The Opening Reception is included in all week passes. It will be available for sale for day pass holders later this spring.

Concepts, though fundamental, are only tools—only means to an end. The end is the practical, productive, rational use of your mind to achieve your values, secure your survival, and enhance your life. That is the topic of this course: four classes on using concepts to think—to think in the way that reaches rational conclusions.

Thinking is in sentences—i.e., propositions. Combining theory with homework exercises, two classes contrast the logical and the illogical way to form propositions, then two classes deal with integrating propositions to reach new identifications of facts—i.e., induction and deduction.

Exercises will cover: propositions vs. pseudo-propositions; the fallacies of the stolen concept and self-exclusion; clear vs. vague, ambiguous, and crow-busting sentences; the categorical syllogism; the hypothetical syllogism; the five rules of validity; how to induce; and inductive fallacies.

Class 1: Logic and Propositions: Theory Propositions as the whole purpose of concepts; the “trans-temporal” nature of propositions; classifying propositions by their relation to reality: the true, the false, and the defective; three sources of defective propositions; the concept of “truth,” and how it differs from “knowledge” and “fact.” Propositional fallacies: stolen concept, self-exclusion, pure self-reference. Homework exercises on these fallacies.

In this talk, Dr. Adalja provides a guided tour of some of the most game-changing innovations that are on the horizon in the field of infectious disease. Using the field of infectious disease as a backdrop, he discusses such topics as the microbiome, universal flu vaccines, CRISPR-CAS gene editing, bacteriophages, antimicrobial resistance, and immunotherapies. He also discusses the topic of regulation in this field and how it may impact innovation.

Concepts, though fundamental, are only tools—only means to an end. The end is the practical, productive, rational use of your mind to achieve your values, secure your survival, and enhance your life. That is the topic of this course: four classes on using concepts to think—to think in the way that reaches rational conclusions.

Thinking is in sentences—i.e., propositions. Combining theory with homework exercises, two classes contrast the logical and the illogical way to form propositions, then two classes deal with integrating propositions to reach new identifications of facts—i.e., induction and deduction.

Exercises will cover: propositions vs. pseudo-propositions; the fallacies of the stolen concept and self-exclusion; clear vs. vague, ambiguous, and crow-busting sentences; the categorical syllogism; the hypothetical syllogism; the five rules of validity; how to induce; and inductive fallacies.

Class 2: Logic and Propositions: Practice Analysis of homework exercises. Background for class 3 on deduction: the four traditional types of proposition—A, E, I, and O—and why only A and E are essential in thinking.

Light opera had existed for generations as popular entertainment. After World War I, however, American composers brought new idioms such as ragtime and jazz to theaters, replacing European conventions with an American musical style more suited to 20th-century society, less hidebound by past tradition. This class examines two of the earliest landmarks of this new style, Showboat (1927) and Oklahoma (1943), in particular the way in which they each integrated all the aspects of musical theater in new ways.

Do you select actions because they help you to achieve values (“motivation by love”) or avoid disvalues (“motivation by fear”)? The same action can lead to happiness or suffering depending on your reason for taking it. You will learn: • The full meaning of “motivation by love” and its antithesis “motivation by fear” • The need to act from “motivation by love,” i.e., with the achievement of your values as your primary focus • How to switch to a values-focus when you spot “motivation by fear”.

Behaviorism—the idea that all learning occurs via stimulus-response associations—arose to counter Victorian psychology, was championed in Soviet Russia to create a New Soviet Man, and influenced generations of Americans. A philosophical critique of behaviorism has been presented by Ayn Rand and others, but few know the scientific critique. In this talk, Dr. Opfer reviews experimental research that critically undermined the behaviorist theory and supported the most important development in the history of psychology—the cognitive revolution.

Concepts, though fundamental, are only tools—only means to an end. The end is the practical, productive, rational use of your mind to achieve your values, secure your survival, and enhance your life. That is the topic of this course: four classes on using concepts to think—to think in the way that reaches rational conclusions.

Thinking is in sentences—i.e., propositions. Combining theory with homework exercises, two classes contrast the logical and the illogical way to form propositions, then two classes deal with integrating propositions to reach new identifications of facts—i.e., induction and deduction.

Exercises will cover: propositions vs. pseudo-propositions; the fallacies of the stolen concept and self-exclusion; clear vs. vague, ambiguous, and crow-busting sentences; the categorical syllogism; the hypothetical syllogism; the five rules of validity; how to induce; and inductive fallacies.

Class 3: Logic and Inference: Deduction What inference is and why it has usurped the whole subject of logic; the syllogism; the five rules of the syllogism; how many valid forms of the syllogism are there—17 or 2?; the enthymeme; the hypothetical syllogism and its two valid forms; the only formal fallacy that people need to be taught.

Light opera had existed for generations as popular entertainment. After World War I, however, American composers brought new idioms such as ragtime and jazz to theaters, replacing European conventions with an American musical style more suited to 20th-century society, less hidebound by past tradition. This class examines two of the earliest landmarks of this new style, Showboat (1927) and Oklahoma (1943), in particular the way in which they each integrated all the aspects of musical theater in new ways.

Morality is widely seen as a counterweight to self-interest, and it is often thought that adherence to esthetic principles constrains the artist’s ability to express himself and an audience’s ability to respond in a genuinely personal way. On this common view, principles are opposed to personal values. In this talk, Dr. Salmieri explores Rand’s contrary view that principles identify what makes personal values possible and that adhering to them enables an individual to value on a grand scale.

A New Textbook of Americanism: The Politics of Ayn Rand (2018) presents Rand’s distinctive philosophical conception of “Americanism” and shows why it is so urgently needed today. This panel features contributors to the book. Elan Journo will moderate this lunch event.

Concepts, though fundamental, are only tools—only means to an end. The end is the practical, productive, rational use of your mind to achieve your values, secure your survival, and enhance your life. That is the topic of this course: four classes on using concepts to think—to think in the way that reaches rational conclusions.

Thinking is in sentences—i.e., propositions. Combining theory with homework exercises, two classes contrast the logical and the illogical way to form propositions, then two classes deal with integrating propositions to reach new identifications of facts—i.e., induction and deduction.

Exercises will cover: propositions vs. pseudo-propositions; the fallacies of the stolen concept and self-exclusion; clear vs. vague, ambiguous, and crow-busting sentences; the categorical syllogism; the hypothetical syllogism; the five rules of validity; how to induce; and inductive fallacies.

Class 4: Logic and Inference: Induction Induction as the primary form of inference; why deduction presupposes induction; the “problem of induction”; Peikoff’s solution; inductive fallacies; final survey: overview of all logic.

Once acclaimed as the heir apparent to Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff fled Soviet Russia in 1918 only to discover that Western music critics and intellectuals had begun to reject the Romantic voice of his youth. This series, through lecture, recorded examples, and live performance examines the post–World War I climate that Rachmaninoff encountered—and his heroic struggle against those forces.

One essential condition of fulfillment and happiness is the philosophic conviction that your life belongs to you. But it is only a condition. A truly fulfilled and happy life requires a sense of meaning. How to achieve that meaning is a question for which we have few tried-and-true, culturally established answers. Thankfully, one resource we do have for answering that question, or even knowing how to go about considering it, is great art. This talk explores how classic literature can contribute to the vital quest for meaning.

Foundations of a Free Society: Reflections on Ayn Rand’s Political Philosophy (2019) is an in-depth philosophic exploration of Rand’s advocacy of capitalism. The book relates her ideas to contemporary and historical debates, and particularly the views of other thinkers seen as defending individual liberty and free markets. This panel moderated by Elan Journo features contributors to the book.

John Keats lived a tragically short and miserably tragic life, and yet in his twenty-five years he wrote poetry that has brought insight, joy and beauty to readers for centuries. This talk weaves together the story of Keats’s life with some of his most beautiful works of poetry. Though what happiness Keats enjoyed was fleeting, he left an enduring legacy of art that can contribute powerfully to ours.

Concepts, though fundamental, are only tools—only means to an end. The end is the practical, productive, rational use of your mind to achieve your values, secure your survival, and enhance your life. That is the topic of this course: four classes on using concepts to think—to think in the way that reaches rational conclusions.

Thinking is in sentences—i.e., propositions. Combining theory with homework exercises, two classes contrast the logical and the illogical way to form propositions, then two classes deal with integrating propositions to reach new identifications of facts—i.e., induction and deduction.

Exercises will cover: propositions vs. pseudo-propositions; the fallacies of the stolen concept and self-exclusion; clear vs. vague, ambiguous, and crow-busting sentences; the categorical syllogism; the hypothetical syllogism; the five rules of validity; how to induce; and inductive fallacies.

Class 5: Course Q&A

Once acclaimed as the heir apparent to Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff fled Soviet Russia in 1918 only to discover that Western music critics and intellectuals had begun to reject the Romantic voice of his youth. This series, through lecture, recorded examples, and live performance examines the post–World War I climate that Rachmaninoff encountered—and his heroic struggle against those forces.

In the Romantic Manifesto, Ayn Rand reports that before she heard the name “Aristotle,” she had accepted his principle “that fiction is of greater philosophical importance than history, because history represents things only as they are, while fiction represents them ‘as they might be and ought to be.’” The aim of this talk is to explain the role of this principle in Aristotle’s esthetics and Ayn Rand’s, and to note other parallels between the Poetics and Romantic Manifesto.