I was so hungry. I had to sit on the floor. We didn‘t have much furniture in the house. And I remember asking Mother whether I could take one of those peas, literally one, which she allowed me, and that helped. But that day was somehow like the bottom of everything that we had to go through. There were many days when we felt terribly hungry, but I remember this particular day was awful. […] Oh, one horrible element was the epidemics of typhus, which, you know, is worse than typhoid. »

[06:08] Études rapportées au projet de devenir romancière

• « About the Author », postface du roman Atlas Shrugged : « In college, I had taken history as my major subject, and philosophy as my special interest; the first — in order to have a factual knowledge of men’s past, for my future writing; the second — in order to achieve an objective definition of my values. I found that the first could be learned, but the second had to be done by me. »
• Day at Night, 29 mars 1974. [13:05] : « I didn’t major in literature in university. I knew that I would learn nothing in school […] from what I had gathered about the kind of literary courses that were being given. So I majored in history because I wanted to know the history of mankind as a sort of broad frame of reference for my future novels. »

[06:17] Études à l’Université de Petrograd

• MILGRAM Shoshana, « The Life of Ayn Rand », dans A Companion to Ayn Rand (Chichester / Malden, MA : John Wiley & Sons) 2016, p. 23 : « … Alisa Rozenbaum entered the University of Petrograd in the Historical/Pedagogical Faculty, majoring in history (with the Middle Ages as her area of specialization). Her three-year program included many history courses (including the histories of Greece, Rome, and the Crusades), as well as courses in biology, French, and logic, along with required Soviet courses on such topics as “Historical Materialism. Her favorite class from the first year was a full-year course in ancient philosophy, focused on Plato and Aristotle. »

[06:25] Études de cinéma

• BRITTING Jeff, Ayn Rand (op. cit.), « Important Things (1915-1925) », p. 25 : « She enrolled at the State Technicum for Screen Arts, a film school established by Lenin for the development of Soviet cinema. Her objective was to study screenwriting, and in preparation she also began writing film reviews and short essays on Hollywood, some of which were published. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #5 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 161 : « Now, between graduation and the time that I was waiting to see whether I would get here, for that next winter, I enrolled in a school of screenwriting. Because during my last year in college was when I discovered the movies, and I was tremendously interested. And this new school was opening, a very special school, among other things advertised courses for screenwriters. And I had never believed in any schools for writers, but screenwriting seemed different. »

[06:35] Métier de guide touristique

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #5 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 160 : « So, after I graduated from school is when I got the job as a guide through museum. And the museum was the Peter-Paul Fortress in Petrograd, where I had to lecture on the history of the place for excursions. And I held that job until I left for America. »
• BRANDEN Barbara « Who is Ayn Rand? » dans Who is Ayn Rand? (New York: Random House), 1962, « A Biographical Essay », chap. IV, p. 170 : « She continued to instruct visitors to the museum on the horrors of slavery and imprisonment and tyranny under the Tsar. »

[06:48] Détestation de la Russie

• Interview d’Ayn Rand pour The Phil Donahue Show (1980) Sur YouTube : « Ayn Rand Phil Donahue Interview Part 3 of 5 », [08:50] : « — Did you leave in fear or do you have childhood memories of the….? —In fear of what? Of Russia? — Yeah. — In complete loathing. — Loathing… — For the whole country, including the tsarist period. It is the ugliest (and incidentally most mystical) country on earth. »

[06:48] Fascination pour l’Amérique

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #1 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 13 : « …America was almost like Mars to us in Russia. That is, everybody admired it, but it was outside the usual frame of reference. […] America was kind of a distant ideal. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #4 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 135 : « And it’s in this particular high school in the South from which I graduated, they had one course on America. And to me it was almost an incredible thing. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #3 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 109 : « … as I mentioned, they gave us a course in American history, very brief. And then I thought: this is the kind of government I would approve of. »

[07:12] 50 dollars de départ

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #8 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1961, transcript, p. 254 : « And by the time I got to America, I had $50. That was all. », et p. 247 : « I remember seeing, kind of very barracklike buildings, and a boat approached the liner, and that was the immigration officials coming on board. […] I remember the only question he asked me how much money I had, and I told him $50, and said, “Well, what do you expect to do with that?” in a slightly amused way. And I was very astonished, because to me it was a fortune. »

[07:21] Rencontre avec Cecil B. DeMille

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #7 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1961, transcript, p. 243 : « Now, I walk out of the studio […]. And it has a driveway in front of the main building that goes to a gate. And as I start [to] walk down that driveway, I see an open roadster parked, and a man at the wheel talking to somebody outside the car, and it was DeMille. […] And I was just stunned, because it was such a lucky coincidence. […] He drives up to the gate, stops, looks at me, and asks, “Why are you looking at me?” Very, very pleasantly. Apparently he had noticed me before. So I told him I had just come from Russia and I am very happy to see him. So he opens the door of the car and says, “Get in.” I didn‘t know where we were going; I got in and he started driving. […] And on the way, I told him that I want to be a writer and he was my favorite director. […] And he told me on the way, as we were approaching the set, “Well, if you want to work in pictures, you should begin by watching how they work on the set and by observing and learning, so this will do you good,” you see. So he brings me on the set… »

[07:37] Rencontre et mariage avec Frank O’Connor

• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #5 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1961, transcript, p. 163-164 : « The next crucial event was that I met Frank O’Connor, that same fall, on the set of King of Kings. […] I don‘t remember the exact dates, but my last visa expired, the last renewal, the last six months, somewhere early in 1929, because we were married on April 15, 1929. »

[07:51] Travail au département des costumes

• BRITTING Jeff, Ayn Rand, op. cit., « Chronology », p. 123 : « 1929. Marries Frank O’Connor. Hired by RKO Pictures wardrobe department. »
• Interview biographique d’Ayn Rand #5 conduite par Barbara & Nathaniel Branden (Ayn Rand Archives), 1960, transcript, p. 165 : « And then the first real job I got was shortly after our marriage, through a personal friend, an actor whom we knew in the movies, who got me the job in the wardrobe at RKO. That was in the office department. It was more or less the job of filing clerk. »
• LEE Dorothy, interview de 1996 publiée dans McCONNELL Scott, 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand (New York: New American Library / Penguin Group, 2010), p. 37-39 : « — What department did Ayn Rand work in? — She was in women’s wardrobe. She was just always there in the wardrobe department, and a lot of times she took care of me and we’d have to go in there for fittings all the time. »

[08:09] Inspiration autobiographique de We the Living

• We the Living, op. cit., « Foreword », p. xvii : « For those readers who have expressed a personal curiosity about me, I want to say that We the Living is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual, sense. The plot is invented; the background is not. »

[08:13] Accueil de We the Living

• RALSTON Richard E., « Publishing We The Living« , dans MAYHEW Robert (éd.), Essays on Ayn Rand’s We the Living, (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books) 2004, chap. 6, p. 139-140 : « The first printing of 3,000 copies sold out in eighteen months—with most sales at the end of this period. »
• BERLINER Michael S. « Reviews of We The Living« , dans Ibid. chap. 7, p. 145-153 : « On the one hand, [reviews of We the Living] reflect a widespread sympathy with Communism that would be unheard of among mainstream reviewers by the 1950s. That sympathy was manifested in pro-Soviet reviews in mainstream publications, but also in the wonderment that any writer could be as anti-Soviet as was Ayn Rand in We the Living. Numerous reviews also accepted the Marxist notion that any anti-Soviet writer must be an apologist for the aristocracy. »

[08:30] Histoire de la publication de The Fountainhead

• « To the Readers of The Fountainhead » (1945), dans Letters of Ayn Rand, op. cit., « Appendix », p. 672-673 : « The success of The Fountainhead has demonstrated its own thesis. It was rejected by twelve publishers who declared that it had no commercial possibilities, it would not sell, it was “too intellectual,” it was “too unconventional,” it went against every alleged popular trend. Yet the success of The Fountainhead was made by the public. Not by the public as an organized collective—but by single, individual readers who discovered it of their own choice, who read it on their own initiative and recommended it on their own judgment. »

[09:05] Rencontre avec Nathaniel Blumenthal / Branden

• PAXTON Michael, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, (op. cit.) 1998, p. 142 : « Late in 1950, Ayn Rand received a fan letter from a young psychology student, Nathaniel Branden. She thought his letter was so intelligent and his question so astute that she invited him to call her in person to discuss them further. Both Ayn and Frank were completely won over by him after their first meeting, and Nathaniel began seeing them more frequently. » Timecode dans le documentaire éponyme de 1996 : [01:31:20].

[09:20] Cercle de jeunes lecteurs et admirateurs

• MILGRAM Shoshana, « The Life of Ayn Rand », dans A Companion to Ayn Rand op. cit., 2016, p. 30 : « As Rand continued to work steadily on the book, […] Blumenthal and Weidman gathered a group of their friends and relatives, all admirers of The Fountainhead , to join them in discussing ideas and reading the draft of the new novel. The group came to be called the “Class of ‘43” (for the year of The Fountainhead ’s publication), or, ironically, “the Collective.” The members included Leonard Peikoff, Weidman’s cousin, whom she had introduced to Rand in Los Angeles and who was now studying philosophy at NYU, and Alan Greenspan. »
• PEIKOFF Leonard, dans PAXTON Michael, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (op. cit.) 1998 : « Well, there was a group of us, around ten or twelve who were related—either one was a friend of another or a relative of another. And, as a joke, Ayn started to call us “The Collective.” As a joke, because we were all supposed to be arch individualists. We came to her place on a regular basis, starting originally on Saturday nights, to read the manuscript of Atlas Shrugged, and then we would read whatever was available or some given chapter, and then there would be an all around discussion monitored by her. And then she would serve something around midnight or one in the morning — sometimes we would stay till three or four in the morning. And, at first, we got to know her best through these weekly Saturday-night sessions.” » Timecode dans le documentaire éponyme de 1996 : [01:44:50]
• BRANDEN Barbara « Who is Ayn Rand? » dans Who is Ayn Rand? (op. cit.), 1962 « A Biographical Essay », chap. IV, p. 227 : « Through the years, Nathaniel and I had become acquainted with a number of young people who shared our admiration for The Fountainhead and who were eagerly interested in its ideas. We introduced to Ayn Rand those whose interest proved to be authentic. They joined us in meeting on Saturday evenings, for the purpose of discussion. Ayn Rand nicknamed the group “the class of ’43” — because 1943 was the year The Fountainhead was published. We were not a formal organization nor did she regard us as an actual class. We were an informal group of friends who met together because of our common interest in ideas; while Ayn Rand or Nathaniel frequently led the discussion, we were in no sense a “school.” »

[10:22] Origine du nom « Objectivisme »

• TORIGIAN Rosemary, interview de 1998 publiée dans McCONNELL Scott, 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand (op. cit.), 2010, p. 171 : « That was the first series of public lectures on Objectivism, except at the time we didn’t call it “Objectivism.” Miss Rand objected to that. She didn’t want it called “Objectivism,” so we referred to it as “the philosophy of Ayn Rand,” and it wasn’t until about the third or fourth series that she just finally gave up because there was just no stopping people using that name. This was in 1958, right after Atlas Shrugged was published. »
• NICKERSON Richard, interview de 1999, publiée dans Ibid, p. 185 : « I remember the night they announced that the name of the philosophy would be “Objectivism.” […] It was the first formal lecture series that Nathaniel Branden gave — every Tuesday evening in Manhattan [in 1959, at the Sheraton Russell Hotel]. And he’d given several of the lectures, and then at one of the lectures he just said that Miss Rand had decided on a name for the philosophy, and it was to be called “Objectivism.” Capital “O.” »
• « To the readers of The Objectivist Forum » (1^er janvier 1980), dans The Objectivist Forum, vol. 1, février 1980, p. 1 : « I chose the name “Objectivism” at a time when my philosophy was beginning to be known and some people were starting to call themselves “Randists.” I am much too conceited to allow such a use of my name. »

[11:10] Relation extra-conjugale

• BRITTING Jeff, Ayn Rand, op. cit., p. 101 : « However, at the peak of NBI’s success, relations between Rand and Nathaniel Branden deteriorated. Their relationship had evolved over eighteen years, from intellectual associates to close personal friends and professional allies. For a period of several years in the 1950s, and with the consent of their spouses, they had had a romantic affair, which ended probably near the time of the publication of Atlas Shrugged. Their association continued for another ten years until she ended it in 1968. »
• MILGRAM Shoshana, « The Life of Ayn Rand », dans A Companion to Ayn Rand op. cit., 2016, p. 30 : « In the fall of 1954, there was a significant development in Rand’s personal life: her relationship with Nathaniel Branden became one of romantic love. She considered him her ideal reader, regarded him as a genius and an innovator in psychology, and had spent many hours each week, over several years, in intellectual companionship with him. The romance was intended to remain private (a secret known only to the two and their spouses); the fact of a romance is clear, but the details are not well documented. »

[11:34] Cours de Leonard Peikoff

• Voir par exemple History of Philosophy (1972), Introduction to Logic (1974), The Philosophy of Objectivism (1975), Objective Communication (1980). Dans certains cours, c’est Ayn Rand qui répond aux questions des étudiants.

[11:54] Rétablissement d’Ayn Rand

• The Ayn Rand Letter, vol 3, n° 23, du 12 août 1974 (qui a été publié avec presque un an de retard, en mai 1975 : l’encart fait bien référence à son opération de janvier 1975) : « I am happy to tell you that the operation was a complete success and that I am now fully recovered. » Contrairement à ce qu’on peut lire ou entendre parfois sur des sources peu rigoureuses, Ayn Rand n’est pas décédée de son cancer du poumon.

[12:06] Fin des périodiques

• « A Last Survey » (1975), dans The Ayn Rand Letter, vol. IV, n° 2, novembre-décembre 1975, p. 1 : « This is to tell you, regretfully, that I am discontinuing the publication of The Ayn Rand Letter after these last two issues. I say “regretfully” because I am sorry to disappoint the readers who have supported this publication, and its predecessors, for so many years. »

[12:17] Cause du décès d’Ayn Rand

• BINSWANGER Harry, « To the reader », dans The Objectivist Forum, vol. 3, numéro de février 1982, p. 1 : « Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982, of heart failure. »
• BINSWANGER Harry, commentaire laissé le 12/11/2012 à 9:38 PM sous l’article « An Encounter with Ayn Rand« , publié dans Rafu Shimpo, 2012 Holiday Issue : « Ayn Rand died of congestive heart failure, not cancer. She was cancer-free (and had been for 6 years) when she died. I know this first-hand: I visited her almost daily in New York Hospital in the last month of her life after she had a “silent” heart attack. They did scans for cancer, and found none. »

[12:25] Héritage

• The New York Times, 28 mars 1982, page 32 : « The novelist Ayn Rand left an estate estimated at $550,000 to a friend, Leonard Peikoff of Manhattan, according to a will filed for probate in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court. Miss Rand, the author of The Foutainhead and Atlas Shrugged, died March 6 at the age of 77. »

POURQUOI S’INTÉRESSER À LA PHILOSOPHIE ?

[13:07] Besoin de philosophie

• « Philosophy and Sense of Life » dans The Romantic Manifesto, Second Revised Edition, New York, Signet / New American Library, 1975, chap. 2, p. 19-20 : « In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is — i.e., he must know his own nature (including his — means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts — i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance. »
• De façon générale, l’essentiel de la présente section s’appuie sur  « Philosophy: Who Needs It » (1974) dans Philosophy: Who Needs It (Indianapolis / New York : Bobbs-Merrill), 1982, chap. 1. Audible sur la chaîne YouTube de l’institut Ayn Rand.

[14:02] Intégration de l’expérience en principes abstraits

• « Philosophy: Who Needs It » (1974) dans Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., chap. 1, p. 6 : « You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles are true or false, whether they represent your conscious, rational convictions—or a grab-bag of notions snatched at random, whose sources, validity, context and consequences you do not know, notions which, more often than not, you would drop like a hot potato if you knew. »

[14:40] Influence des philosophes

• Ibid. p. 5 : « You might claim — as most people do — that you have never been influenced by philosophy. I will ask you to check that claim. Have you ever thought or said the following? “Don’t be so sure — nobody can be certain of anything.” You got that notion from David Hume (and many, many others), even though you might never have heard of him. Or: “This may be good in theory, but it doesn’t work in practice.” You got that from Plato. Or: “That was a rotten thing to do, but it’s only human, nobody is perfect in this world.” You got it from Augustine. Or: “It may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.” You got it from William James. Or: “I couldn’t help it! Nobody can help anything he does.” You got it from Hegel. Or: “I can’t prove it, but I feel that it’s true.” You got it from Kant. Or: “It’s logical, but logic has nothing to do with reality.” You got it from Kant. Or: “It’s evil, because it’s selfish.” You got it from Kant. Have you heard the modern activists say: “Act first, think afterward”? They got it from John Dewey. »

[15:31] Citation d’Ayn Rand

• Ibid, p. 9 : « At the root of every significant philosophic theory, there is a legitimate issue — in the sense that there is an authentic need of man’s consciousness, which some theories struggle to clarify and others struggle to obfuscate, to corrupt, to prevent man from ever discovering. The battle of philosophers is a battle for man’s mind. If you do not understand their theories, you are vulnerable to the worst among them. » Audible sur la chaîne YouTube de l’Institut Ayn Rand : « Philosophy: Who Needs It » by Ayn Rand [23:14].

[16:04] Pouvoir de la philosophie sur les sociétés et l’histoire

• « For the New Intellectual » (1961), dans For the New Intellectual, New York, Signet / New American Library, 1963, p. 27 : « Just as a man’s actions are preceded and determined by some form of idea in his mind, so a society’s existential conditions are preceded and determined by the ascendancy of a certain philosophy among those whose job is to deal with ideas. The events of any given period of history are the result of the thinking of the preceding period. »
• « Is Atlas Shrugging? » (1964) dans Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Centennial Edition. New York: Signet / New American Library, 2005, chap. 15, p. 182 : « Contrary to the prevalent views of today’s alleged scholars, history is not an unintelligible chaos ruled by chance and whim — historical trends can be predicted, and changed — men are not helpless, blind, doomed creatures carried to destruction by incomprehensible forces beyond their control. There is only one power that determines the course of history, just as it determines the course of every individual life: the power of man’s rational faculty — the power of ideas. If you know a man’s convictions, you can predict his actions. If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society, you can predict its course. But convictions and philosophy are matters open to man’s choice. There is no fatalistic, predetermined historical necessity. »
• The Romantic Manifesto, op.cit., Introduction (1969), p. vii : « What or who determines the trends of the world? (The answer is: philosophy.) »

[16:26] Religion comme philosophie primitive

• « The Psycho-epistemology of Art » (1965), dans The Romantic Manifesto, op. cit., ch. 1, p. 8 : « Observe that in mankind’s history, art began as an adjunct (and, often, a monopoly) of religion. Religion was the primitive form of philosophy: it provided man with a comprehensive view of existence. Observe that the art of those primitive cultures was a concretization of their religion’s metaphysical and ethical abstractions. »
• « Philosophy and Sense of Life » (1966), dans Ibid, ch. 2, p. 14 : « Since religion is a primitive form of philosophy — an attempt to offer a comprehensive view of reality — many of its myths are distorted, dramatized allegories based on some element of truth, some actual, if profoundly elusive, aspect of man’s existence. »
• « The Chickens’ Homecoming » (1970), dans Return of the Primitive (New York: Meridian / Penguin Group, 1999), p. 45-46 : « It is not a question of whether man chooses to be guided by a comprehensive view: he is not equipped to survive without it. […] In the early stages of mankind’s development, that view was provided by religion, i.e., by mystic fantasy. Man’s psycho-epistemological need is the reason why even the most primitively savage tribes always clung to some form of religious belief […] Man came into his own in Greece, some two-and-a-half thousand years ago. The birth of philosophy marked his adulthood […] Philosophy is the goal toward which religion was only a helplessly blind groping. »

[17:19] Primauté des idées sur les conditions matérielles

• « For the New Intellectual » (1961), dans dans For the New Intellectual, op. cit., p. 35 : « …what philosophy was offering, as an evaluation of [businessmen’s] achievements and as guidance for the rest of society, was the pure Attila-ism of Marx, who proclaimed that […] the material tools of production determine men’s “ideological superstructure” (which means: machines create men’s thinking, not the other way around) […]. Never had Attila’s psycho-epistemology been transcribed so accurately. »
• « This is John Galt Speaking » (1957), dans Ibid, p. 208 : « Take a look around you, you savages who stutter that ideas are created by men’s means of production, that a machine is not the product of human thought, but a mystical power that produces human thinking. You have never discovered the industrial age—and you cling to the morality of the barbarian eras when a miserable form of human subsistence was produced by the muscular labor of slaves. »

[17:43] Non croyance dans le déterminisme historique

• « The Anatomy of Compromise » (1964) dans Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, op. cit. ch. 14, p. 160 : « […] the unthinking begin to whisper about some mysterious occult power called a “historical necessity” which, in some unspecified way, by some unknowable means, has preordained mankind to collapse into the abyss of communism. But there are no fatalistic “historical necessities”: the “mysterious” power moving the events of the world is the awesome power of men’s principles —which is mysterious only to the “practical” modern savages who were taught to discard it as “impotent.” »
• « Global Balkanization » (1977) dans Return of the Primitive, op. cit., p. 189 : « Let me remind you — as I have said many times before — that there is no such thing as historical determinism. The world does not have to continue moving toward disaster. But unless men change their philosophical direction — which they still have time to do — the collapse will come. »
• BERLINER Michael S. (éd.), Letters of Ayn Rand, op. cit. « To O. W. Kracht » (4 mars 1945), p. 222 : « Since all theories about “historical necessity” or “historical determinism” are so much tripe invented by the Tooheys of the world for the sole purpose of enslaving humanity — the field of politics is a secondary one, an effect, not a cause, a result, not a reason. Men make politics, not politics — men. Political events are determined by political theories — not by any sort of “economic necessity” — and political theories are determined by men’s thinking. »
• The Mike Wallace Interview, 1959, sur Youtube à [16:49] : « But I do not believe in historical determinism, and I do not believe that people have to go that way. Men have the free will to choose and to think. If they change their thinking, we do not have to go into dictatorship. »

[18:00] Politique comme conséquence de la philosophie

• « Choose Your Issues », dans The Objectivist Newsletter, vol. 1, n°1, janvier 1962, p. 1 : « Objectivism is a philosophical movement; since politics is a branch of philosophy, Objectivism advocates certain political principles […] as the consequence and the ultimate practical application of its fundamental philosophical principles. It does not regard politics as a separate or primary goal, that is: as a goal that can be achieved without a wider ideological context. Politics is based on three other philosophical disciplines: metaphysics, epistemology and ethics — on a theory of man’s nature and of man’s relationship to existence. It is only on such a base that one can formulate a consistent political theory and achieve it in practice. »
• « Philosophy: Who Needs It » (1974), dans Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., chap. 1, p. 11 : « politics is not the cause, but the last consequence of philosophical ideas. »
• « Philosophical Detection » (1974) dans Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., chap. 2, p. 14-15 : « In philosophy, the fundamentals are metaphysics and epistemology, On the basis of a knowable universe and of a rational faculty’s competence to grasp it, you can define man’s proper ethics, politics and esthetics. (And if you make an error, you retain the means and the frame of reference necessary to correct it.) But what […] will you do if you advocate political freedom on the grounds that you feel it is good, and find yourself confronting an ambitious thug who declares that he feels quite differently? »
• « What Can One Do? » (1972) dans Ibid, chap. 17, p. 245 : « The battle is primarily intellectual (philosophical), not political. Politics is the last consequence, the practical implementation, of the fundamental (metaphysical-epistemological-ethical) ideas that dominate a given nation’s culture. You cannot fight or change the consequences without fighting and changing the cause; nor can you attempt any practical implementation without knowing what you want to implement. »

[18:49] Citation d’Ayn Rand

• « Is Atlas Shrugging? » (1964) dans Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, op. cit. chap. 15, p. 182 : « There is only one power that determines the course of history, just as it determines the course of every individual life: the power of man’s rational faculty — the power of ideas. If you know a man’s convictions, you can predict his actions. If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society, you can predict its course. But convictions and philosophy are matters open to man’s choice. There is no fatalistic, predetermined historical necessity. »

Au cœur de l’Objectivisme : la raison

[20:18] Phrase de Pascal retournée par Rand

• Source citation de Pascal
• BERLINER Michael S. (éd.), Letters of Ayn Rand, op. cit. « Letter to a Philosopher », To John Hospers, 3 janvier 1961, p. 526. : « The head has its reasons which the heart must learn to know. »

[22:04] Influence d’Aristote

• « About the Author », postface d’Atlas Shrugged : « The only philosophical debt I can acknowledge is to Aristotle. I most emphatically disagree with a great many parts of his philosophy—but his definition of the laws of logic and of the means of human knowledge is so great an achievement that his errors are irrelevant by comparison. »
• « For the New Intellectual » dans For the New Intellectual, op. cit., p. 20 : « Aristotle’s philosophy was the intellect’s Declaration of Independence. Aristotle, the father of logic, should be given the title of the world’s first intellectual, in the purest and noblest sense of that word. No matter what remnants of Platonism did exist in Aristotle’s system, his incomparable achievement lay in the fact that he defined the basic principles of a rational view of existence and of man’s consciousness… »
• « Review of Randall’s Aristotle » (1963) , dans The Voice of Reason (New York: NAL Penguin / Signet, 1989), chap. 2 p. 6 : « If there is a philosophical Atlas who carries the whole of Western civilization on his shoulders, it is Aristotle. […] Whatever intellectual progress men have achieved rests on his achievements. […] The conflict of Aristotle versus Plato is the conflict of reason versus mysticism. It was Plato who formulated most of philosophy’s basic questions— and doubts. It was Aristotle who laid the foundation for most of the answers. »
• Day at Night, 29 mars 1974. Sur YouTube à [14:47] : « The other influence is of course Aristotle in philosophy, who is the only philosopher with whom I agree at least in fundamentals. Not in everything, but in that which is originally his. Not in the platonic element in him. And that had a great deal of influence on my subsequent thinking. »
• LENNOX James G. et SALMIERI Gregory (éd.), Two Philosophers: Aristotle and Ayn Rand, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2026.

[22:34] Primauté de la raison

• « Brief Summary » (1971) dans The Objectivist, vol. 10, n°9, septembre 1971, p. 1 : « I shall say that I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows. This — the supremacy of reason — was, is and will be the primary concern of my work, and the essence of Objectivism. »
• The Tonight Show avec Johnny Carson, août 1967, sur Youtube à [01:51] : « The basic principle of Objectivism is that man must be guided exclusively by reason. »
• « The Objectivist Ethics » (1961), dans The Virtue of Selfishness (New York: Signet / New American Library), 1964, chap. 1, p. 27-28 : « Rationality is man’s basic virtue, the source of all his other virtues. […] The virtue of Rationality means the recognition and acceptance of reason as one’s only source of knowledge, one’s only judge of values and one’s only guide to action. »
• Day at Night, 29 mars 1974. Sur YouTube à [00:60] : « —How would you describe the ideal man? — […] Above everything else, a rational man. »
• PEIKOFF Leonard, Introduction de Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., p. vii-viii : « Reason, according to Objectivism, is not merely a distinguishing attribute of man; it is his fundamental attribute — his basic means of survival. Therefore, whatever reason requires in order to function is a necessity of human life. »

[23:08] Rationalisme

• Intervention d’Ayn Rand dans PEIKOFF Leonard, The Philosophy of Objectivism, Lesson 12, « Ideas in History: Objectivism’s Relation to the Past and the Future » Sur Youtube à [02:01:45] : « This is rationalism… The idea of proving something out of context, without reference to reality, simply proving by syllogism that something exist or doesn’t exist. I never employs this method. »
• Voir mon article « Objectivisme et rationalisme » (2017).

La nature systématique et hiérarchique de l’Objectivisme

 [24:05] Pas une juxtaposition d’idées

• « A Statement of Policy » dans The Objectivist, vol. 7, N° 6, juin 1968, p. 7 : « …Objectivism is not a loose body of ideas, but a philosophical system… »

[25:45] Système « intégré »

• « Philosophy: Who Needs It » (1974) dans Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., chap. 1, p. 6 : « But the principles you accept (consciously or subconsciously) may clash with or contradict one another; they, too, have to be integrated. What integrates them? Philosophy. A philosophic system is an integrated view of existence. »
• For the New Intellectual, op. cit., »Preface » : « I offer the present book as a lead or a summary for those who wish to acquire an integrated view of existence. »
• Interview d’Ayn Rand pour Playboy, mars 1964 : « I seek to provide men — or those who care to think — with an integrated, consistent and rational view of life. »
• Voir aussi mon article : L’intégration : la clef pour comprendre l’Objectivisme.

[26:08] Contextualisation nécessaire des idées

• PEIKOFF Leonard, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (New York, Dutton, 1991), chap. 1 « Reality » p. 3 : « For a philosophic idea to function properly as a guide, one must know the full system to which it belongs. An idea plucked from the middle is of no value, cannot be validated, and will not work. One must know the idea’s relationship to all the other ideas that give it context, definition, application, proof. One must know all this not as a theoretical end in itself, but for practical purposes; one must know it to be able to rely on an idea, to make rational use of it, and, ultimately, to live. »

[26:45] Omniprésence de l’intégration

• GOTTHELF Allan & SALMIERI Gregory (dir.), A Companion to Ayn Rand, op. cit., 2016, chap. 12, p. 309-310, n. 77 : « Rand’s use of the word “integration” is unusual, but not unprecedented. Her earliest uses of the term all pertain to art — most often to an author’s intelligent combination of different elements into a unified story. This sense of “integration” figures prominently in The Fountainhead, where Rand draws connections between the artistic integrity of a building, the biological integrity of an organism, and the integrity of a person’s character. In this context, Roark says that “every living thing is integrated,” and he describes “an integrating principle” as “the one thought, the single thought that created the thing and every part of it”. This idea is further developed in Rand’s notes for Atlas Shrugged where she discusses the role reason plays in integrating a person’s psychology and in integrating his values and actions into a life. This same idea figures prominently in the notes on psychology she made between 1955 and 1957. Rand’s view of reason as a faculty that “integrates” the “evidence of the senses” likely arose out of this thinking. »
• BINSWANGER Harry (éd.), « Integration (Mental)« , dans The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z (New York: New American Library / Signet, 1986), pp. 222-223.

[27:19] Branches fondamentales de la philosophie

• « Philosophical Detection » (1974), dans Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., chap. 2, p. 14 : « In philosophy, the fundamentals are metaphysics and epistemology. On the basis of a knowable universe and of a rational faculty’s competence to grasp it, you can define man’s proper ethics, politics and esthetics. »
• PEIKOFF Leonard, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (New York, Dutton) 1991, p. : « Philosophy, according to Objectivism, consists of five branches. The two basic ones are metaphysics and epistemology. »

[27:54] Dépendance de la politique

• Voir les sources « Politique comme conséquence de la philosophie », plus haut.

[28:09] Priorité de la raison

• Voir les sources « Primauté de la raison », plus haut.

Comment Ayn Rand a présenté l’Objectivisme

[29:47] Projet de traité

• For the New Intellectual (op. cit.), « Preface » : « The full system is implicit in these excerpts […], but its fundamentals are indicated only in the widest terms and require a detailed, systematic presentation in a philosophical treatise. I am working on such a treatise at present… »
• Introduction To Objectivist Epistemology (New York, Meridian / Penguin Books USA Inc. 1990), « Foreword to the first edition » (1966), p. 1 : « These articles may be regarded as a preview of my future book on Objectivism… »
• HARRIMAN David (éd.) Journals of Ayn Rand (New York: Plume / Penguin Putnam, 1999), « Two Possible Books », chap. 16, p. 697-704 : « In the decade after Atlas Shrugged, AR made notes for a non-fiction book on Objectivism… »

[31:00] Citation d’Ayn Rand

• « To Whom it May Concern », dans The Objectivist, vol. 7, N° 5, p. 5 : « I am not a teacher by professional and personal inclination… »

[31:22] Articles de « milieu de gamme »

• The Art of NonFiction (New York: Plume / Penguin Putnam, 2001), chap. 1 « Preliminary Remarks », p. 5 : « The articles I most enjoy writing are in the middle range. Middle-range articles fall somewhere between theoretical and journalistic articles. They consist of the application of abstractions to concretes, which is what most intellectual magazines contain. Such articles deal neither with philosophical theory nor with concrete reporting. They accept a theoretical proposition and analyze some current event or some aspect of the culture from that viewpoint. »

[31:30] Pratiquer la philosophie sans la prêcher

• The Art of NonFiction (New York: Plume / Penguin Putnam, 2001), chap. 4, « Applying Philosophy Without Preaching It », p. 27-40.

[31:53] La philosophie pour apprendre à vivre

• BERLINER Michael S. (éd.), Letters of Ayn Rand, op. cit., « To Ruth Alexander » (7 novembre 1943), p. 99 : « …our actions must be governed by abstract philosophical principles whenever we act as human beings and expect to achieve any rational goal. Or where does he think philosophy comes from—and how does he propose to act in practical reality without conception of whether he is acting on the right or wrong principle? […] If a philosophy is inapplicable to reality, it is simply not a philosophy. If, however, he accepts a philosophy as correct and true, then acts against it—he can only bring disaster upon himself and achieve the exact opposite of what he is after. »
• PEIKOFF Leonard, Philosophy: Who Needs It, op. cit., « Introduction », p. viii : « To Ayn Rand, philosophy is not a senseless parade of abstractions created to fill out the ritual at cocktail parties or in Sunday morning services. It is not a ponderous Continental wail of futility resonating with Oriental overtones. It is not a chess game divorced from reality designed by British professors for otherwise unemployable colleagues. To Ayn Rand, philosophy is the fundamental factor in human life; it is the basic force that shapes the mind and character of men and the destiny of nations. »
• GOTTHELF Allan, On Ayn Rand (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Thomson Learning, 2000), « Introduction », p. 8 : « “Formally, I call it Objectivism,” Ayn Rand liked to say, “but informally I call it a philosophy for living on earth.” In fact, her working title for a planned book on her system was: Objectivism: A Philosophy for Living on Earth. This statement reflected several sentiments—that philosophy serves a central and practical human need, that this role is philosophy’s very reason for being… »

[32:11] Citation de Thomas d’Aquin

• Commentaire du Traité Du ciel d’Aristote, Livre I, Leçon 22  « L’univers est-il éternel ? Opinion de Platon. », traduction de Barbara Ferré (2009). [Lisible en ligne.] En latin original : « … studium philosophiae non est ad hoc quod sciatur quid homines senserint, sed qualiter se habeat veritas rerum. »

[32:36] Le philosophe devrait écrire de la fiction

• « To the Readers of The Fountainhead » (1945), dans Letters of Ayn Rand, op. cit., « Appendix », p. 671″ : « I have been asked why I chose to present a philosophy of ethics in fiction form. I am interested in philosophical principles only as they affect the actual existence of men; and in men, only as they reflect philosophical principles. An abstract theory that has no relation to reality is worse than nonsense; and men who act without relation to principles are less than animals. Those who say that theory and practice are two unrelated realms are fools in one and scoundrels in the other. I wanted to present my abstract theory where it belongs—in concrete reality—in the actions of men. »
• BRANDEN Barbara, Principles of Efficient Thinking (conférence du NBI, 1962, reproduite dans Think as if Your Life Depends on It), « The Conceptual Level of Consciousness (Part 1) » : « It was once suggested that philosophy would return to sanity, if philosophers would put down their ideas in the dramatized form of fiction —i.e., if they would dramatize and concretize their ideas, showing by that means what their ideas mean in action and in human life. This, of course, is precisely what intellectuals fail to do. Their intellectual universe, too often, consists of ideas floating somewhere in space. »

[32:54] Séries de conférences de Nathaniel Branden

• Ces conférences sont aujourd’hui disponibles sur YouTube : The Basic Principles of Objectivism.

[34:10] Cours de L. Peikoff approuvée par Rand

• The Philosophy of Objectivism (Ayn Rand Institute) ou sur YouTube.
• « A Last Survey », part II, (1976), dans The Ayn Rand Letter, vol. IV, n°3, p. 3 : « I call your particular attention to Leonard Peikoff’s lecture course on The Philosophy of Objectivism. This course does not start until September, but it is to be a memorable event. It will be a systematic presentation of my philosophy, from metaphysics through esthetics, intended for informed students of Objectivism, given by a teacher who has demonstrated a matchless ability to present ideas clearly and dramatically. until or unless I write a comprehensive treatise on my philosophy, Dr. Peikoff’s course is the only authorized presentation ‘of the entire theoretical structure of Objectivism, i.e., the only one that I know of my own knowledge to be fully accurate. »

[34:32] OPAR comme source « quasi-première »

• SALMIERI Gregory, « An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand » dans A Companion to Ayn Rand, op. cit., 2016, chap. 1, p. 9 : « Because of its origins in this course, and because of Peikoff’s close intellectual relationship with Rand over the course of 30 years, OPAR can be seen as a quasi-primary source for Objectivism — a sort of extension or supplement to Rand’s corpus. »

[34:42] Livres recommandés

• PEIKOFF Leonard, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (New York, Dutton), 1991.
• GOTTHELF Allan et SALMIERI Gregory (dir.), A Companion to Ayn Rand (Chichester / Malden, MA : John Wiley & Sons) 2016.