How to study Ayn Rand's Philosophy

A guide for beginners.

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[benjaminwilliams]

In my journey through trying to understand Objectivism, I have personally found Leonard Peikoff's work to be more helpful than Ayn Rand's work. I think the reason I find it more useful in terms of understanding the philosophy is due to both him having experience learning as opposed to innovating/creating the philosophy, and his many decades being a teacher which helped him to understand how to communicate and present ideas in order to have the maximum clarity and understanding among learners/students.

[radiantchristina]

Thank you for this video. I want to start reading her and had no idea where to start

[theindividual]

A mentor of mine read a passage from a book he gave me when I was 18. That was The Fountainhead. That's where I discovered Ayn Rand. Then I went to Atlas Shrugged, then Anthem.

Then I went to Philosophy Who Needs It, Virtue of Selfishness, The Voice of Reason. Then I followed the rest.

Starting with the novels are better IMO. Because you'll have examples of the objectivist philosophy in action through fiction.

[Jazzper]

I think Atlas Shrugged is pretty heavy. I think most people would not understand it for the first time, where as The Fountainhead is a more easy read.

[yagoisbored]

I started with The Virtue of Selfishness, I dont enjoy the novels much, only the fountainhead movie.

[Jazzper]

Of the non-fiction books, I would start with For The New Intellectual, Philosophy Who Needs It and The Virtue of Selfishness.

[tomhuisman]

My first exposure to Ayn Rand was "Atlas". I recall being so drawn into it, and couldn't wait to see what happens next. The "20th Century" scene you are animating is a fantastic metaphorical overview of our current world, and the more people who can be exposed to it, the better. Thank you!

[vijayamohandharmavaram]

To underatand Objectivism of Ayn Rand read "Philosophy who needs it" and "virtue of selfishness" followed by "Atlas Shrugged" and "fountain head"

[paulelder]

I prefer reading her works in the order written.

[bostoneventlighting]

I’ve found that Anthem is a great book to start with for people even though the fiction style is very different. It intrigues people and is less radical in a sense than her other novels.

[Xenonchannel]

Fountainhead. 100th like on your video ✔ Keep it up。

[marc]

I read them all in the same order as you suggested. I have reread most several times. Most recently We The Living for the second time in many years since the first. I really enjoyed it the second time around. My goal is to reread one novel and/or a non fiction work each year. I find February 2nd is a good time to start one of her books except for Atlas Shrugged which I usually start on September 2nd.

[TheFlameS]

Interesting, the first non-fiction book about Objectivism that I've read was OPAR. I thought it was pretty well explained. My mistake was reading that before The Fountainhead, because there are spoilers there.

[DmitryNegoda]

I started reading the Kindle version of Atlas before I realized how long it is... When I got to the point 'hey does it ever end?' it was too late - I was intrigued.

[colleagueriley]

Yes, the non-fiction teaches principal while the fiction shows concretion of the philosophy.

I’d say anthem is a good intro as it’d take about a week or less to finish it (depending on how you read it). Plus it’s far less intimidating than Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead as a start. But I guess it depends on the person and their motivation.