ARI News

Top 5 Blog Posts of 2016

Voices for Reason is a blog that covers a wide range of topics, including philosophy and its application to current events, programs of the Ayn Rand Institute and the ideas of Objectivism. Looking back on the year, here are 2016’s most-read blog posts (along with edited versions of the introductions that accompanied them at time of publication).
Science And Industrialization

Read Now: The Gene Revolution by Amanda Maxham

Amanda Maxham, research associate at the Ayn Rand Institute, was recently interviewed on Power Hour, a podcast hosted by Alex Epstein, the president and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. In the interview Epstein and Dr. Maxham discuss the technology of genetic engineering, technophobia and what it means (or doesn’t mean) for a food to be “natural.” Dr. Maxham highlights the promise and possibilities of genetic engineering and offers a taste of what’s covered in her newly published report, The Gene Revolution.
ARI News

ARI on YouTube

In case you haven’t noticed, the Ayn Rand Institute has a YouTube channel that we are regularly updating with talks, lectures, debates, interviews, Q&As and seminars.
ARI News

Amanda Maxham on the Advent of GMOs

Please join us for our next featured event, “Why GMOs Are Good" with Dr. Amanda Maxham. Despite the perception that organic and non-GMO foods are the healthy option for you and your family, the truth is that the technology of genetic engineering has been improving the food we eat — making it safer, more nutritious and plentiful.
Science And Industrialization

Excuse Me, Waiter, There Is DNA In My Soup

Just Label It, a group that pushes for mandatory labels on all foods containing ingredients grown from genetically engineered seeds, repeatedly tells us that American consumers overwhelmingly support such laws. Front and center and in bold text on their website, we are told: “Studies show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling of genetically modified (GMO) foods.”
Science And Industrialization

Frankenfood and the Angry Villagers

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, celebrated a birthday in August (if she was still alive, she would be over 200 years old). Since the most popular anti-GMO slur term, “Frankenfood,” is based on her iconic work of fiction, Mary Shelley’s birthday had me (and some other bloggers) thinking about how the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster relates to the biotech debate.
Science And Industrialization

Policy Digest: Environmental issues

Climate protestors are busy preparing signs, floats and a “papier-mâché tree embedded with axes” for the People’s Climate March in New York City this Sunday. Thousands are expected to gather and march through the streets of Manhattan with the goal of convincing U.N. members to band together and drastically cut the use of fossil fuels across the globe. Marchers may believe they are taking to the streets in an effort to make lives better, but Alex Epstein, president and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, writes in a recent Forbes.com article, that “[i]n fact they’re supporting policies that would cut billions of lives short. Literally.”

Further Reading

Ayn Rand | 1957
For the New Intellectual

The Moral Meaning of Capitalism

An industrialist who works for nothing but his own profit guiltlessly proclaims his refusal to be sacrificed for the “public good.”
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Ayn Rand | 1961
The Virtue of Selfishness

The Objectivist Ethics

What is morality? Why does man need it? — and how the answers to these questions give rise to an ethics of rational self-interest.
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