The Ayn Rand Institute has been publishing a number of video recently of lectures given on various topics, the most recent being a talk by Adam Mossoff on property rights. In this fascinating talk he discusses how the concept of the right to property arose, reaching its peak in the early to mid 19th century in the United States and how since that time these rights have been protected less and less.
This is an area I have been particularly interested in over the past few years, having come
ARI’s Steve Simpson has recently given a number of great talks on the subject of Cronyism, Corruption and Government Power. In this talk, he covers in more depth an issue that I brought up in
“Value” is that which one acts to gain and keep, “virtue” is the action by which one gains and keeps it. “Value” presupposes an answer to the question: of value to whom and for what? “Value” presupposes a standard, a purpose and the necessity of action in the face of an alternative. Where there are no alternatives, no values are possible. – Atlas Shrugged (quoted from the Ayn Rand Lexicon)
On Facebook yesterday
The Ayn Rand Institute recently posted a 2003 talk by Dr. Leonard Peikoff in which he “analyzes and rejects — as appeasement-ridden and ineffectual — the entire Bush administration response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S.” In this talk, Dr. Peikoff passionately discusses the response of the government
Another excellent talk from Dr. Yaron Brook. In this talk he focuses on the welfare state in Scandanavia, Norway in particular. I love that more and more emphasis is being placed on the moral issues involved in questions about whether the welfare state with its focus on egalitarianism is good or not. The Q&A session, my favorite part of many of Yaron’s talks, is very good as well. During the Q&A Yaron mentions a book by Hernand Desoto,
I am currently rereading Alex Epstein’s new book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and so far, I am through chapter 4, it is fascinating reading. His perspective on climate and fossil fuels is one that I have never heard before. He uses human life and flourishing as the standard of value when determining whether the use of fossil fuels, or any energy source, is moral and should be pursued.
One interesting item, not solely related to the climate change/fossil fuel debate, I noticed last night
I came across this interesting 30 question political orientation quiz on a friend’s Facebook feed and thought I would share it.
It purports to give scores in 5 different areas: Collectivism, Authoritarianism, Internationalism,
Tribalism, and Liberalism.
Unfortunately there are no definitions on what they mean by these terms. For example, what does internationalism mean? Does it mean just interference in the affairs of other nations or does it also include trade? From the questions I would
Here is the prepared part of the presentation which I posted the Q&A for a few days ago. Another great speech by Yaron Brook.
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
On October 21st Dr. Yaron Brook gave a Livestreamed talk on the Morality of Capitalism from the University of Exeter in Great Britain. As always, Yaron is passionate and informative about capitalism. If you have listened to other talks by him much of the initial talk will be familiar, though still worth watching as the formulations always vary a bit, but the Q&A section is always different because each audience brings different contexts to the conversation.
One particular question (located