March 17 – April 14, 2025

Join Harry Binswanger for a Master Class on

"The Objectivist Ethics" Part 1

Starting March 17th, Harry Binswanger will conduct a 4-week master class on the first half of Ayn Rand's essay "The Objectivist Ethics."

Price: $725

(Spouses can attend for free)

This is an intermediate to advanced level course appropriate for those with a good grasp of Objectivism who want to deepen their understanding of her revolutionary solution to the is-ought problem and of the foundations of egoism, generally.

Why this particular essay?

"The Objectivist Ethics" is an extraordinary achievement, even for Ayn Rand. In roughly 20 pages, she not only:

• puts forward "a new concept of egoism"
• shows that egoism is the base of individual rights
• connects rights to laissez-faire capitalism
• proves her moral code—something logically impossibile according to Hume and everyone since

but also:

• illustrates the "method of reduction"
• introduces the concept of "mental focus"
• ties focus to free will
• ties volitional focus to man's survival

Along the way, she adds in, almost as a bonus, definitions of "sensation," "perception," and "concept."

The essay breaks neatly in half: paragraphs 1 through 60 cover "meta-ethics," that is, the nature of morality as such and the proof of one's moral code. The second half of the essay explains the content of her egoist code. We stop with:

Man must choose his actions, values and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man—in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life.

This first half took Ayn Rand only 30 minutes to deliver (at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1961); this class will give 6 hours of lecture, plus 3 hours of Q&A, to fully grasp and appreciate its historic integrations.

In addition, the course has two sub-goals 1. to identify the essay's "mechanics"—Rand's startlingly original methodology; 2. how to confront the text—how to mine the subsurface gold that Rand's writing always contains.

The course experiments with a new format: short classes with more frequent meetings, to maintain the momentum. We will meet three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for half-hour classes (plus a Q & A of at least 15 minutes after each class). In order to maximize the value of the Q & A period, I will take only written questions (submitted through the "Chat" facility of Zoom or by email). This should prevent questions that are off-topic or not essentialized.

Schedule: 5:00 pm ET, March 17th through April 14th, excluding Monday, March 24th, per calendar below.

Yes, you can attend by listening to the recordings. The class will be presented live on Zoom. Video recordings will be available online, and audio-only recordings will be available in an easy-to-access podcast form.

Price: $725