A one-stop shop for Peikoff

[william.scherk]

I got a lovely email from the Estate of Peikoff this morning:

Now you can connect with Leonard Peikoff, the world's leading authority on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Because he is on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Get exclusive updates and postings on subjects covering reason, human relationships, career, individualism, and more. Be the first to know about Leonard's latest podcasts. Even interact with other independent thinkers like you.

Subscribe to his YouTube Channel and watch lectures and videos. Follow him on Twitter for regular tweets. Even like him on Facebook.

And say yes to living life.

[PDS]

I got a lovely email from the Estate of Peikoff this morning:

Now you can connect with Leonard Peikoff, the world's leading authority on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Because he is on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Get exclusive updates and postings on subjects covering reason, human relationships, career, individualism, and more. Be the first to know about Leonard's latest podcasts. Even interact with other independent thinkers like you.

Subscribe to his YouTube Channel and watch lectures and videos. Follow him on Twitter for regular tweets. Even like him on Facebook.

And say yes to living life.

"Say yes to living life", or loving life? What are we, amoebas?

I can hear Howard Roark telling Peter Keating now: "Say yes to living life, Petey, that's the ticket!" Now we have Ayn Rand's "world's greatest authority" channeling the good folks in the writing department at Hallmark. The dude never ceases to amaze.

[william.scherk]

"Say yes to living life", or loving life? What are we, amoebas?

I can hear Howard Roark telling Peter Keating now: "Say yes to living life, Petey, that's the ticket!" Now we have Ayn Rand's "world's greatest authority" channeling the good folks in the writing department at Hallmark. The dude never ceases to amaze.

On further investigation, I find out that the Twitter and Facebook accounts are maintained by a scribe. Scant and brief postings simply lead back to the online podcasts . . . which of course do not appear at Youtube. On his Youtube channels are videos from the dawn of time.

It might be fun if someone other than a functionary maintained his web presence, if we could engage the man himself. But, as seems obvious now, Peikoff doesn't quite understand the function of Facebook and Twitter for personal expressions and social engagement. In other words, the Man Himself does not bother visiting or commenting at these places. The sites merely glorify him.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Peikoff has already said he is not for immediate expression on the Internet, like on forums. because you can blurt out stuff.

I think it is reasonable to apply this to social media in general.

Make no mistake about it.

Leonard Peikoff is anti-blurt.

He is a blurt-buster.

Blurting is evil.

Michael

[Jonathan]

I got a lovely email from the Estate of Peikoff this morning:

Now you can connect with Leonard Peikoff, the world's leading authority on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Because he is on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Get exclusive updates and postings on subjects covering reason, human relationships, career...

That's one thing that I really love about Objectivist gurus like Peikoff, and guru-wannabes like Comrade Sonia. In their minds, their having studied Objectivism apparently somehow makes them experts in every field, and, despite having no education or training in the relevant fields, and despite their very public histories of being the absolute worst human beings in the world at "human relationships," and despite not really having anything that would actually qualify as a "career" in the real world, they're completely confident in believing that others should be flocking to them for advice on such subjects, and even paying for the advice!

J

[Brant Gaede]

I got a lovely email from the Estate of Peikoff this morning:

Now you can connect with Leonard Peikoff, the world's leading authority on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Because he is on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Get exclusive updates and postings on subjects covering reason, human relationships, career...

That's one thing that I really love about Objectivist gurus like Peikoff, and guru-wannabes like Comrade Sonia. In their minds, their having studied Objectivism apparently somehow makes them experts in every field, and, despite having no education or training in the relevant fields, and despite their very public histories of being the absolute worst human beings in the world at "human relationships," and despite not really having anything that would actually qualify as a "career" in the real world, they're completely confident in believing that others should be flocking to them for advice on such subjects, and even paying for the advice!

J

Oh, Sonia doesn't seem too bad with that. I don't listen to her podcasts, or anyone else's, but from what I've read she's not the embarrassment Peikoff has become. She did come a cropper, it would seem, to take up introspection. What does introspection have to do with "practical ethics?" Paying for advice? Well, don't pay. Those that do, that's their business. I don't quite get your take on them and '"human relationships.'" Regardless, they can hardly be "the worst human beings in the world" about them.

--Brant

[william.scherk]

That's one thing that I really love about Objectivist gurus like Peikoff, and guru-wannabes like Comrade Sonia. In their minds, their having studied Objectivism apparently somehow makes them experts in every field, and, despite having no education or training in the relevant fields, and despite their very public histories of being the absolute worst human beings in the world at "human relationships," and despite not really having anything that would actually qualify as a "career" in the real world, they're completely confident in believing that others should be flocking to them for advice on such subjects, and even paying for the advice!

Well, here is a treat for you, from the dawn of time, a skimped-out-on-visuals regurge of a radio interview with Mary Ann Sures: "What Is Art?" . . . Jonathan, part one of four!

Onward, Objectivism, to the technological advances of the splendid 20th Century!

[Jonathan]

That's one thing that I really love about Objectivist gurus like Peikoff, and guru-wannabes like Comrade Sonia. In their minds, their having studied Objectivism apparently somehow makes them experts in every field, and, despite having no education or training in the relevant fields, and despite their very public histories of being the absolute worst human beings in the world at "human relationships," and despite not really having anything that would actually qualify as a "career" in the real world, they're completely confident in believing that others should be flocking to them for advice on such subjects, and even paying for the advice!

Well, here is a treat for you, from the dawn of time, a skimped-out-on-visuals regurge of a radio interview with Mary Ann Sures: "What Is Art?" . . . Jonathan, part one of four!

Onward, Objectivism, to the technological advances of the splendid 20th Century!

Thanks, Bill. That's just deliciously pitiful.

Heh. Did you know that Rand is the only philosopher who has ever defined art?! I didn't know it! In fact, I was pretty sure that I had seen dozens of philolophers' definitions of art, but I must be mistaken because Sures says that Rand was the only one (at about 5:02 into the clip), so it must be true!!!

Absolutely pathetic.

J

[Brant Gaede]

How many philosophers do you have to read before you can conclude that Rand was the only philosopher to define "art?" Did Confusis say anything about this?

--Brant

confuzed

[Selene]

How many philosophers do you have to read before you can conclude that Rand was the only philosopher to define "art?" Did Confusis say anything about this?

--Brant

confuzed

Maybe Peikoff should check out this Aristotle dude...

Art is defined by Aristotle as the realization in external form of a true idea, and is traced back to that natural love of imitation which characterizes humans, and to the pleasure which we feel in recognizing likenesses. Art however is not limited to mere copying. It idealizes nature and completes its deficiencies: it seeks to grasp the universal type in the individual phenomenon. The distinction therefore between poetic art and history is not that the one uses meter, and the other does not. The distinction is that while history is limited to what has actually happened, poetry depicts things in their universal character. And, therefore, “poetry is more philosophical and more elevated than history.” Such imitation may represent people either as better or as worse than people usually are, or it may neither go beyond nor fall below the average standard. Comedy is the imitation of the worse examples of humanity, understood however not in the sense of absolute badness, but only in so far as what is low and ignoble enters into what is laughable and comic.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

[Jonathan]

From two seconds worth of Google searching:

Kant:

Art is “a kind of representation that is purposive in itself and, though without an end, nevertheless promotes the cultivation of the mental powers for sociable communication.”

R. G. Collingwood:

“By creating for ourselves an imaginary experience or activity, we express our emotions; and this is what we call art.”

J

[9thdoctor]

From two seconds worth of Google searching:

Yeah, well if you did some proper research you’d know that Google didn’t exist in 1996 when this show was taped. It’s your wicked sense of life born of your Kantian epistemology that leads you to incessantly smear and denounce the second most important philosopher since Aquinas. If this was OO I’d vote down your post.

[Brant Gaede]

After listening to a bit of that video it is obvious Peikoff is not senile today unless he was senile then.

As for Sures, I'm glad I didn't spend any money on her art course at NBI.

--Brant

[Rich Engle]

After listening to a bit of that video it is obvious Peikoff is not senile today unless he was senile then.

As for Sures, I'm glad I didn't spend any money on her art course at NBI.

--Brant

Senile dementia, or whatever he has, can only improve what was. I mean, at least you get a few more funnies out of it. He bursts, right? I can only imagine his house-servant/wife requests.

"After you're done emptying my Secret Colostomy bag and submitting it for the DNA research, hit the music genome project and upload my mix tape 1 (cassette) . . .you know, the one where I made the kewl transition from "Who Stole the Kishka" to Beethoven's Heroica... yeah, that bitch rocked. But hurry, because you have to put The Cream on me after that."

rde

Art is whatever the fuck I say it is.

Edited August 16, 2011 by Rich Engle

[Brant Gaede]

Art is whatever the fuck I say it is.

There's a good reason for that. It has to do with honoring the creative impulse, the flow. Crap is better than Soviet Realism or Nazi butalism.

--Brant

rules can be helpful and informative but not chains

[Rich Engle]

Art is whatever the fuck I say it is.

There's a good reason for that. It has to do with honoring the creative impulse, the flow. Crap is better than Soviet Realism or Nazi butalism.

--Brant

rules can be helpful and informative but not chains

Yup.

rde

Still wondering about what kind of cream.

[Brant Gaede]

"Objectivity" in art is up to the artist and the consumer of art. They can objectify it all they want. Or not. Most everybody else can yik and yak if they've not the good grace to bug out. Now, for the esthetician, not the critic, please give us your thoughts.

--Brant

[william.scherk]

Thanks, Bill. That's just deliciously pitiful.

Not all of his 36 Youtube videos are mere audio + photo. Some have the Dour Doctor young and fresh and vibrant, sounding just like (pre voice-training) Preston Manning, wearing an abundance of what we used to call Hockey Hair. Here's fifteen minutes of delight, from the last century, with a stunning 28 views:

Edited August 16, 2011 by william.scherk

[Brant Gaede]

Thanks, Bill. That's just deliciously pitiful.

Not all of his 36 Youtube videos are mere audio + photo. Some have the Dour Doctor young and fresh and vibrant, sounding just like Preston Manning, wearing what we used to call Hockey Hair. Here's fifteen minutes of delight, from the last century, with a stunning 28 views:

Good God! If I hadn't been assiduously avoiding him for decades this crap would have been dumped on me. This is the first time I've ever seen a blackboard used as an argument from authority. And his voice! He didn't sound so horrible 40 years ago. People paid money for this and then thought they'd got their money's worth? I suspect there was a drastic petering out of the paying customers. Philosophy as a ton of lead.

--Brant

I watched a minute or two--did it get any better?

[Selene]

Good grief!

I could only take :29 seconds then he used his left hand to write metaphysics and my brain and all my sensory organs screamed ...

ESCAPE NOW!

[Brant Gaede]

Good grief!

I could only take :29 seconds then he used his left hand to write metaphysics and my brain and all my sensory organs screamed ...

ESCAPE NOW!

Well, I tried again with the sound off. When he put up "Esthetics" as the fifth branch of philosophy, I killed the video. Why not also chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology, among others from your college catalog?

--Brant

[Selene]

Good grief!

I could only take :29 seconds then he used his left hand to write metaphysics and my brain and all my sensory organs screamed ...

ESCAPE NOW!

Well, I tried again with the sound off. When he put up "Esthetics" as the fifth branch of philosophy, I killed the video. Why not also chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology, among others from your college catalog?

--Brant

Brant, I cannot envision sitting in his class as a student. I can remember attending the first class, the midterm and the last class of a horrid professor. Got a B and even those three classes were stressful.

Peikoff is worse than the horrid professor. My heavens, has the man no shame?

Adam

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Well, I tried again with the sound off. When he put up "Esthetics" as the fifth branch of philosophy, I killed the video. Why not also chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology, among others from your college catalog?

Brant,

Why not a branch called human nature?

After all, philosophy is supposed to be for humans...

Michael

[studiodekadent]

Why not a branch called human nature?

I agree here. Meta-Anthropology is clearly more important than aesthetics; Objectivist arguments re. aesthetics are derived from a series of meta-anthropological positions.

On the other hand, Meta-Anthropology overlaps a lot with ethics and epistemology.

Pope Lenny is a self-aggrandizing fool so his little webpages don't particularly interest me whatsoever.

[Rich Engle]

Thanks, Bill. That's just deliciously pitiful.

Not all of his 36 Youtube videos are mere audio + photo. Some have the Dour Doctor young and fresh and vibrant, sounding just like Preston Manning, wearing what we used to call Hockey Hair. Here's fifteen minutes of delight, from the last century, with a stunning 28 views:

Good God! If I hadn't been assiduously avoiding him for decades this crap would have been dumped on me. This is the first time I've ever seen a blackboard used as an argument from authority. And his voice! He didn't sound so horrible 40 years ago. People paid money for this and then thought they'd got their money's worth? I suspect there was a drastic petering out of the paying customers. Philosophy as a ton of lead.

--Brant

I watched a minute or two--did it get any better?

I saw this a long time ago, along with most of whatever you could get your hands on. Speaking of whatever you can get your hands on, the real horror question is not what he's doing with his left hand--clearly, he was wearing the loose pants on purpose; so he could dive in and play a rousing game of "pocket pool." Sinister, Dexter. He had it all going on. I would've gone for a dark colour of trousers, in case of the embarrassing stain. But there was probably little risk of that.

rde

Jump ball over the two to sink the one in the left corner pocket.