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Peikoff History of Philosophy on Ebay

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sirchris3

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Parts I and II of Peikoff's history of philosophy (cassette edition) are on Ebay. Make your best offer. Save a lot of money off of the hefty list price for the CD edition by getting the cassette version. The condition is near mint. I broke the seal on a couple of the boxes to make sure that everything was OK and to take the photos of the cassettes.

These are some of Dr. Peikoff's best courses, from the days when he was providing philosophy courses in college under Ayn Rand's tutelage.

The outlines are at www.peikoff.com. The only thing that even remotely comes close in quality are the history of philosophy courses from "The Teaching Company", which does not offer the objectivist answer to the various philosophers it discusses.

An interesting note: The cassette edition is actually a bit less cumbersome than the CD edition due to the sheer # of CDs in the set. I really hope that AR Books follows the example of their closest competitor, The Teaching Company, and offers MP3 versions of their course. Consider this set a good investment in your time, and take good care of it.

Post questions on this forum.

Chris

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Parts I and II of Peikoff's history of philosophy (cassette edition) are on Ebay. Make your best offer. Save a lot of money off of the hefty list price for the CD edition by getting the cassette version. The condition is near mint. I broke the seal on a couple of the boxes to make sure that everything was OK and to take the photos of the cassettes.

These are some of Dr. Peikoff's best courses, from the days when he was providing philosophy courses in college under Ayn Rand's tutelage.

The outlines are at www.peikoff.com. The only thing that even remotely comes close in quality are the history of philosophy courses from "The Teaching Company", which does not offer the objectivist answer to the various philosophers it discusses.

An interesting note: The cassette edition is actually a bit less cumbersome than the CD edition due to the sheer # of CDs in the set. I really hope that AR Books follows the example of their closest competitor, The Teaching Company, and offers MP3 versions of their course. Consider this set a good investment in your time, and take good care of it.

Post questions on this forum.

Chris

Please check your E-bay account for a question I have.

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Done. Weird stuff. Probably a security "feature". When someone marks my $100 bills at the cashier, I get that same sinking feeling even though I habitually check them all out myself with those little ink pens!

Chris

OK, now we have to arrange payment.... I suggest you send me a private message.

For everyone else, I've purchased the items.... I've long complained those courses were about twice as expensive as I wanted to spend for them, and this problem has now been solved (for me anywat) due to what's left of our capitalist system.

Edited by Steve D'Ippolito
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OK, now we have to arrange payment.... I suggest you send me a private message.

For everyone else, I've purchased the items.... I've long complained those courses were about twice as expensive as I wanted to spend for them, and this problem has now been solved (for me anywat) due to what's left of our capitalist system.

You'll get no argument from me on the pricing. I specialize in finding and filling gaps in educational material. I have very strong opinions about objectivist materials. Many improvements have occurred under Yaron's directorship and the efforts to make ARB a great store. There is more to go, based on their closest competitor, the Teaching Company. I'd like to see lower prices on premium items, different means of delivery and sales affiliate programs for all of ARB's offerings, all of which the Teaching Company has. I'm sure that the pricing on some items does *not* come from ARB, given that nearly all of their items have reasonable prices. It still makes sense to sell 100 of an item at $200 each rather than selling a dozen over a year at $400 each. This program stands out in intellectual quality compared with its competitors, including one from a religious group that I just sold on ebay, but the times are changing and means of delivery have to be updated for this. Just like the movie industry, different medias create different sales niches. The sales could even be licensed to other organizations, or partnerships can be made. Capitalists are doing this succesfully in the media and book business today. Smart people can do it better. I'd even love to see this program delivered in an "ondemand" format in graded pieces, even on a short-term, lease basis. Maybe each section can have quizzes and a certification exam at the end. None of Dr. Peikoff's courses don't have educational accountability in them, which is important to ensure learning and eliminating the scourge of "rationalism" (abstract thoughts without concrete facts to back them) from Western culture. I'm saying this from the perspective of being a fully certified security expert who had to take very long, complex tests to prove that I know the material. The courses that I took cost up to $2000, by the way, and we had to pay $800 for a 4 month lease and the exam. I know Objectivists are serious about ideas, and the idea of being able to self-study to understanding objectivism with some sort of recognition can be very attractive.

Chris

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I think a lot of what you are talking about is basically covered by the Objectivist Academic Center. That is a formal academic program though.

I have bought a lot of Teaching Company courses. Of course I won't even touch ones that aren't currently on sale since they cost 4-6 times more, but they are on sale a *lot* so it's no show stopper. I think once I was "forced" to buy on DVD when I wanted CD but the CD was not on sale. That's it.

I don't know why the prices are so high. They are certainly entitled to ask any price they like. (I would hope they did some kind of market analysis to find out where it is they would make the most money--but if so I find this answer to that question rather surprising.) I know in some cases they go ahead and make something freely available if it seems topical, but that is infrequent. In any case, this was the last of the Big Three things I wanted to buy that were just priced too doggone high for my blood; I got the others as used CDs about a month ago.

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  • 2 months later...

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