One of the more satisfying, under-reported barometers of cultural trends is the dismal box office take of recent movies attacking U.S....
This past September, I was thrilled to see The Call of the Entrepreneur , a new documentary by The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion
The last chapter of James Watson’s story began as he was preparing to launch a book tour through Britain to promote his latest and...
I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat ..
January, 2001 -- In the culture wars of our time, the culture that shaped our world has had no voice.
Mayer, a professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, has just had a book published by the Cato Institute: Liberty..
Objectivists often look to the past for great artwork to contemplate and admire, avoiding the contemporary art scene as hopelessly......
Whenever I discuss environmental crimes, it seems, I am confronted with a parade of horribles: “Suppose a businessman dumps toxic waste on his property that leaches into the water supply, killing everybody in the area and making the region uninhabitable forever. How can tort law possibly deal with that?”
“Robin” Hood (as he is known here in my home state) was referring to State Farm Insurance. Hearing him utter such inanities was not that shocking to me, however, since he has made similar statements repeatedly. Following the lead of Mike Moore, his predecessor in the A.G.’s office, Hood gets a lot of air time by painting big business as evil and dastardly. What Mike Moore did to Big Tobacco, “Robin” Hood hopes to do to State Farm and the insurance industry.
Nowadays this comes across as downright cruelty (as well as downright stupidity), but I understand that this treatment of him was derived from her overvaluation of supposed intellectual consistency in the conduct of daily life. For Rand, there was no ambiguity in the world: if it is true that man has free will and is responsible for his conduct, it cannot also be that there is a condition such as dementia that robs a man of his capacity for choice. Hence her husband’s lapses were wilful and deliberate. At least they were to her. Do modern day Objectivists believe this is the correct and proper way to deal with those suffering from dementia?
Objectivism holds that for each person his own life is his ultimate value. Morally, the greatest thing one can do is to live robustly and to keep living. Happiness, in the Objectivist view, is the emotional experience of living well. Happiness is not a state one achieves, but the experience one has in the process of living a flourishing, robust life. Happiness is a complex emotion, involving many rather different subsidiary emotions, such as contentment, confidence, satisfaction, excitement, joy, and good cheer. These emotions generally proceed from achieving one's values, as when one feels joy and satisfaction over completing an important project, or as when one feels content after a good dinner. Happiness also proceeds from one's self-esteem, one's general sense that one is competent and worthy to be successful in life.
Objectivism opposes government entitlements that are based on the idea that one person's need is a moral claim that on the productive effort of another. Need is not a claim on wealth, in the Objectivist view.
Question: Why are a person's principles more important than the law? Answer: A person's principles are his means of integrating his knowledge about the world. So when we say "principles," we are speaking of both his knowledge of facts in general and his moral knowledge, about what is of value to him and what he and others ought to do in various contexts.
Question: How could an Objectivist rationalize his gossiping if the gossiping is performed to discredit another person?
Question: How might an Objectivist engage in deep reflection and contextual conversation with a person who has been thoroughly steeped in a Judeo-Christian ethic of compassionate servanthood? Answer: You have the most important step already—namely, keep contextual. In other words, remember the context from which this person is speaking. Remember that he may mean something different than you do when he uses words like “faith” or “compassion”. And remember that even though he has embraced a Judeo-Christian ethic, he may not have embraced a fully Judeo-Christian metaphysics. He could hold something of a hodgepodge of different ideas. Being contextual entails discovering the fuller context of what someone means so you can thereby actually engage with their ideas—and not with what you are assuming their ideas to be.
Question: Why is Martha Stewart's insider trading only bad because it is prohibited? I thought that capitalism needed a free and open market with multiple buyers and sellers or else the market function itself would be in danger; buyers and sellers could not trust it. Insider trading destroys that market function and seems therefore bad in itself. Answer: First, Martha Stewart was not convicted of insider trading. She was convicted of lying to federal law-enforcement agents. However, the underlying reason for her prosecution was an accusation of insider trading.
Question: Is it ever okay to initiate force? For example, what if I think my neighbor's tree might conceivably fall on my house, or what if I believe that Iraq is developing nuclear weapons and might attack me? What if I perceive a threat where others do not? Answer: I think the solution lies in the somewhat vague-sounding idea of "clear and present danger."
Question: What is the Objectivist position on inheritance?
April 2008 -- Reports of poetry’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Proof of life arrives afresh in Walter Donway’s exquisite new book, Touched By Its Rays.
Independence is a hard virtue to practice because we benefit so much from the values that others in society provide to us. One major class of value from others is all the information they provide us, from the subjects we learn in school… to ethical teachings …to scientific discoveries… to hot gossip… to the news we receive from all over the world. Does being independent mean that we can’t trust any of these sources? Practically everything we know comes to us through others. Right now, for instance, you are receiving advice from another, namely me.
One of the more satisfying, under-reported barometers of cultural trends is the dismal box office take of recent movies attacking U.S....
This past September, I was thrilled to see The Call of the Entrepreneur , a new documentary by The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion
The last chapter of James Watson’s story began as he was preparing to launch a book tour through Britain to promote his latest and...
I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat ..
January, 2001 -- In the culture wars of our time, the culture that shaped our world has had no voice.
Mayer, a professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, has just had a book published by the Cato Institute: Liberty..
Objectivists often look to the past for great artwork to contemplate and admire, avoiding the contemporary art scene as hopelessly......
Whenever I discuss environmental crimes, it seems, I am confronted with a parade of horribles: “Suppose a businessman dumps toxic waste on his property that leaches into the water supply, killing everybody in the area and making the region uninhabitable forever. How can tort law possibly deal with that?”
“Robin” Hood (as he is known here in my home state) was referring to State Farm Insurance. Hearing him utter such inanities was not that shocking to me, however, since he has made similar statements repeatedly. Following the lead of Mike Moore, his predecessor in the A.G.’s office, Hood gets a lot of air time by painting big business as evil and dastardly. What Mike Moore did to Big Tobacco, “Robin” Hood hopes to do to State Farm and the insurance industry.
Nowadays this comes across as downright cruelty (as well as downright stupidity), but I understand that this treatment of him was derived from her overvaluation of supposed intellectual consistency in the conduct of daily life. For Rand, there was no ambiguity in the world: if it is true that man has free will and is responsible for his conduct, it cannot also be that there is a condition such as dementia that robs a man of his capacity for choice. Hence her husband’s lapses were wilful and deliberate. At least they were to her. Do modern day Objectivists believe this is the correct and proper way to deal with those suffering from dementia?
Objectivism holds that for each person his own life is his ultimate value. Morally, the greatest thing one can do is to live robustly and to keep living. Happiness, in the Objectivist view, is the emotional experience of living well. Happiness is not a state one achieves, but the experience one has in the process of living a flourishing, robust life. Happiness is a complex emotion, involving many rather different subsidiary emotions, such as contentment, confidence, satisfaction, excitement, joy, and good cheer. These emotions generally proceed from achieving one's values, as when one feels joy and satisfaction over completing an important project, or as when one feels content after a good dinner. Happiness also proceeds from one's self-esteem, one's general sense that one is competent and worthy to be successful in life.
Objectivism opposes government entitlements that are based on the idea that one person's need is a moral claim that on the productive effort of another. Need is not a claim on wealth, in the Objectivist view.
Question: Why are a person's principles more important than the law? Answer: A person's principles are his means of integrating his knowledge about the world. So when we say "principles," we are speaking of both his knowledge of facts in general and his moral knowledge, about what is of value to him and what he and others ought to do in various contexts.
Question: How could an Objectivist rationalize his gossiping if the gossiping is performed to discredit another person?
Question: How might an Objectivist engage in deep reflection and contextual conversation with a person who has been thoroughly steeped in a Judeo-Christian ethic of compassionate servanthood? Answer: You have the most important step already—namely, keep contextual. In other words, remember the context from which this person is speaking. Remember that he may mean something different than you do when he uses words like “faith” or “compassion”. And remember that even though he has embraced a Judeo-Christian ethic, he may not have embraced a fully Judeo-Christian metaphysics. He could hold something of a hodgepodge of different ideas. Being contextual entails discovering the fuller context of what someone means so you can thereby actually engage with their ideas—and not with what you are assuming their ideas to be.
Question: Why is Martha Stewart's insider trading only bad because it is prohibited? I thought that capitalism needed a free and open market with multiple buyers and sellers or else the market function itself would be in danger; buyers and sellers could not trust it. Insider trading destroys that market function and seems therefore bad in itself. Answer: First, Martha Stewart was not convicted of insider trading. She was convicted of lying to federal law-enforcement agents. However, the underlying reason for her prosecution was an accusation of insider trading.
Question: Is it ever okay to initiate force? For example, what if I think my neighbor's tree might conceivably fall on my house, or what if I believe that Iraq is developing nuclear weapons and might attack me? What if I perceive a threat where others do not? Answer: I think the solution lies in the somewhat vague-sounding idea of "clear and present danger."
Question: What is the Objectivist position on inheritance?
April 2008 -- Reports of poetry’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Proof of life arrives afresh in Walter Donway’s exquisite new book, Touched By Its Rays.
Independence is a hard virtue to practice because we benefit so much from the values that others in society provide to us. One major class of value from others is all the information they provide us, from the subjects we learn in school… to ethical teachings …to scientific discoveries… to hot gossip… to the news we receive from all over the world. Does being independent mean that we can’t trust any of these sources? Practically everything we know comes to us through others. Right now, for instance, you are receiving advice from another, namely me.