Nathaniel's lectures on Basic Principles of Objectivism


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I'm interesting in knowing what Leonard Peikoff said when he gave the "Concept of God" lecture because the doctrine of the arbitrary assertion plays a fairly important role in that lecture.

And not much later, Dr. Peikoff would start saying things about arbitrary assertions that Nathaniel Branden hadn't said.

Robert Campbell

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Robert; What Peikoff has to say in OPAR does not seem too different from my memory of lecture four.

Reidy; Thanks for confirming my memory of the lecturers in the Basic course.

Roger; What does Nathan say about the Basic Psycholgy course today?

I must add that it would be fun to see a transcipt of the Basic course.

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Robert; What Peikoff has to say in OPAR does not seem too different from my memory of lecture four.

Reidy; Thanks for confirming my memory of the lecturers in the Basic course.

Roger; What does Nathan say about the Basic Psycholgy course today?

I must add that it would be fun to see a transcipt of the Basic course.

Chris,

I'll review OPAR and Lecture 4 of BPO again, for similarites or differences.

Robert,

Are you implying, then, that Peikoff likely wrote the content of Lecture 4 that later appeared in Branden's recording of BPO? I would be surprised, but I will look closer. The style of the lecture seems "straight Branden," rather than Peikoff. But, I'll look again.

Chris, Roger:

My NBI brochure on Branden's "Basic Principles of Objectivist Psychology" shows lecture titles and summaries that closely match the Chapter titles of Branden's later book, The Psychology of Self-Esteem."

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Jerry,

No, I don't think that Leonard Peikoff wrote the Lecture 4 that is in the currently available recordings of Basic Principles of Objectivism. No way, José... The affinity between that Lecture 4 and Nathaniel Branden's 1963 Objectivist Newsletter article on agnosticism is obvious; some passages are word-for-word identical.

Dr. Peikoff's treatments of "the arbitrary" with which I am familiar (starting with his 1976 lectures on "Principles of Objectivism") are obviously descended from Dr. Branden's, but are quite different in detail.

For instance, Dr. Branden's recorded Lecture 4 does not make the claim that an arbitrary assertion is neither true nor false. Dr. Peikoff's 1976 lectures (plus everything of his that I am familiar with since that date) do claim that "arbitrary" is a third truth value.

According to Bill Dwyer, Dr. Peikoff was already making the neither-true-nor-false claim in his own 1965 or 1966 lectures on "Objectivism's Theory of Knowledge," which is one reason why I would like to know more about Dr. Peikoff's reported guest lecture in the 1966 Basic Principles series.

Robert Campbell

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Well, these discussions about the contents, possible change in lecturers, and so on, about Nathaniel Branden's Basic Principles of Objectivism (BPO), and the need for an annotated (and indexed) printed version, seems to go on and on. And on.

Everyone seems interested (with the possible exception of TAS), yet everyone is "passing the ball around, but no one decides to make a run at the hoop "(or, if they did, they got blocked). This, of course, includes me, since I am not a touch-typist, which would make creating a viable transcription quite impractical. Unless you consider "about 10 years," practical. This reluctance is quite understandable, but nothing gets done...[Jerry discusses certain "roadblocks" to a printed version of BPO]...So, will you ever see Basic Principles of Objectivism as a printed book? Probably not. Maybe your children. Or their great grandchildren. But I am open to hearing suggestions as to how this currently non-existent project could be successfully completed....Anyone?

Jerry -- and everyone -- please be patient. I am just as anxious to see this very worthy philosophical and historical document become published as you are. Just be aware that there is a very real possibility that BPO may see print in the next year or two. Some very important people are intensely interested in carrying this project forward.

I am not at liberty to discuss details at this time, but a transcription of BPO is in progress at this time, and the first lecture is already completed. (At the present rate of progress, I would like to say that 6 months is a bit more likely than 10 years for completing the transcription.) :cheer:

In about 6 weeks, I will be meeting with Dr. Branden and discussing the possible updating/annotating/indexing that would be needed (or desired) for a useful and publishable printed version of BPO. It's possible we will discuss these matters sooner, though I really can't say anything further about it right now. Stay tuned!

Best to all,

REB

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  • 3 weeks later...
Let me add I hope they get transcribed too. I heard rumours that someone has done that. I think it would be interesting to compare with OPAR Peikoff's Objectivism The Philosphy of AYn Rand.

Problem is, even if someone has done it, they can't sell the transcription without violating copyright.

On the other hand, every time I ask about making it available, whoever I ask says it's "Too much trouble". Surely someone could get those two parties together?

Judith

Judith,

Thanks to the copyright lawyer for mentioning copyrights.

For everyone's information, Dr. Branden gave the audio series, "The Basic Principles of Objectivism," to The Objectivist Center, including a mint condition set of the vinyls. We had the vinyls digitally remastered by a professional audio firm in New York City and sell them in CD form in The Objectivism Store. Recently we converted the series to MP3 and sell iPods bundled with the MP3 files.

We still have some work to do with the audio quality. Dr. Branden has complained that a few of the lectures apparently are recorded too slowly, so they drag and make his voice sound deeper and slower than it really is. With around 20 discs, it will take some time to evaluate them to see which need to be reworked. That remains one of the projects that I will have to postpone until after I retire late this spring.

As for transcription to text, I agree wholeheartedly that it should be done. We already have a program targeting selected audio classics for transcription and publication as books. Because we are using a few volunteers, it is going slowly. But as you can imagine, the 24 hours of audio represented by The Basic Principles of Objectivism is a daunting task. I am hoping that the audio-to-text computer programs improve enough in the next year so that we can us that technology to give us a jump start.

We are developing our MP3 download capability at the Store. But being from the old school, I would like to see much of our summer seminar audio reduced to text. The written word has the permanence to survive the ages. We probably have 200 hours of lectures in our archives that are of sufficient quality and lend themselves to that medium.

If anyone wants to work with us to accelerate the publication of a book of the lectures, we would welcome your participation.

Gene Holloway

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Let me add I hope they get transcribed too. I heard rumours that someone has done that. I think it would be interesting to compare with OPAR Peikoff's Objectivism The Philosphy of AYn Rand.

Problem is, even if someone has done it, they can't sell the transcription without violating copyright.

On the other hand, every time I ask about making it available, whoever I ask says it's "Too much trouble". Surely someone could get those two parties together?

Judith

Judith,

Thanks to the copyright lawyer for mentioning copyrights.

For everyone's information, Dr. Branden gave the audio series, "The Basic Principles of Objectivism," to The Objectivist Center, including a mint condition set of the vinyls. We had the vinyls digitally remastered by a professional audio firm in New York City and sell them in CD form in The Objectivism Store. Recently we converted the series to MP3 and sell iPods bundled with the MP3 files.

We still have some work to do with the audio quality. Dr. Branden has complained that a few of the lectures apparently are recorded too slowly, so they drag and make his voice sound deeper and slower than it really is. With around 20 discs, it will take some time to evaluate them to see which need to be reworked. That remains one of the projects that I will have to postpone until after I retire late this spring.

As for transcription to text, I agree wholeheartedly that it should be done. We already have a program targeting selected audio classics for transcription and publication as books. Because we are using a few volunteers, it is going slowly. But as you can imagine, the 24 hours of audio represented by The Basic Principles of Objectivism is a daunting task. I am hoping that the audio-to-text computer programs improve enough in the next year so that we can us that technology to give us a jump start.

We are developing our MP3 download capability at the Store. But being from the old school, I would like to see much of our summer seminar audio reduced to text. The written word has the permanence to survive the ages. We probably have 200 hours of lectures in our archives that are of sufficient quality and lend themselves to that medium.

If anyone wants to work with us to accelerate the publication of a book of the lectures, we would welcome your participation.

Gene Holloway

Gene -- as I mentioned several posts ago, a transcription of BPO is underway, and two of the lectures have been completed as of this date. :cheer: :cheer:

Without going into too much detail, I can certainly say that I am actively interested in working with whoever has the legal rights to publishing the lectures in ~printed~ form.

My question is: granted that Nathaniel apparently granted TOC/TAS the right to market ~audio~ versions of the lectures, did he also extend to TOC/TAS the right to market a ~print~ version of the lectures? Was this made explicit, or just assumed?

I would appreciate hearing back from you on this at your earliest convenience. And please feel free to call me at home tomorrow (Wednesday), if you like. I'll be around most of the day. (My phone number should be on file at TOC/TAS; I live in Orange, CA.)

Best,

Roger Bissell

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Gene,

This is great news!

I've noticed that some segments of the CDs currently sold by The Atlas Society need a speed correction. This is easily accomplished with current technology.

I will be happy to put some time in transcribing lectures from this series. I have transcribed a couple of sections from two lectures for research purposes. I ran into no difficulties.

Robert Campbell

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Gene,

This is great news!

I've noticed that some segments of the CDs currently sold by The Atlas Society need a speed correction. This is easily accomplished with current technology.

I will be happy to put some time in transcribing lectures from this series. I have transcribed a couple of sections from two lectures for research purposes. I ran into no difficulties.

Robert Campbell

At the 2005 TAS Summer Seminar, at the Q&A session after Nathaniel Branden's presentation, in his response to my question about a print version of BPO, he made that comment about the different tone and pitch in some of the CD lectures, as compared to the Academic Associates LP vinyl recordings of the lectures.

I must say that I found that comment somewhat puzzling, since I have both the LP and the CD sets. When I have compared selections from each, I do not hear any difference in the tone or pitch in the CD versions. Does anyone know which CD recorded lectures that Dr. Branden was referring to? (Of course, if the BPO is transcribed to print, the purported tone/pitch difference is no longer a problem. In which case, "Never mind"!).

By the way, are there two transcription projects going on, simultaneously? From their comments, it could be interpreted that both Gene and Roger are doing separate projects. Also, I think that Gene was including Branden's BPO among other transcription projects that TAS is working on, or planning to work on. So, is it one BPO transcription project, or two? Are there timelines for completion of the project(s)?

And finally, to assuage my own sense of exasperation with an injection of skeptical sarcasm, I pose this rhetorical question:

Will 22nd century scholars of intellectual history, find fertile ground in the comparisons of the role of myth and legend in the development of 21st century Objectivism, using as examples, the "almost-but-never-quite-here," repetitive nature of the Atlas Shrugged film projects, the BPO and the LSO books, The DIM Hypothesis, and, of course. the "Great Expectation:" the ARIan "counter-revolution" in physics, supplanting Leonard Peikoff for Einstein? Just asking.

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By the way, are there two transcription projects going on, simultaneously? From their comments, it could be interpreted that both Gene and Roger are doing separate projects. Also, I think that Gene was including Branden's BPO among other transcription projects that TAS is working on, or planning to work on. So, is it one BPO transcription project, or two? Are there timelines for completion of the project(s)?

Jerry, I don't know whether TAS/TOC currently has anyone transcribing BPO. He just indicated that they were targeting certain "classic" lectures, not whether Branden's series was ~currently~ being worked on. We hope to get some clarity in the next several days on this and the legal/property issues surrounding the lectures.

At my current rate of work on the transcriptions I am doing, I will have the 20 BPO lectures finished by fall 2008. But I am temporarily putting that work on hold, until it is clear that we are not duplicating efforts.

REB

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Let me add I hope they get transcribed too. I heard rumours that someone has done that. I think it would be interesting to compare with OPAR Peikoff's Objectivism The Philosphy of AYn Rand.

Problem is, even if someone has done it, they can't sell the transcription without violating copyright.

On the other hand, every time I ask about making it available, whoever I ask says it's "Too much trouble". Surely someone could get those two parties together?

Judith

Judith,

Thanks to the copyright lawyer for mentioning copyrights.

For everyone's information, Dr. Branden gave the audio series, "The Basic Principles of Objectivism," to The Objectivist Center, including a mint condition set of the vinyls. We had the vinyls digitally remastered by a professional audio firm in New York City and sell them in CD form in The Objectivism Store. Recently we converted the series to MP3 and sell iPods bundled with the MP3 files.

We still have some work to do with the audio quality. Dr. Branden has complained that a few of the lectures apparently are recorded too slowly, so they drag and make his voice sound deeper and slower than it really is. With around 20 discs, it will take some time to evaluate them to see which need to be reworked. That remains one of the projects that I will have to postpone until after I retire late this spring.

As for transcription to text, I agree wholeheartedly that it should be done. We already have a program targeting selected audio classics for transcription and publication as books. Because we are using a few volunteers, it is going slowly. But as you can imagine, the 24 hours of audio represented by The Basic Principles of Objectivism is a daunting task. I am hoping that the audio-to-text computer programs improve enough in the next year so that we can us that technology to give us a jump start.

We are developing our MP3 download capability at the Store. But being from the old school, I would like to see much of our summer seminar audio reduced to text. The written word has the permanence to survive the ages. We probably have 200 hours of lectures in our archives that are of sufficient quality and lend themselves to that medium.

If anyone wants to work with us to accelerate the publication of a book of the lectures, we would welcome your participation.

Gene Holloway

Gene -- as I mentioned several posts ago, a transcription of BPO is underway, and two of the lectures have been completed as of this date.

Without going into too much detail, I can certainly say that I am actively interested in working with whoever has the legal rights to publishing the lectures in ~printed~ form.

My question is: granted that Nathaniel apparently granted TOC/TAS the right to market ~audio~ versions of the lectures, did he also extend to TOC/TAS the right to market a ~print~ version of the lectures? Was this made explicit, or just assumed?

I would appreciate hearing back from you on this at your earliest convenience. And please feel free to call me at home tomorrow (Wednesday), if you like. I'll be around most of the day. (My phone number should be on file at TOC/TAS; I live in Orange, CA.)

Best,

Roger Bissell

Roger,

I checked into the copyright issues and Dr. Branden owns the basic copyright. TAS just has the audio distribution rights. Please let us know if you have any ideas about how we can support this valuable transcription effort.

Regards,

Gene

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Roger,

I checked into the copyright issues and Dr. Branden owns the basic copyright. TAS just has the audio distribution rights. Please let us know if you have any ideas about how we can support this valuable transcription effort.

Regards,

Gene

Gene, thanks for the clarification. That is certainly good news. Thanks for getting back to us so promptly about it.

We will be having a pow-wow about this very soon. Some options will be discussed, and some decisions will be made. We'll certainly stay in touch with you, in case there are ways we want to explore for working together with you TAS folks.

Best,

Roger

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Roger,

I checked into the copyright issues and Dr. Branden owns the basic copyright. TAS just has the audio distribution rights. Please let us know if you have any ideas about how we can support this valuable transcription effort.

Regards,

Gene

Gene, thanks for the clarification. That is certainly good news. Thanks for getting back to us so promptly about it.

We will be having a pow-wow about this very soon. Some options will be discussed, and some decisions will be made. We'll certainly stay in touch with you, in case there are ways we want to explore for working together with you TAS folks.

Best,

Roger

I am very happy to hear of this progress. Please keep us posted on OL.

Bill (Alfonso)

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On March 16 (last Sunday), I met with Nathaniel and several other people to discuss the tentative plans for a book on Basic Principles of Objectivism. We talked about possible additional contents and publishing options, pros and cons, etc. It was a very fruitful meeting, but I was under the impression that he was still some distance away from committing to the project.

Then, just yesterday (March 18), the following was posted on Nathaniel Branden's Blog, so I think it's OK for me to share it here:

In 1958, a few months after the publication of “Atlas Shrugged,” I created a 20 lecture program titled “Basic Priniciples of Objectivism” (the name of Rand’s philosophy) and offered it to the world where it became a major success. If you want to track the story this far, I think you would enjoy reading ‘My Years with Ayn Rand.”

If you want an update, 50 years later, I am happy to report that I am having the “Basic Principles” transcribed , converted to book form, and offered for purchase–later this year or early next year, depending how long it may take to find the right publisher.

Want to help? Spread the world about the new project. Tell your 600 closest most intimate friends.

That's really great news! I'm glad to hear that Nathaniel solidified his decision so quickly. I guess his transcriber had better get his tush in gear! But I'd say that he is asking a bit much of those of us who are introverts -- "your 600 closest, most intimate friends"? Yikes! :)

REB

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Roger,

Great news!

I will be happy to help with the transcribing.

When I did a little transcription from two of the Basic Principles lectures for a project of my own, I found them pretty quick and easy to handle.

Robert

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  • 3 weeks later...

On this, the occasion of Nathaniel's 78th birthday, I just want to say that, with the completion of Lecture 4, "The Concept of God," the transcription process is now 20% complete. :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Once Robert Campbell gets past crunch week, he will be working on Lecture 5, and once I get my taxes done, I will be proceeding with Lecture 6. So, onward! :thumbsup:

REB

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Now that the transcription of Barbara's lectures on principles of efficient thinking is completed, I am returning to my work on Nathaniel's lectures on basic principles of Objectivism.

Here is the tentative breakdown of who will be doing the remaining transcriptions:

Lectures 7-8 --- REB

Lectures 9-11 --- Robert Campbell

Lectures 12-15 --- REB [actually, 12-14 and 16]

Lectures 16-20 --- Jerry Biggers [actually, 15 and 17-20]

This is subject to change, as and when work loads and unexpected problems arise. But I am confident that we will finish the process by Labor Day of 08.

Isn't this exciting! :cheer:

REB

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Roger,

When do you want me to tell you and Robert I transcribed all these lectures 35 years ago?

--Brant

(edit) PS: Unfortunately when my boat sank off Fiji in 1983 the transcriptions were lost and we all died.

Edited by Brant Gaede
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  • 1 month later...

Thanks to the efforts of Jerry Biggers, we now add Lectures 17 and 18 (parts 1 and 2 of "Romanticism, Naturalism, and the Novels of Ayn Rand") to the list of BPO lectures that have been transcribed. Counting those along with Lectures 1-6, we are now at 40% completion of the transcription project! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Work continues...

REB

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am very pleased to announce that as of this weekend, we will be three lectures closer to the completion of the transcription process. Jerry Biggers has forwarded to me his transcription of Lecture 15 (Common Fallacies about Capitalism), and he is putting the finishing touches on Lectures 19 and 20. At that point, we will be at the 55% completion point (11 of 20 being completed).

I have been very busy the past 6 weeks, so my own transcription work has been on hold, but beginning August 1, I will dive back in and attempt to finish my assigned six lectures by Labor Day. I'm hoping Robert Campbell will be able to do the same with his three assigned lectures.

Here is the revised breakdown of who will be doing the remaining transcriptions:

Lectures 7-8 --- REB

Lectures 9-11 --- Robert Campbell

Lectures 12-14, 16 --- REB

Lectures 15, 19-20 --- Jerry Biggers

So, huzzah for Nathaniel, and huzzah for all of us who have rolled up our sleeves to bring this remarkable material a BIG step closer to publication! :cheer:

REB

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