Objectivist Conferences

Optional Courses

All optional courses and the dance workshop are available in both Week 1 and Week 2 (with one exception), so "Both Weeks" attendees can maximize the number of courses they plan to attend. Optional courses are letter-coded (A-D, see Course Schedule in chart on next page) by daily time slot and duration. For instance, "A" courses meet four times during the week, 8:30-10 AM, for a total of six hours of class time. Remember that you can only select one of each (A-D) course each week, so if you want to attend more than one "A" course, for example, you must attend one in each week.

Number	Course Title	Presenter
GROUP A (W1=Week 1; W2=Week 2)	Four 90-minute sessions, 8:30-10:00 AM
A1W1 A1W2	The Elements of Thinking in Principles	Craig Biddle
A2W1 A2W2	The History of England (Part 1), 1066-1215	Andrew Lewis
A3W1 (first week only)	Three Great Greek Historians	John Lewis
A4W1 A4W2	Giuseppe Verdi: The Man and His Operas	Sandra Schwartz
GROUP B (W1=Week 1; W2=Week 2)	Three 90-minute sessions, 1:45-3:15 PM (except July 5)
B1W1 B1W2	Achilles, the Tortoise and the Objectivity of Mathematics	Pat Corvini
B2W1 B2W2	The Philosophy and Influence of Sir Francis Bacon	John McCaskey
B3W1 B3W2	Ayn Rand: Breathing Reason and Passion Back into Psychology	Ellen Kenner
B4W1 B4W2	Ayn Rand Centenary Lectures	Michael Berliner, Jeff Britting, Shoshana Milgram
GROUP C (W1=Week 1; W2=Week 2)	Five 60-minute sessions, 3:30-4:30 PM (except July 5)
C1W1 C1W2	The History of America (Part 4): The Industrial Republic, 1877-1920	Eric Daniels
C2W1 C2W2	Postmodernism	Robert Garmong
C3W1 C3W2	Wal-Mart: The Story of the World's Greatest Retailer	Edwin A. Locke
C4W1 C4W2	The Hierarchy of Knowledge	Greg Salmieri
GROUP D (W1=Week 1; W2=Week 2)	Five 60-minute sessions, 4:45-5:45 PM (except July 5)
D1W1 D1W2	The Impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on the Industrial Revolution	Andrew Bernstein
D2W1 D2W2	"Check Your Premises": A Practical Guide for the Active Mind	Lee Pierson
D3W1 D3W2	The Sublime Art: An Introduction to the Elements of Poetry	Jason Rheins
D4W1 D4W2	Money, Banking and the Business Cycle	Brian Simpson
Dance Workshop (W1=Week 1; W2=Week 2)	Two 90-minute sessions, 6:00-7:30 PM
DW1, DW2	Foxtrot	Marilyn George and Ted Gray

Ayn Rand's cognitive clarity and moral certainty were consequences of her thinking in principles. Thinking in principles is, in essence, a process of identifying relevant fundamentals and applying them properly to a given situation. This course will examine and concretize crucial components of this method, emphasizing the practical, life-or-death implications of each.

We will discuss the nature, importance and interrelationships of: naming one's primaries, excluding the middle, classifying by essentials, respecting hierarchy, keeping context and dismissing the arbitrary. Using a wide variety of examples, we will see how—when properly understood and applied—these elements unify into the whole that is the hallmark of objectivity: the method of thinking in principles. Attendees will increase their understanding of what is involved in this vital method, which will better equip them to pursue their values, promote their lives and protect their rights. (The course presupposes an intermediate-level understanding of Objectivist epistemology and ethics.)

England's political history is a laboratory for experiments on the limits of political power. From the arrival of William the Conqueror, the English have tried to control the power of their kings. In so doing, they have provided valuable information about the conditions necessary to protect individual liberty. This course, the first in a series of courses, traces the early results of the English attempts to rein in their monarchs.

This course begins with an overview of the state of England in 1066, including the significance of its geographic isolation, and the legacies of the Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions. It will identify the significant and distinctive reforms instituted by William (and his heirs), the changing nature of feudal society, and introduce the important dynastic disputes, the conflict between Church and state, and the origins of the feud between England and France. It will culminate with an examination of the Magna Charta.

Men have always been concerned with the past, often to maintain their traditions, to venerate their gods or to remember the deeds of their rulers. But the Greeks were the first to write history systematically. This course will begin by describing how the ancients first approached historical writing, in the genres of genealogy, mythography, chronography and "local history." The next three classes turn to the historians Herodotus, Thucydides and Polybius, who organized their treatises around a central integrating principle. Their explanations for why events happened established a causal view of history. The omnipresence of customs and laws in Herodotus, the nature of human nature in Thucydides and the power of virtue and of constitutions in Polybius constitute the themes of their histories and the essence of their historical principles. (Students should read the Penguin editions of Herodotus's Histories, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and Polybius's Rise of the Roman Empire.)

In the second half of the 19th century, there was only one name in Italian opera: Giuseppe Verdi. What made him and his operas so universally loved throughout his lifetime and a century after his death?

This course shows how the son of an innkeeper rose from a student rejected by the Milan Conservatory of Music to a peerless musical dramatist who revolutionized Italian opera. Unlike Wagner—the other giant of 19th-century opera—who wrote about gods, Verdi composed his scores about man. Utilizing the best theatrical material of the time, e.g., Shakespeare, Schiller, Hugo, Verdi gave his operas integrative power and emotional impact by centering them around a range of moral values—love, loyalty, friendship, justice, honor—all heightened by glorious melody. The course also shows how this independent man lived his life on his own terms, in his personal relationships, in his politics and in his art.

Philosophers and mathematicians alike have long misunderstood the relation of mathematics to the rest of human knowledge. Mathematical concepts are regarded as divorced from physical reality, yet mathematical conclusions are esteemed as the paradigm of certainty. This is a dangerous combination: it has facilitated centuries of attacks on man's means of knowledge. It comes from a failure to understand the nature of mathematical abstraction.

Thanks to Ayn Rand, we now have the tools needed for a proper understanding. In this course, Dr. Corvini uses easy-to-visualize examples (including the much-discussed race of Achilles and the tortoise) to explain the actual relation of a mathematical concept to physical concretes. She identifies the error that has obstructed men's understanding of this issue (and that underlies Zeno's paradox), and uses this insight to identify and evaluate the essence of several theories of modern mathematics. Her analysis highlights the importance and power of the Objectivist theory of concepts

B2W1, B2W2
The Philosophy and Influence of Sir Francis Bacon
John McCaskey

Thomas Jefferson said the three greatest minds that ever lived were Francis Bacon, John Locke and Isaac Newton. While most of us are familiar with the last two, few of us know much about Francis Bacon. This course will introduce students to the man who—at least until the early 20th century—was considered the philosophical father of modern science. Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin—virtually all scientists from the 1620s through the 1880s—believed that it was Bacon's introduction of the inductive method that made their successes possible. This course will look not only at Bacon's life and thought, but also his fame and subsequent fall from the philosophical pantheon in which he was once a prominent member.

B3W1, B3W2
Ayn Rand: Breathing Reason and Passion Back into Psychology
Ellen Kenner

A common refrain today is: "I tried therapy; I ended up more confused." Why? Lacking a proper philosophical basis, psychologists, whose goal is to help clients achieve mental health, are at risk of giving inconsistent or wrong advice. In contrast, Ayn Rand's rational philosophy provides a foundation that can enable therapists to untangle subconscious confusions and contradictions—giving one the methods, guidelines and basic premises to enjoy life.

Starting with a brief sampler of influential psychologists (their view of human nature and the therapy methods that resulted), this course explores how Ayn Rand's key philosophical discoveries, based on her view of human nature, not only expose why conventional psychology is often flawed and damaging, but how they can provide a true foundation for mental health and effective therapy methods. We will see how therapy methods informed by Objectivism can breathe reason and passion back into psychology and into your life.