Ayn Rand & Objectivism

Examines the so-called is–ought gap, the claim that moral principles cannot be derived from observable facts, and highlights the need of a solution.

1. If you’ve not yet read it, don’t miss Yaron Brook’s excellent op-ed “Is Rand Relevant?” in the Wall Street Journal. Here are the opening paragraphs: Ayn Rand died more than a quarter of a century ago, yet her name appears regularly in discussions of our current economic turmoil. Pundits…

Examines the alternatives of religion and subjectivism, and shows them to be equally life-thwarting and revealingly similar.

Explains why, more than fifty years ago, Rand was able to project the kinds of crises we are seeing today.

Who: Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute What: A talk and Q & A examining The Fountainhead and explaining Ayn Rand's morality of rational egoism Where: University of Maryland, Arts Building, Room 2309, College Park, MD When: May 1, 2008, at 8 pm Admission…

On the website of the Wall Street Journal, under the heading “Capitalism Shrugged: Should Ayn Rand Be Required Reading?”—and after stating a few uncontroversial facts, several inaccuracies, and some inconsequential fluff—Heidi Moore gets to her point: Rand has a bit of a reputation problem among those who have not drunk…

The latest attack on BB&T’s educational donations—and on academic freedom—comes by way of this Charlotte Observer editorial, which opens with the obvious truth that “A public university's faculty and administration—not donors—should have the final say on the content of courses.” The editorial closes with the obvious truth that “it’s wrong…

“Gifts with Strings a Knotty Issue,” is the latest in a recent stream of articles about academics going berserk because BB&T, under the direction of CEO John Allison, has made contributions to universities with the stipulation that Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged be included somewhere in the schools’ curricula. For…

During the question period of the otherwise unremarkable debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza on the question of “Is Christianity the Problem?” the following two questions were posed to Hitchens: 1) “What [does atheism] have to offer us as an ethics?” and 2) “What standard [of value] can you…

Roger Scruton challenges Ayn Rand’s concept of selfishness—by committing the very fallacy Rand identified as the cause of confusion on this issue.