“The basic standard of right and wrong for grammar comes down to clarity, in essence, which means reference to reality. Is this rule required by the nature of thought in order to make your relationship of concepts clear, in order to make it exact, in order to designate something specific in reality?” – LEONARD PEIKOFF, Principles of Grammar

Professor Michael Berliner, who did a superb job of turning Leonard Peikoff’s Understanding Objectivism into a book has just edited Leonard Peikoff’s 1981 course, Principles of Grammar, turning it into a book.

The book “offers not only an organized survey of grammatical rules and principles but their connection to the principles of clear thinking and clear writing.”

According to Dr. Peikoff:

“At the end of the course….you should be able to see every grammatical rule, directly or indirectly, as a consequence or expression of some essential requirement of the human mind,” not “a simply a hodge-podge of memorized rules that make no sense. … I hope that [the course will give you] a sense of logic and security. Logic in regard to understanding the nature of grammatical issues—why they are as they are—and therefore security in regard to the whole subject. You will know the purpose, the rationale of the rules, and so I hope you will be able to think at the end that you can now make decisions on your own dubious or controversial cases. You don’t have to rely helplessly on authorities.”

Principles of Grammar is reasonably priced at $5 on Kindle.

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