In 1968, English majors were 7.59 percent of those graduating with bachelor's degrees, but by 1995 that figure was down to 4.47 percent....

Aug 21, 1998

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10 Mins

An exchange between professors Susan Dawn Wake and Alan Kors. Reprinted from Navigator, Volume 1, Number 8, 1998. In an interview for the

Aug 1, 1998

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3 Mins

Postmodernism became the leading intellectual movement in the late twentieth century. It has replaced modernism, the philosophy of the

Jun 29, 1998

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Stephen Hicks Ph.D.

2 Mins

Unlike other species, man has the ability to re-organize his perceptual world in such a way as to discover new relationships. The essence

Jun 1, 1998

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David Kelley Ph.D

Description: In this interview, David N. Mayer expands upon a talk he gave at the IOS/Cato-sponsored conference, “Atlas and the World.” The main point of that address was: “Atlas Shrugged is significant because, through the novel, Rand shows us what we must do to complete the American Revolution, to complete the unfinished work of 1776, and the hope that it represents to the world.” David N. Mayer, a professor of law and history at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, is the author of The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson (The University Press of Virginia, 1994) and several articles on American constitutional history. In 1997, he spoke at the IOS [now known as the Atlas Society] summer seminar on “The Declaration of Independence as a Literary and Philosophical Work”; at the 1998 IOS Summer Seminar, he spoke on “The Welfare State vs. the Constitution.”

Apr 1, 1998

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Many of my friends and patients consider Jack Kevorkian a hero for helping sick people escape from their suffering. And many of my own patients—not only those facing cancer and other terminal illnesses, but also those in despair over disability, immobility, and pain arising from arthritis, diabetes, and strokes—have asked me to give them something to end their life. Thus far, I have not felt it legal or appropriate to do so. There is, in the first place, the difficulty of knowing whether they are speaking in rueful jest. Beyond that, whatever sympathy and temptation one might feel in such a situation, emotional and ethical discomfort—as well as fear of liability or sanctions—is always present, especially for physicians.

Mar 21, 1998

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I've reread Thorton Wilder's The Ides of March many times, always with the equivalent of a slight mental frown: Why do I like this book so

Mar 21, 1998

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Walter Donway

4 Mins

February 1, 1998 -- This god, this one word: ''I'' With the sentence quoted above, Ayn Rand's novella Anthem projected the rediscovery of self amid a totally collectivist world. On February 3, an ABC News special, "Greed With John Stossel," offered Objectivists the inspiring sight of a brilliant counteroffensive against the anti-individualist attitudes that have been leading us toward such a collectivist hell for the last several centuries. Providing the philosophical basis for the counterattack was IOS's executive director, David Kelley. In the next issue of Navigator, we will look at reaction to the show. But for this issue, Navigator asked Kelley to recall how the program came about and how the show that he saw on television appeared from his perspective. Read an excerpt from the show

Feb 1, 1998

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David Kelley, Ph.D.

Ayn Rand said that her first novel, We the Living, was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. Telling the story of...

Feb 1, 1998

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David Kelley Ph.D

8 Mins

Description: In the following interview, Scott G. Bullock recapitulates and expands upon the main points of a talk he gave at an IOS [now

Jan 1, 1998

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10 Mins

Al Dunlap's restructuring of Scott Paper Company has been widely viewed as one of the most dramatic and deepest in corporate America. At the

Dec 1, 1997

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10 Mins

Battles for the hearts and minds of libertarians, which date from at least the 1971 birth of the Libertarian Party, are waged principally

Nov 1, 1997

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Bryan Register

9 Mins

Rarely do advocates of freedom have the pleasure of hearing freedom criticized. Typically, they must listen to debates in which one side serves up a badly mixed hash of assertions that is labeled "freedom"—while the other side denounces the hash for features having nothing to do with human liberty. For this reason, libertarians had good cause to welcome the appearance early in 1997 of several books setting forth relatively pure versions of the classical liberal credo. Not only were the works instructive in themselves, but they called forth instructive responses from the media. The books in question were: What It Means to Be a Libertarian by Charles Murray, best known as the author of Losing Ground and as co-author (with the late Richard Herrnstein) of The Bell Curve; Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute and The Libertarian Reader, a collection of essays edited by Boaz. (Boaz's Primer was reviewed by Robert Bidinotto in the April 1997 issue of the IOS Journal.)

Oct 1, 1997

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In this excerpt from a talk, professor of philosophy, Susan Dawn Wake, discusses the options for disseminating Objectivism in academia....

Oct 1, 1997

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Susan Dawn Wake

9 Mins

I would say the main line is this. The reintroduction of Aristotelianism in the West gradually led to the demise of the medieval outlook..

Sep 1, 1997

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David Kelley Ph.D

9 Mins

I thank Bob Bidinotto for his many generous remarks about Libertarianism: A Primer , and I congratulate Bidinotto and the Institute for Objectivist Studies for their continuing commitment to a constructive dialogue between Objectivists and those libertarians who are not Objectivists. David BoazI might begin by noting that the very notion of a conflict “between libertarians and Objectivists” is flawed, as it seems to me that all Objectivists are necessarily libertarians, though not all libertarians are Objectivists. That is, anyone who believes in individual rights, free enterprise, and strictly limited government—and I assume that includes all Objectivists—is a libertarian. An Objectivist libertarian might well not belong to any particular party and might part company with some other libertarians on a wide range of philosophical and other issues, but at the level of political philosophy Objectivists are libertarians. And that gets us the crux of our disagreement. Should all libertarians be Objectivists? Or, put another way, must libertarianism rest on the Objectivist philosophical system? I believe that libertarianism, as a political movement and a political philosophy, is a sort of coalition. Libertarianism is compatible with a wide variety of philosophical, ethical, and religious beliefs. It is clearly compatible with Objectivism. It is also compatible with most religious faiths, as many libertarian Jews, Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and Muslims can attest. And certainly there are libertarians who feel a primary moral commitment to the value of individual freedom itself.

Aug 2, 1997

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When, in 1966, Ayn Rand brought together a small collection of Objectivist articles on politics and economics, she called the book Capitalis

Aug 1, 1997

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David Henderson

10 Mins

Description: Religions posit a supernatural realm involving either an impersonal force or a personal god, with many combinations. The earliest forms of primitive religion involved ten common institutions. What is religion? How does it arise? Since no supernatural world exists, why is the phenomenon of religion so universal among men? Most atheists have probably asked themselves these questions at one time or another. This essay attempts to answer them. The Nature of Religion A religion is a system of beliefs and practices resting on two fundamental assumptions: (1) that events in the world are subject to supernatural power, and (2) that human needs can be satisfied by man's entering into relationships with such supernatural power. The fundamental belief in all religions, therefore, is the belief that a supernatural power exists capable of controlling natural events, and the fundamental practice in all religions is the attempt to influence this power. The power in question is called supernatural because it can, allegedly, be known and influenced by means other than those deriving from sense experience and reason.

Jun 1, 1997

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George Walsh

libertarianism: a primer by David Boaz - an objectivist review"There are sundry 'libertarians'," Ayn Rand wrote during the early 1970s...

Apr 2, 1997

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Robert James Bidinotto

9 Mins

Dr. Nathaniel Branden was a psychologist in private practice, author and speaker on psychology, and a pioneer of self-esteem psychology.

Feb 1, 1997

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10 Mins