Foreign Policy

Chemical Weapons in Syria and Emotion-Driven Foreign Policy [Video]

Was President Trump right or wrong in deciding to bomb a Syrian airfield in retaliation for the government’s use of chemical weapons against citizens? When a similar question arose in 2013 on President Obama’s watch, Ayn Rand Institute executive chairman Yaron Brook recorded this prescient video, questioning whether the use of chemical weapons threatens American interests.
Culture And Society

Don Watkins on The Rubin Report, Part 1 [Video]

In the most recent episode of The Rubin Report, Don Watkins explains why Ayn Rand is such a controversial philosopher, what makes Watkins tick as an intellectual activist, the demonization of businessmen, the moral meaning of life, Objectivism and libertarianism, the unselfishness of Donald Trump and more.
Culture And Society

Defining Basic Moral Concepts [Video]

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.
Culture And Society

An Interview with Peter Schwartz [Video]

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.
Culture And Society

Things To Learn from In Defense of Selfishness [Video]

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.
ARI News

State of ARI 2014

Yaron Brook, executive director of ARI, updates us on the Institute’s current projects and recent successes — as well as its future goals and other exciting news. This video was recorded on June 30, 2014, at Objectivist Summer Conference 2014 (OCON2014) at The Venetian in Las Vegas.
Culture And Society

Yaron Brook on the Meaning of an Independent Life

In this talk at Chicago Ideas Week 2013, Yaron Brook offers an inspirational message to those who are young and still struggling to figure out what to do with their lives: Pick up the novel which fundamentally changed his life for the better, by showing him the meaning of an independent life: Atlas Shrugged.

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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