In the history of ethics, debates over the meaning of life have generated four broad positions: 1. The meaning of life is to flourish by creating value both materially and psychologically through one’s career, friendships, loves, and avocations. Examples here include Aristotelian eudaimonism, some sub-types of utilitarianism, and Objectivism.The good life should be a win […]
Genghis Khan on joy and the meaning of life Read More »
Here is an example of a phenomenon that has long puzzled me: Nasty in-group fighting. In The Rise of Neo-Kantianism, Klaus Christian Köhnke asks: What can “explain one of the most distressing features of the neo-Kantians: the fierceness and bitterness of their polemics, the nastiness of their ad hominem arguments, which destroyed personal friendships and
Movement in-fighting and schisms — psychology Read More »
My essay on “Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics” is available in e-book format. The essay has gotten very good mileage, so to speak, since being first published in The Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy. It has been translated into German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Korean, and in English it is available at the
*Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics* — e-book version Read More »
In 2006, Professor Smith published Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (Cambridge University Press). In 2007, I reviewed it for the journal Philosophy in Review. Here is an audio version in MP3 format or at YouTube. Eight minutes: And here is a PDF version. Related: My review of David Kelley’s The Evidence of the
Review of Tara Smith’s *Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics* — audio version Read More »
Today the Atlas Society is having Senior Scholar Stephen Hicks, Ph.D., and Atlas Society founder David Kelley, Ph.D. @ 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET for a special 90-minute exploration and discussion on Ayn Rand’s theme “the sanction of the victim” and how evil often feeds off people trying to be good. Register here: Sanction
TODAY: “Sanction of the Victim” with Stephen Hicks and David Kelley Read More »
In this unit of our course on Objectivity we feature Ayn Rand’s Objectivist Ethics. Rand was world-famous as the author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged when a collection of essays entitled The Virtue of Selfishness was published in 1964. In the opening essay, Rand presents a sustained argument for her ethic of rational self-interest. The full course on Objectivity: https://www.atlassociety.org/course/objectivity.
Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics” [Atlas Intellectuals] Read More »
As part of this full lecture on Objectivist philosophy of education and its intimate connections to Montessori’s system, here is the conclusion-drawing section for those already familiar with Montessori: For the full context — overviewing Rand’s and Montessori’s major ideas — begin here: Source: My 15-lecture video course on Philosophy of Education. The Objectivism and
Montessori and Objectivism — mini-course Read More »
Interviewer Mark Michael Lewis and I had an extended conversation about philosophy and its applications to education, business ethics, postmodernism, and entrepreneurship. The ten topics: 1. How I first read Rand and Mises [1:44 minutes] 2. Why one should always take arguments at their best [10:15] 3. Why many philosophers are politically left [16:00] 4.
Ten topics in applied Objectivism — interviewed by Mark Michael Lewis Read More »