Philosophy

Despite the fact that more knowledge exists today than at any other point in history, “Human beings lack reliable access to the knowledge they need to flourish.” Alex Epstein is working to fix this problem.

Though their originators are mostly dead and gone, the ideas that sunk American education are still operative today. Those who offered rational alternatives have had little influence—but we can change that.

This episode of “Facts, Values, and Flourishing” examines the basic values that support and advance human life, showing why they are both absolute and conditional.

We’ll look at some key implications of Ayn Rand’s derivation of life as the standard of value, and we’ll consider several objections to her approach and conclusions.

Identity politics is an all-out assault on the law of identity. It holds that an individual is not an individual, that his mind is not his mind, that his values are not his values. What does this mean for identity politics?

Why is there so much passion behind socialism? Consider the psychological and moral context that people bring to the question of which social system to support.

Steve Ditko created art that “shows how men could and should act,” heroes without tragic flaws, and a universe where justice triumphs.

We’ll consider the fact–value dichotomy, Sam Harris’s failed effort to solve it, and how Ayn Rand derived moral principles from perceptual reality.

Today's spokesmen for identity politics are vague about the principles of their creed. Earlier advocates, however, were quite clear.

Join us for a series on the relationships between facts, values, and flourishing. We’ll make sense of these issues by going to fundamentals.