Rarely encountered SIGNED by Ayn Rand! Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (New York: The Objectivist, 1967).

The human mind is able to grasp the electronic structure of a water molecule and to chart the trajectory of a planet. What explains this unparalleled cognitive emancipation, far outstripping that of any other animal? But we have been wrong before; can we ever know what is right? May we justifiably rely on our conclusions, can we ever achieve certainty of them, or are we doomed to perpetual doubt?

These questions belong to the province of epistemology—the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. And the answers depend crucially on one central issue in epistemology: the nature and validity of concepts.

In her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Ayn Rand plants her theory of knowledge by means of its central feature, a new theory of the nature, formation and validation of concepts. Along the way, she provides her fundamental answer to the crusading skepticism of the modern era, the mounting attacks on absolutes, certainty, reason itself. “What is at stake here," she emphasizes in her Foreword, "is the cognitive efficacy of man’s mind.”

Originally published in eight consecutive issues of Rand’s periodical The Objectivist (July 1966—Feb. 67), this landmark of intellectual history, a signed Presentation copy of its first appearance in book form, is a tangible link to one of the 20th century's most influential and controversial thinkers. It elaborates in detail Rand’s historic and highly original solution to the “problem of universals”—the question of to what precisely concepts refer in reality. Rand’s solution is the foundation of her distinctive account of objectivity and the source of the name she gave to her philosophy: Objectivism.

Rand had certainly met inscriptee Allyn Brodsky. She inscribed this copy within a month of its publication. Further, in 1968, when Bobbs Merrill published a 25 Anniversary Edition of The Fountainhead, critic Norah Ephron wrote a plodding, concrete-bound review of the novel for The New York Times Book Review, expressing wonder at novel’s lasting popularity. “I deliberately skipped over all the passages about egoism and altruism,” Ephron wrote. “And I spent the next year hoping I would meet a gaunt, orange-haired architect who would rape me” (May 5, 1968).

In a letter to the editor of the Times Book Review, Mr. Brodsky wrote of Ms. Ephron: “For some help, she might look to why Miss Rand’s books are so impossible to put down—the excitement and drama of a successful heroic struggle, captured in a masterfully competent and brilliantly evocative prose style” (June 9, 1968).

A signed first edition of The Fountainhead (1943) and a signed first printing of the 25 Anniversary Edition (1968) are also available from Pen Ultimate Rare Books.

Some minor rubbing and light soiling to covers. Lightly penciled notes on the inside back cover. Save for Rand’s inscription, no other writings or markings within the book’s pages.

From her initial portrait of the first ideal man to her revolutionary theory of concepts, the fountainhead is Ayn Rand.