Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, expanded 2nd ed. with an additional essay by Leonard Peikoff (New York: NAL Books, 1990) New York: Meridian, 1990.
Man’s mind is able to grasp the atomic structure of water and the trajectory of a planet. What explains this enormous cognitive power, far outstripping that of any other animal? The key, Ayn Rand argues, is that man can form and use concepts.
In Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Rand introduces her theory of knowledge by means of its central feature, a new theory of the nature and formation of concepts. Along the way, she provides her fundamental answer to the Kantian turn in epistemology, offering a non-skeptical, non-mystical approach to knowledge.
The 1990 second edition contains edited transcripts of four workshops Rand conducted between 1969 and 1971 with professors and experts in philosophy, physics and mathematics. These extended conversations show Rand’s mind at work in real time, providing additional detail, examples, explanation and context for her theory.1