(This talk is part of the symposium on philosophy of science)

The objectivity of science has been attacked on many fronts. In this pair of lectures, Glenn Fletcher will introduce key problems that have been raised in Philosophy of Science and show how these problems can be addressed by applying the Objectivist metaphysics and epistemology. Topics that will be covered in the lectures include: the problem of induction, theory and observation, Karl Popper, scientific realism, and Thomas Kuhn. Relevant work done by Objectivist scholars, including Harriman, Kelley, Machan, Peikoff, and Rand, will be discussed.

Glenn Fletcher works as a Medical Physicist in the Radiology Department at The Washington University Medical School. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Michigan State University.

Separation of powers is one of the fundamental structural features of American constitutions, both state and federal, designed by the Founders to help check the abuse of government power. Today, however, separation of powers principles are largely overlooked or misapplied by the courts and other branches of government. In the first talk of this two part series, David Mayer will discuss the historical origins of separation of powers, distinguishing it from the older, classical doctrine of a “mixed,” or “balanced” constitution, as well as from “checks and balances,” those exceptions to separation of powers included in the U.S. Constitution as further safeguards against the abuse of power.

David N. Mayer is a professor of law and history at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. The author of The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson, he is currently writing a book on the U. S. Constitution.

Psychologist Nathaniel Branden was Ayn Rand’s close associate through the years in which Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged and most of her non-fiction. As founder and principal lecturer of the Nathaniel Branden Institute, he helped define Objectivism and launch the Objectivist movement. In this special session, a continuation of the 2004 Vancouver interview, Duncan Scott, director of the Objectivist History Project, will lead a discussion with Dr. Branden about his recollections of the history of Objectivism and Ayn Rand as a thinker. Time will be provided for audience questions, and questions may be submitted in advance to Scott care of TOC for possible inclusion in the interview.

Friendship and family relations are the two basic axes of intimate relations among individuals. Friendships are chosen relationships and vary from most casual to the most intimate personal connections we can develop. Family relations have a blind or unchosen element—parents may choose to have children, but they do not choose who those children will be; and children do not choose their parents at all—and can be a source of great value, and a source of false obligations. In this pair of lectures, William Thomas will discuss the Objectivist approach to achieving healthy and rational relationships in these areas, untangling the values at stake in different levels of intimacy and different degrees of obligation.

Subtitled “Ways and Means of Friendship,” the first lecture in this pair addresses issues such as determining the potential for value in a relationship, the trade-offs between long and short-term values in friendship, and the application of principles of justice in resolving disputes or recovering from misdeeds. What friendship is and how Objectivism views it will also be discussed.

William Thomas is Director of Programs at the Center. He is the editor of The Literary Art of Ayn Rand and author of the audio course The Essence of Objectivism. He has spoken at past Summer Seminars on virtues, children’s rights, and the values to be gained from parenting. He has a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan.

In her novel The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand portrays architect Howard Roark as a man so independent that he exerts few efforts to publicize or market his work; his premise is that his work speaks for itself. Many Objectivists have drawn from this the inference that there is something morally or psychologically wrong in concerning oneself with the “marketing” of their ideas—that it represents a failure of independence, and the antithesis of individualism.

But is this true? Is there any necessary clash between Objectivism and effective marketing? In this talk, based upon principles defined in his 2004 seminar “Guerilla Activism,” Robert Bidinotto contends that marketing principles are completely compatible with the requirements of individualism—and that, in fact, Ayn Rand herself was one of the most successful “marketers” in the history of philosophy.

Robert Bidinotto is incoming editor of The New Individualist. He was TOC’s former director of development, founder of The Atlas Society, and a veteran writer, author, speaker and editor.

To properly appreciate her Rand's aesthetics, and Romantic Realism in particular, one must understand the historical evolution of "Modernism" in art, the idea that provided the foundation behind most major art movements from Impressionism to the 1970s. This talk will illustrate how it was that ideas about art led to the abandonment the lush realism of the early 19th Century for the sensationalistic "Performance Art" of the early 21st Century. Jason Walker, graduate student in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, will argue that although Modernist movements tend to get the lion's share of attention from art historians, there are compelling movements in art "beyond the pale of history," that defy Modernism and embrace the values of Realism. Among the movements the talk will cover are the Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and some Surrealism.

(This talk is part of the symposium on philosophy of science)

Philosophers from the time of Aristotle have considered causality to be a central pillar of their mental models of the universe. The last century has brought the existence of true randomness and chaotic processes into the realm of man's observations. Many physical processes that were once thought to be completely predictable are, in many circumstances, not predictable, regardless of how much apriori knowledge is available. Lyman Hazelton will argue that modern observation and knowledge about the stability and predictability of processes at and above human scale require some modifications in how we view identity, causality and predictability. These three fundamental ideas are central to Objectivist philosophy, so changes in them may have broad and far reaching consequences. While this new knowledge complicates our view of reality, it does not destroy it. Rather, it may provide us with powerful explanations for certain processes we have not previously understood.

Lyman Hazelton earned a baccalaureate and masters in theoretical physics, specializing in quantum optics and cosmology, at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He later earned an interdepartmental doctorate of science in Aeronautics/Astronautics and Electrical Engineering/Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught classes at MIT for two decades. He is the winner of the 1995 NASA Presidential Space Act award for artificial intelligence and vestibular physiology experiments carried aboard the Space Shuttle. Dr. Hazelton has published numerous journal papers in physics, neuro-physiology and computer science.

(This talk is part of the symposium on philosophy of science)

As one of the oldest sciences, astronomy is full of examples allowing us to test ideas about intellectual discoveries. In this chapter from history, Dr. Robinson will look at the only discoveries of planets in recorded history: discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. These discoveries illustrate interesting psychological phenomena, offer challenges to our notions of successful predictions, show the uniformity of nature, and show how arbitrary definitions can thwart our ability to carve nature at her joints. This talk is for a general audience.

Christopher Robinson is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, teaching classes at every undergraduate level. He is also the co-author of a young adults’ encyclopedia on astronomy. For the past several years, he has been researching episodes in the history of science to illuminate issues in psychology and philosophy.