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Although Ayn Rand was a prolific author, she never wrote a treatise on Objectivism — her philosophical thinking and cultural commentary are spread out among more than a dozen books.
In this wide-ranging episode of The Thinkery Podcast, Carl Benjamin (known on YouTube as “Sargon of Akkad”), interviews Yaron Brook. Among the many topics covered are: Why Adam Smith’s conventional morality undermines the case for capitalism; why Ayn Rand is not a “liberal” or a “conservative”; communism as the secularization of Christianity; the need for rational education; the essence of morality.
Did you know that many of the courses on ARI Campus have multiple-choice quizzes embedded in the lessons? In this post we’ll focus on courses by Leonard Peikoff, while in a subsequent post we’ll look at material from other instructors.
What is free will? In this episode of Yaron Brook’s Living Objectivism, Onkar Ghate, senior fellow and chief content officer at the Ayn Rand Institute, calls in to discuss Ayn Rand’s unique perspective on the nature of free will; the validation of free will; why determinism is self-refuting and incoherent; free will as axiomatic; why free will is associated with mysticism; Objectivism on materialism and idealism; the nature and significance of the primary choice, and other issues.
Sam Weaver will be a senior this year at Davidson College in North Carolina, majoring in English and minoring in philosophy. He is also a second-year student in the Objectivist Academic Center.
Grace Gumina is a senior, double majoring in French and international relations at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Gumina explains why she was inspired to study French: “I took French in high school and loved it, so I decided to continue on in college. I think it’s very important to learn another language in today’s increasingly connected world.” She decided to also pursue international relations due to an interest in global politics and history.
Zach Johnson is a philosophy major at St. John’s University in New York City. Johnson, a senior, says he became a philosophy major because he is “interested in the connection between ethics and metaphysics, conceptions of human beings, free markets, and the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. I’m also interested in logic, Friedrich Hayek, and education’s role in social change.” He explains that he had “great English teachers, especially in high school,” who inspired him to read even more philosophic texts. “I was stunned by Plato’s Republic, along with Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I’ve been hooked ever since.”
“Oh, hi there,” says Carl Benjamin in a recent video, looking up at the camera from his well-bookmarked copy of The Ominous Parallels by Leonard Peikoff. “I’ve been doing some reading, and I’ve discovered something I think you should know. The Nazis were bad. Let me explain to you why.”
