Tag Archives: selfishness

Minimum Wage, Panama Papers, Selfishness and More – Podcasts Roundup April 10

Weekly podcastsAs I was preparing to write this week’s roundup, I realized another benefit for me in doing them. In taking notes on the key issues being discussed in each of the podcasts, I am more able to make connections and integrate what the hosts are talking about into what I already know. This integration is something we all should try to do more of, and is at times difficult. (I found I can embed the Blogtalkradio shows, so I have done that as well as link to them in the headings.)

PEIKOFF.COM EPISODE 405

Michelangelo's The Dying Slave

Michelangelo’s The Dying Slave Image (c) Britanica.com

The scheduling read more

[Video] Defining Basic Moral Concepts

package dealsIn this talk from the 2015 Objectivist Summer Conference, , author of In Defense of Selfishness, discusses the difficulty in defining moral concepts, among other concepts, due to package deals. Package deals are terms that try to integrate items by non-essentials, read more

[Video] Onkar Ghate on Selfishness

Onkar Ghate on selfishnessI recently came across a video posted by the Federalist Society of a talk given by ARI’s Onkar Ghate on selfishness. If you have read Ayn Rand or listened to other talks by Dr. Ghate or Yaron Brook, much of the information covered in this talk will be familiar, but I find it is often (always?) helpful to revisit ideas you are familiar with in order to achieve a better understanding of them.

In this case, this deeper understanding came when Onkar answered the first question in the Q&A read more

Podcasts and More for February 9

Weekly podcastsHere is the latest roundup of the podcasts I try to listen to each week. I am pretty excited this week as one of the shows, Philosophy in Action, answered a question I submitted.

Last Week’s Podcasts and Shows:

Philosophy in Action – Each week Dr. Diana Hsieh and Greg Perkins apply rational principles to questions submitted by their listeners. Most weeks the answers are quite lengthy and in-depth. This weeks questions included:

  • Are egoism and altruism mutually exclusive? This was a very interesting question that went into the difference between what the terms egoism and altruism actually mean, they define who is the proper beneficiary of your actions, and the muddled way in which most people understand them, e.g. that egoism involves predation.
  • Is it immoral or unwise to accept a better job soon after starting a different one? I thought this one was a good application of the virtue of honesty which in brief says you should not seek to gain a value by faking reality. In this case, it is not moral to obtain a job by saying you will stay for 3 years when you have no intention of doing so.
  • Is it moral to advocate for the boycott of businesses?  This is a question I submitted to the queue. They broke it down into three parts: 1) rights and morality, 2) does a boycott violate the rights of a business, and 3) is calling for a boycott immoral. Having it broken down step by step in this way helped clarify my own thinking, which was the point of my asking the question. I liked Paul Hsieh’s comment in the chat during the show about film reviewers.

Don’t Let it Go…Unheard read more

[Video] Yaron Brook Q&A on Selfishness from Maastricht

As I have written before, one of my favorite parts of any of Yaron Brook’s talks is the Q&A that follows the prepared remarks. This one from his recent talk in Maastricht in Holland is definitely one of the best I have seen so far. While a good number of people, to judge by applause at some points, are sympathetic to the ideas he discussed, the vast majority of questions reflected antagonism towards the idea that selfishness, properly understood, is the key to a successful life. Definitely read more

Video – Yaron Brook: Morality of Capitalism

This video is of Yaron Brook’s talk on the Morality of Capitalism given on May 11, 2014 at the University of Amsterdam. The only drawback to being a fan of Yaron’s talks, which I definitely am, is that the basic talk is getting more and more familiar so that I could almost do that portion myself. This is why I get more out of the Q&A sessions that follow the main talk as you never know what people will ask. The Q&A from this talk was especially lively.

http://www.youtube.com/v/62506TBQK1o?autoplay=0

Yaron Brook on What True Selfishness Is

I wish this video had come out, or that I had seen it, a few days ago.  I wrote a somewhat lengthy post on the difference between Objectivism and “raw greed.”  In this video Yaron Brook explains essentially the same thing, selfish as opposed to self-destructive, but in much more detail, and likely making much more sense.

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