He’s a great teacher.

A brilliant lecture and needless to say, as relevant now as when Dr Peikoff gave it.

what a treat, much thanks

24:40 Great point. I see this type of primacy of consciousness even in people who are not schizophrenic.

Awareness is the only constant of all experience what could be more fundamental to reality than that? Awareness is known by awareness alone.

Plato In his famous work The Republic, warns of the “Dangers of Art” for a very similar reason. The evolution of the art movement can be seen in Television and Cinematography, and it is fascinating to meditate upon and consider how the “war against the external world” as Mr. Peikoff put it, has come into fruition. There was an entire campaign Conducted by the Government called “Get out and Play” which was about encouraging children to turn off the television and Play outside. This highlights the successes of The arts, and the Subjectivist Ideal , which was so poignantly Expressed In Salvador Dali’s quote from the lecture. Very interesting topic.

Modernism is the unreson in our time.

He uses the term modernism, much more correctly, than Stephen Hicks does.

My thoughts on the frist 45 mins: I usually agree with Leonard Piekoff, but I happen to have lived with the mental illness he is "breaking down" and though he has a few points he got some things wrong and that concerns me. 1. The laughter: for me and many I know the laugh helps one to let off pressure, it is spontaneous and it is enjoyable, because it is stress relieving better even then the uncontrollable crying. The laughter is in part a response to the sensed (as in sense of life) "absurdness" of existence 2.the cryptic language: we often are afraid of expressing our thoughts and that creates a double bind, so we try to get around the blocks to self expression by being more creative. This can lead to hyperactive rambling as well in the long run, and to be fair even pleasure of revenge by being difficult, but much of the time it is a desperate attempt to explain ourselves safely, and the frustration of not being understood. 3.control of the outside world via mind control: for me philosophy did play a part but so did high alertness to coincidental events (the bad choice to use drugs heighten the alertness) these events disturbed me and lead to paranoia which lead to further breakdown and fear of my own mental activity because I began to believe my thoughts being read and reacted to by hidden agencies could then alone (without outward action) trigger external events. We people while suffering mentally illness don't nessarly think we have super powers , in fact it has made me feel very powerless to the world. (There is of course some particulars of mine which doesn't cover the nature of other people's illiness) Madness for me has been a struggle to find Rand's benevolent universe, in fact that search lead me to and fall in love with Rand's ideas, my illness in great part has been about being driven mad by a lack of mental protection (the kind given via a good orientation to reality, in this Piekoff is indeed right) protection from a power that didn't it's self follow an objective blueprint, and an attempt to move forward in life despite what can seem to be a unerverse that is a monster of supernatural connectivity (including tyrannical brain reading forces) a dark connectivity tearing the ground out of under any hierarchy that could give reasonable self-interest a chance (note: I understand this is due in part to the very real complexity of interconnective events and the limited human mind digesting it all in a anthropomorphic way). Hence a break with hierarchical knowledge is dangerous, that is the essence of piekoff's point (I think) and with that I agree, but this kind of madness is like drowning in difficult to understand features of reality, and difficult to express personal need a as one struggles to understand what appears non-logical in some sensible way and getting it all in a mess. Insanity isn't a choice even if born from bad choices, even if mended by better choices, and greater rational understanding of the hard to understand, it is a very painful and real confusion that can cost one so much. I like Piekoff but felt some anger and disillusion due to his attuide toward the mentally ill and treatment of this subject.

1:20:00 Mathematics should not be thought of as divorced from reality. This would make a great short clip. Most intellectuals today view mathematics as a field of platonic forms.

Joyless

"There is no concern with values in a Hollywood obsessed by chase scenes, special effects, with or without dinosaurs as an end in itself" Or trans pegging scenes as an end in itself

The mathematician at 1:19:00 is probably following the formalism of David Hilbert (among others), and guess who they followed in turn? Hint: the initials are I.K.

A survey of anti-essentialism and multi-perspectivism, among others. "Our reality includes our attempts to see it"

So... what about Postmodernism?

Modern art began with the camera, the rival that could not be matched and had to be fled. All the talk of consciousness was a cover.

27:00

21:00

Roasting Modern Artists by Leonard Peikoff.. booh

He has a great weird voice.

the more I listen, the more I think about South Park

Wow, he sure knows a lot about something he knows nothing about.

What if a Schizophrenic views a piece of modern art and feels what the artist felt when he created it? That communication means the art served it’s intended purpose and therefore has value. Warhol had a factory, people paid thousands for his screen prints. This man’s dismissal of an art form represents purely subjective thinking. He doesn’t like modern art, therefore it has no value. Utter garbage