“I’m often asked why someone with a penchant for philosophy and an academic life joins the Marine Corps. Why, some ask, does a scribe lower the pen to pick up the sword?” So begins this stirring and thought-provoking Independence Day address by Lt. Col. Scott McDonald, USMC, to attendees at Objectivist Summer Conference 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
While we should always be clear on the meaning of the concepts we're using, this commitment to clarity is especially important with respect to concepts that the culture seeks to muddy. Today, argues Peter Schwartz, the primary muddiers are the advocates of altruism, and their targets are concepts of morality. This talk examines the obfuscations, including the “package-dealing,” generated by altruists, and analyzes the valid and invalid definitions of crucial moral concepts.
More than fifty years after Ayn Rand described big business as “America’s persecuted minority,” businesspeople are still being subjected to widespread moral denunciation and regulatory oppression. But such continuing injustices do not warrant giving in to discouragement, observes Ayn Rand Institute senior fellow Onkar Ghate.
In this debate with William P. Marshall, Yaron Brook argues that the economic inequality that emerges under capitalism is fair and that the inequality alarmists are motivated by envy, not a genuine concern for “the poor.”
In this interview, Peter Schwartz discusses his new book In Defense of Selfishness: Why the Code of Self-Sacrifice Is Unjust and Destructive and talks about the actual meaning of selfishness, the difference between altruism and benevolence, the appeal of altruism and why you should be selfish.
In this video, ARI Distinguished Fellow Peter Schwartz explains what readers will learn from his new book In Defense of Selfishness: Why the Code of Self-Sacrifice Is Unjust and Destructive. Topics include: the real meaning of selfishness and altruism, why selfishness requires moral principles and why “the public interest” is a myth.
Steve Simpson interviews Elan Journo on some of the lessons we can draw from what we have witnessed in the Middle East, during the thirteen years since 9/11. How should we judge the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who is the enemy? How should we think of ISIS?
Steve Simpson interviews Elan Journo on the Hamas-Israel War. Points covered, among others: the cause of the war, the cycle-of-violence myth, the nature of Israel’s enemies, the goals of Hamas, how to judge a country, and the conflict between the “laws of war” and self-defense.
