General
Sessions
Session
Descriptions
Virtues or Vices? Kindness, Generosity, Charity
Tara
Smith
A thorough understanding of the
Objectivist ethics requires digesting not only the major virtues
that Ayn Rand identified, but the implications of rational
egoism for other types of action traditionally praised as
virtuous. This lecture will consider three such conventional
virtues: kindness, generosity and charity.
Given that Ayn Rand did not
claim to provide an exhaustive catalog of the moral virtues, it
is natural to wonder about the status of purported virtues that
seem to have a rational basis. Are kindness, generosity or
charity lesser, subordinate virtues? Are they incompatible with
egoism? If generosity consists in giving a person more than he
deserves, for instance, does it violate the virtue of justice?
If it is appropriate to be kind or generous or charitable, what
should govern a person’s exercise of these traits?
Addressing these questions will
prod us to confront remnants of altruism that may continue to
infect our attitudes and to more fully integrate our
understanding of Objectivism with our understanding of the
culturally dominant morality.
This lecture is based on work
in progress, a chapter of a book Dr. Smith is writing on Ayn
Rand’s view of how to be a rational egoist.
Sunday, July 11, 2004; 10:15-11:45
AM
The Morality of War
Yaron Brook
Although America has waged two
wars—Afghanistan and Iraq—in as many years, the threats to our
security persist. We face many more years of continuing military
strife in the Middle East and elsewhere. Our military is
awesomely powerful, but the moral guidance it receives from
Washington is shockingly meek. What moral principles should
guide a nation in war?
In this lecture Dr. Brook
explains and evaluates the dominant views on the morality of
fighting a war. Questions to be addressed include: When is it
morally proper and necessary to wage war? What should be the
goal of a war? Under what conditions is it proper to strike
preemptively? Is the military morally obliged to spare civilian
lives? What treatment do prisoners of war deserve? Should war be
fought for the sake of humanitarian ends? Under what conditions,
if any, is it morally proper to use biological, chemical or
nuclear weapons?
Sunday, July 11, 2004; 1:45-3:15
PM
Individual Rights and the Founding of America (2 lectures)
John Ridpath
The United States of America,
as Ayn Rand has dramatically demonstrated, is unique in human
history. It is the only country to ever attempt to center its
founding, and essence, on the moral principle of individual
rights.
The idea that every individual
has a moral right to his own life, and thus to all this implies,
germinated slowly over centuries. In the eighteenth century,
however, it broke forth in its fullest flower, and it was this
that guided the heroic saga of America’s founding.
Eighteenth-century thought,
however, was not without its confusions, limitations and
conflicts. And thus the Founding Fathers’ grasp of what rights
were, what they implied and how they were to be justified, was
not clear or necessarily consistent.
These two lectures, while
focusing on Thomas Jefferson, will also examine the Founders’
grasp of what rights were. From this we will be able to better
appreciate their heroism within the context of their time and
understanding. More profound, we will more fully understand the
indispensability of a deep philosophic grounding to any true but
derivative principle, such as rights, if it is to survive the
onslaught of the philosophic underminers of human life.
Monday, July 12, 2004; 10:15-11:45
AM
Tuesday, July 13, 2004; 10:15-11:45 AM
Clarity in Conceptualization: The Art of Identifying “Package
Deals” (2 lectures)
Peter Schwartz
Conceptual thinking entails the
classification of existents according to essential similarities
and essential differences. One of the most insidious techniques
for undercutting conceptual thinking is that of the
“package-deal”—the attempt to integrate opposites by blurring
their essential differences. It is a device that allows its
originators to put over disastrously erroneous ideas. Ranging
from the misuse of the concept “environment” to the false
arguments made against America’s employment of military force,
the package-deal is a pervasive phenomenon in today’s culture.
These two lectures analyze this phenomenon. They discuss the
various forms in which package-deals come, the cognitive
distortions they create—and the means by which one can avoid
being taken in by them.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004; 10:15-11:45
AM
Thursday, July 15, 2004; 1:45-3:15 PM
Modern Art
Mary Ann
Sures
Art has always reflected the
dominant philosophy of a culture. “Modern art,” quoting Ayn
Rand, “is the most eloquent demonstration of the cultural
bankruptcy of our age.” What made modern art possible? This
lecture answers that question. It covers the gradual changes in
style, as art moved from representational styles in the
nineteenth century to the nonobjective in the twentieth. Using
examples and practitioners’ statements, it shows the connection
between modern art and modern philosophy’s assault on reality
and consciousness, demonstrating that, whether art is being
created or destroyed, it is philosophy that moves the painter’s
brush and the sculptor’s chisel.
Thursday, July 15, 2004; 10:15
AM-12:15
PM
Anthem: ‘38 and ‘46
Robert
Mayhew
Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem,
was originally published in 1938, in England. Its first
publication in the United States, however, was not until 1946,
after the appearance of The Fountainhead. Ayn Rand made
hundreds of changes in preparing this revised edition, many of
them very interesting. In this lecture Dr. Mayhew investigates
the kinds of revisions she made, with special emphasis on (1)
stylistic changes, (2) revisions made to avoid unwanted
philosophical implications and (3) passages which, in the
original, seem to reflect the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Thursday, July 15, 2004; 8-9:30
PM
Logical Thinking
(4 lectures)
Harry Binswanger
A combination of lectures on and
exercises in “the art of non-contradictory identification.” This
course does not cover traditional logic but focuses instead on
the uniquely Objectivist approach to logic—especially on Ayn
Rand’s discoveries concerning the use and misuse of concepts.
Since cognition is essentially differentiation and integration,
and since the process of defining concepts is the archetype of
differentiation and integration, emphasis will be placed on
learning a specific, step-by-step method of formulating a valid
definition. We will also cover: proper vs. invalid concepts; the
fallacies of the “stolen concept” and “self-exclusion”; how to
achieve unit-economy in propositions; and objective judgment vs.
arbitrary assertions. “Homework” exercises will be given on each
of the topics, and a sampling of students’ answers will be
discussed in class. (This is a revised version of a 1993 course,
which is not available on tape.)
Saturday, July 17, 2004; 10:15-11:45
AM
Sunday, July 18, 2004; 10:15-11:45 AM
Tuesday, July 20, 2004; 10:15-11:45 AM
Wednesday, July 21, 2004; 10:15-11:45AM
Scientific Method: Ptolemy vs. Galileo
David Harriman
Within academia there is a great deal of talk about the history of science, but there is no acknowledgement of the contradictions between that history and prevailing theories of knowledge. The record of successes and failures in physics is a gold mine for epistemologists, yet the nuggets lay in the open—unseen.
This lecture identifies some of the nuggets by contrasting the deductive method of Ptolemy with the inductive method of Galileo. Despite Ptolemy's emphasis on observations, Mr. Harriman argues that his method was fundamentally Platonist; despite Galileo's occasional emphasis on "pure mathematics" and thought experiments, Mr. Harriman argues that he pioneered the proper inductive method in physics.
So why are today's intellectuals unable to learn from yesterday's great scientists? The answer lies in what has been missing from philosophy: an objective view of concepts and a theory of inductive reasoning.
Saturday, July 17, 2004; 1:45-3:15
PM
[This talk has been revised; previously titled "The Pendulum: A Case Study in Scientific Method." June 15, 2004]
What
Might Be and Ought to Be
Tore
Boeckmann
Aristotle says in the
Poetics that fiction is of greater philosophical importance
than history, because history represents things only as they
are, while fiction represents them as they might be and ought to
be. Ayn Rand calls this “the most important principle of the
esthetics of literature” and, more personally, “the rule of my
life work.”
In this lecture Mr. Boeckmann
analyzes the central argument of the Poetics, which leads
to the might-be-and-ought-to-be principle. He explains the
profundity of this principle and addresses common confusions
that arise from viewing it too superficially. He shows how the
principle applies to Aristotle’s favorite Greek tragedies and to
Ayn Rand’s fiction. Finally, he argues that Aristotle’s
principle applies, at least by implication, to all narrative
literature—as a fundamental though often unacknowledged premise
of the storytelling art.
Monday, July 19, 2004; 8-9:30
PM
Objective vs. Classical Education
Lisa
VanDamme
For nearly a century
Progressive education has dominated American schools. As a
result, generations of students have graduated ignorant of
history, unfamiliar with the classics of literature and unable
to write clearly. In recent years the growing number of parents
seeking a superior education outside the school system have
turned to a different movement: “classical education.”
The classical approach to
education has many virtues. Advocates of classical education
urge the importance of a rigorous academic education. They
promote the “Great Books” of the Western tradition. They value
the legacy of Greece and Rome and encourage a patriotic
appreciation of the Founding Fathers and the United States. They
stress the importance of writing skills, from grammar to logic
and rhetoric. And they advocate a grand-scale, philosophic
perspective on the world. Is classical education, then, the
ideal sought by Objectivists?
No! answers Lisa VanDamme, who
discusses not only the virtues of classical education, but also
its fundamental and rarely identified flaws.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004; 1:45-3:15
PM
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