William R Thomas

December 2004 --  "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." —Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged.

 May 2004 -- BOOK REVIEW: Alexandra York, Crosspoints: A Novel of Choice (New York: Promethena Press, 2004). 446 pp., $24.95, paperback.

BOOK REVIEW: Charles Murray, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003). 720 pp., $29.95.

Question:  I'm having trouble finding examples of the Objectivist assertion that throughout history wars and bloodshed have been caused because of the ideal of being your brother's keeper.

Question: My brother is very socialist, and I am not. We frequently argue. His whole ideology is based on the premises that the poor were born poor and the rich were born rich; that the rich didn't earn anything they were simply had everything handed to them; and that the social structures created by capitalism empower the rich to dominate the poor and keep them that way. What would your response be?

Question: What Is the Objectivist view of free will?

Question: The Objectivist ethics holds the human good does not require human sacrifices and cannot be achieved by the sacrifices of anyone to anyone. It holds that the rational interests of men do not clash—that there is no conflict of interests among men who do not desire the unearned, who do not make sacrifices nor accept them, who deal with one another as traders, giving value for value.”  (Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics” in The Virtue of Selfishness 31 paperback)

Question: What are Objectivist views on Libertarianism, and what are the similarities and differences between the two?