Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Friday, March 07, 2008

A Few Upcoming Lectures

Posted by TOS Admin at 3:42 PM

“Ayn Rand's Ideas: An Introduction”

Who: Elan Journo, resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute

What: A talk followed by Q&A

Where: Wrinston Auditorium, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI

When: TONIGHT: Friday, March 7, 2008, at 7:30 PM

Admission is free.

Description: With the publication of her two major novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), Ayn Rand achieved spectacular and enduring success. Today, interest in Ayn Rand continues to burgeon: her books sell upwards of half a million copies per year, and university courses on her works are increasing in number. Underlying her fiction is a comprehensive system of ideas—a philosophy (as she put it) for living on earth: Objectivism. She wrote: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

What, specifically, does Objectivism advocate? What guidance does it offer man for everyday living? What does it say about ethics? Politics? These are some of the questions to be considered in this lecture. (No prior knowledge of philosophy or of Ayn Rand's works is assumed.)

“Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand's Morality of Egoism”

Who: Craig Biddle, editor and publisher of The Objective Standard

What: A talk followed by Q&A

Where: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA in Cocke Hall, Gibson Room

When: March 12, 2008 at 7: 30 PM

Admission is free.

Description: In her novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand set forth a new morality, which she called rational egoism. In contrast to altruism—the idea that one should self-sacrificially serve others—rational egoism holds that one should selfishly pursue one's own life-serving values. Against predation—the practice of sacrificing others for one's own ends— Rand's egoism holds that sacrificing others is immoral and impractical. In contrast to hedonism—the idea that pleasure is the standard of value— Rand's egoism holds that the long-range requirements of one's life and happiness constitute the standard of value. And against moral relativism—the notion that "anything goes"— Rand's egoism holds that morality is absolute: Nothing "goes" except that which promotes one's life while respecting the rights of others.

Rand's egoism is a system of observation-based principles regarding the requirements of human life, personal happiness, social harmony, and political freedom. In this talk, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Atlas Shrugged, Craig Biddle presents the basic principles of rational egoism, contrasts them with the alternatives, and shows why everyone who wants to live happily and freely needs to understand and embrace them.

“No Substitute for Victory: The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism”

Who: John David Lewis, senior research scholar in history and classics at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University

What: A talk followed by Q&A

Where: Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA in Smith Auditorium, Room 105

When: March 13, 2008 at 8 :00 PM

Admission is free.

Description: Over six years after Manhattan was viciously attacked by Islamic holy warriors, the world is still held hostage to their rants and their bombs. Iraq is in turmoil, Syria is emboldened, and Iran, in pursuit of nuclear weapons, intends to wipe Israel off the map and destroy the Great Satan. America. What went wrong? This lecture will show how our failure to identify the ideology of our enemies. Islamic Totalitarianism has made it impossible to confront them. Drawing on the lessons of America's victory over Japan, this lecture will challenge us to reject our assumptions about the nature of a "just war," and to demand the removal, by force, of Islamic Totalitarianism State Islam from the face of the earth.

“Darwin and the Discovery of Evolution”

Who: Keith Lockitch, resident fellow focusing on science and environmentalism at the Ayn Rand Institute

What: A talk and Q&A exploring Darwin's life and work, and describing the steps by which he came to discover and prove the theory of evolution by natural selection

Where: Hilton Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA

When: Thursday, March 13, 2008, 7:30–9:30 PM/

Admission is free.

Description: The theory of evolution is often disparaged by its opponents as being "just a theory"—i.e., a speculative hypothesis with little basis in hard, scientific facts. But this claim carries with it the implied accusation that Charles Darwin was "just a theorist"—i.e., that he was merely an armchair scientist and that his life's work was nothing more than an exercise in arbitrary speculation. A look at Darwin's pioneering discoveries, however, reveals the grave injustice of this accusation. Darwin was not "just a theorist" and evolution is not "just a theory." In this talk, Dr. Lockitch explores Darwin's life and work, focusing on the steps by which he came to discover and prove the theory of evolution by natural selection.

“‘Apollo and Dionysus’ Revisited”

Who: Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute

What: A lecture followed by Q&A

Where: Ford Hall Forum, Old South Meeting House

When: Thursday, May 8, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Description: In 1969, Ayn Rand's Ford Hall Forum talk, "Apollo and Dionysus," addressed the near simultaneous events of Woodstock and the first lunar landing. Employing Greek mythology's god of the sun and god of wine, she compared the awe-inspiring accomplishments of NASA's Apollo space program to the famous three-day concert that has come to exemplify the counterculture of the 1960s and the "hippie era." Almost four decades later, Dr. Yaron Brook, President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute, reflects on her words and takes a new look at our society's drives toward individualism versus wholeness, light versus darkness, and civilization versus primal nature.

For more information on these talks, please e-mail events@aynrand.org.

Labels: Events