Individualism in an Age of Tribalism

Increasingly, our culture pushes us to view ourselves as passive members of one group or another. What matters, we’re told, is not the choices we make as individuals, but our ethnicity, our gender, our inherited “privilege” or lack thereof. This view is pervasive in our culture—in politics, in psychology, in philosophy, in science, in law, in ethics.

In her novel The Fountainhead (and in her other writings), Ayn Rand challenges the doctrines of collectivism and introduces a radical new conception of individualism. She rejects the tribal mindset and offers a vision of human existence in which we are not interchangeable members of some collective, but sovereign, independent individuals, whose true interests align. In this course, you’ll hear experts on Ayn Rand’s philosophy discuss her unique perspective on individualism and its antithesis: tribalism.