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Monday, May 12, 2008 Objectivism Seminar's OPAR Sessions Begin Sunday By Greg @ 11:10 AM The Objectivism Seminar will begin going through Leonard Peikoff's book, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand this coming Sunday. If you are new to Ayn Rand's ideas, I encourage you to join us! From the original announcement: Whether you are new to Rand or a veteran student of Objectivism, our sessions will be valuable to you: we'll go through the entire system, with the experienced folks refining their understanding and ability to articulate and apply the ideas, while the newer folks grapple with the ideas and ask all the right questions. So please don't be shy about jumping in -- the reading and meeting load is light, and you'll be working with a great group of people! We'll begin the weekly sessions for OPAR on Sunday May 18, 7:30pm Mountain time, reviewing and discussing two or three sections per meeting. I'll almost always be moderating to keep us on track. And as we go, each section will have two volunteers at the helm of the discussion (maybe you!): one reviewing the material, and one playing Devil's Advocate to stimulate productive engagement. Everyone else can join in as desired to flesh out our picture of important elements and connections, explanations and applications, and to bring questions and concerns for us all to grapple with. For more information, please visit the www.ObjectivismSeminar.com site! Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Greg    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Saturday, May 03, 2008 Upgrade Your Understanding of Objectivism! By Greg @ 7:38 AM Ready to engage your brain and get serious about understanding Rand's philosophical system? The Objectivism Seminar is about to go through Leonard Peikoff's presentation of the entire philosophy in Objectivism: the Philosophy of Ayn Rand (OPAR)! Whether you are new to Rand or a veteran student of Objectivism, our sessions will be valuable to you: we'll go through the entire system, with the experienced folks refining their understanding and ability to articulate and apply the ideas, while the newer folks grapple with the ideas and ask all the right questions. So please don't be shy about jumping in -- the reading and meeting load is light, and you'll be working with a great group of people! We'll begin the weekly sessions for OPAR on Sunday May 18, 7:30pm Mountain time, reviewing and discussing about two sections per meeting. I'll almost always be moderating to keep us on track. And as we go, each section will have two volunteers at the helm of the discussion (maybe you!): one reviewing the material, and one playing Devil's Advocate to stimulate productive engagement. Everyone else can join in as desired to flesh out our picture of important elements and connections, explanations and applications, and to bring questions and concerns for us all to grapple with. For more information you can read the original Invitation to The Objectivism Seminar, and you can visit the www.ObjectivismSeminar.com site to get geared up for the journey! Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Greg    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Another NetFlix Free Trial By Diana Hsieh @ 10:20 PM If you're interested in trying out the fabulous NetFlix DVD rental service, you can get a free trial while throwing a bonus rental to Paul and me. The offer expires on June 15th. (Last time I posted this kind of offer from NetFlix, Paul and I enjoyed a few extra movies.) Labels: Announcements E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Upcoming Events By Diana Hsieh @ 7:08 AM Here are some upcoming events of interest: Three panel discussions on totalitarian Islam: "The Threat of Totalitarian Islam," a panel discussion at UC Berkeley with Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes, and Victor Davis Hanson on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. More info... "The Threat of Totalitarian Islam," a panel discussion at NYU with Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes, and Flemming Rose on Monday, May 5, 2008. More info... "The Threat of Totalitarian Islam," a panel discussion at Harvard with Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes, and Robert Spencer on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. More info... Yaron Brook will speak at Ford Hall Forum on "Woodstock's Legacy: The Rise of Environmentalism and the Religious Right" at Ford Hall Forum in Boston on May 8th. More info... Excellent news: Leonard Peikoff will host a special Q&A session at OCON this summer! Labels: Announcements E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, April 09, 2008 OAC Early Application Deadline By Diana Hsieh @ 7:00 AM An announcement from the Ayn Rand Institute: The Early Admissions deadline for the Objectivist Academic Center (OAC) is April 16, 2008 -- just a few weeks away! The OAC is a distance-learning program of the Ayn Rand Institute offering classes on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, as well as on the methods of objective thinking and communication. If you are interested in Ayn Rand’s ideas and would like to study them in greater detail under the guidance of ARI staff intellectuals, then the OAC is the program for you. By applying early, you greatly increase your chances of acceptance into a limited number of openings. Also, those who are not offered Early Admission are reconsidered during the Regular Admissions process on an equal basis with other applicants, giving them, in effect, two chances to be admitted. The application process is quite competitive, so we urge you to apply today! Visit www.objectivistacademiccenter.org for more information. If you have any questions about the program, please contact oac@aynrand.org. As I've said before, the courses offered by the Objectivist Academic Center have exceeded my wildest expectations. I cannot recommend the program highly enough. Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Sunday, March 23, 2008 BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism By Diana Hsieh @ 5:42 PM Awesome news: BB&T Donates $2 Million for Ayn Rand Research At The University of Texas at Austin March 20, 2008 AUSTIN, Texas -- BB&T Corporation, one of the nation's largest banks, has awarded $2 million to the Department of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin to establish the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism. Tara Smith, professor of philosophy, has been named the first holder of the chair. Over 10 years, the gift will support research on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, as well as conferences, workshops, guest lecturers, visiting scholars and research on the moral foundations of capitalism. Smith spearheads Objectivism scholarship in the university's philosophy department. She has published several articles on Rand's philosophy and the 2006 book, "Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist" with Cambridge University Press. She holds the Anthem Foundation Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism and is organizing the interdisciplinary conference, "Objectivity in the Law," April 4-5. "Ayn Rand's philosophy has been the subject of increasing academic interest in recent years, and this generous gift will allow us to deepen examination of her thought and engage leading scholars in other fields, such as law," the Rand scholar said. "It's an exhilarating opportunity and a testament to BB&T's recognition of the vital importance of philosophy in people's lives." Rand, a Russian-born American philosopher and novelist, is best known for her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged." A joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that "Atlas Shrugged" is the second most influential book for Americans today, after the Bible. According to the Ayn Rand Institute, an estimated 20 million copies of her books have been sold. "We believe that ideas matter. In this context, BB&T is trying to encourage a thorough and fair discussion of Rand's philosophy and the moral foundations of capitalism on university campuses," said BB&T Chief Executive Officer John Allison. "We are pleased to support the philosophy department's important work in the study of Objectivism at The University of Texas at Austin." BB&T Corp., headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., is a financial holding company with $132.6 billion in assets. With more than 29,000 employees, its bank subsidiaries operate more than 1,500 branch offices in 11 states and Washington, D.C. If you'd like more information on John Allison, you can listen to an excellent EconTalk interview with him. (To hear of a company systematically practicing the Objectivist ethics is quite thrilling!) You can also read about BB&T's philosophy and values on their web site. Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Sunday, March 09, 2008 OCON 2008 By Diana Hsieh @ 12:55 AM The full schedule and registration for the Ayn Rand Institutes's summer conference, OCON 2008, was recently made available online at http://www.objectivistconferences.com/ocon2008/. The conference will be held in Newport Beach from June 28th to July 6th. Please forward the URL to anyone you think might be interested in attending. OCON can be a great experience for anyone with a budding interest in Ayn Rand's ideas. Such people will be able to see those ideas in action -- not just as applied in the lectures but also as embodied in the people present. They'll also be able to discuss the philosophy in greater depth and with far more knowledgeable people than perhaps they've ever done before. In addition, the theme of the conference will be a topic near and dear to my heart, namely "changing the culture." Note that student prices are heavily discounted -- and student scholarships are available. Interestingly, I didn't think to forward this announcement to the mailing lists of Front Range Objectivism and the Boulder Objectivist Club mailing lists until I'd thought to post it on the new OActivists list. So, much to my delight, that list is helping remind of me of what I can do. It's shaping my habits -- even more than I expected! Hooray! Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, March 05, 2008 Yaron Brook at Ford Hall Forum By Diana Hsieh @ 7:31 AM Ford Hall Forum announces a May lecture by Yaron Brook: "Apollo and Dionysus" Revisited In 1969, Ayn Rand's Ford Hall Forum talk, "Apollo and Dionysus," addressed the near simultaneous events of Woodstock and the first lunar landing. Employing Greek mythology's god of the sun and god of wine, she compared the awe-inspiring accomplishments of NASA's Apollo space program to the famous three-day concert that has come to exemplify the counterculture of the 1960s and the "hippie era." Almost four decades later, Dr. Yaron Brook, President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute, reflects on her words and takes a new look at our society's drives toward individualism versus wholeness, light versus darkness, and civilization versus primal nature. Thursday, May 8 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Old South Meeting House If you know of people in the Boston area who might like to attend, please send them the announcement. Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Monday, March 03, 2008 John Lewis on the Radio Today By Diana Hsieh @ 7:19 AM Last week on the OBloggers mailing list, John Lewis wrote: I will be on the radio next Monday, March 3, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM EST. [That's TODAY!] WBGU FM is Bowling Green University radio. The show is "Political Animals," hosted by graduate students qua political junkies. The show has had some well-known guests; Jonah Goldberg was on last week, and they get a lot of play in Canada. My ostensive topic is the election, although I told them I'll have nothing to say about the "candidates" per se, except to note the crappiness of it all, and to offer an alternative in Ayn Rand''s thought. I expect some Ron Paul adherents to call in, and I expect to have to disgorge on the libertarians and "anti-state versus anti-statism." Radio is 88.1 FM in the Bowling Green, Ohio area. It may be heard on the web at http://wbgufm.com/tunein.php Please call in. You can do so at (local) 419-372-8810, or (long-distance) 888-7-WBGUFM. You can email during the show at politicalanimals@wbgufm.com (they read emails on-air). Listen and call in, if you can! Update: John did a great job -- just as I expected -- particularly in the discussions of libertarianism. (Kudos to caller Paul McKeever too.) Labels: Announcements E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Thursday, February 28, 2008 Summer Conference on the Moral Foundations of Capitalism By Diana Hsieh @ 12:55 AM As some of you might know, the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism in South Carolina sponsors a three-day summer conference for undergraduates on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and the Moral Foundations of Capitalism. This summer's conference will run from June 5th to 9th at Clemson University. It is an excellent conference, so I highly recommend it. (I was the graduate assistant last year.) The description on the web site is exactly accurate: [The conference] brings together students from around the country and around the world to learn about capitalism with top professors in the field. Students attend lectures, participate in small group discussions, and have free time to discuss and debate the ideas presented in the formal sessions. Throughout the three days of sessions, students have ample opportunity to speak one-on-one with faculty and ask them questions in a more informal setting. The faculty this year will be Drs. Yaron Brook, Onkar Ghate, Eric Daniels, C. Bradley Thompson, and Andrew Bernstein. Full scholarships will be granted to qualified undergraduate students. Send completed applications to edan@clemson.edu. (Please e-mail that address with any questions too.) More details including the application form, a full description of the event, a video from last year, and a FAQ are available on the web site. Here's the most critical bit of information: The deadline for applications is March 5. So if you're thinking that you might like to attend, don't delay! Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Some News from ARI By Diana Hsieh @ 10:36 AM Some news from ARI: Mary Ann and Charles Sures' memoir of Ayn Rand, The Facets of Ayn Rand is now available on the web at http://www.facetsofaynrand.com. On Thursday, March 13, 2008, at 7:30 PM, Dr. Keith Lockitch will be speaking on "Darwin and the Discovery of Evolution" at the Hilton Costa Mesa (3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626). The lecture is free. More information is here. I'm delighted by the topic, because in the process of grading student papers on the argument from design, I've realized that gross misunderstandings of evolutionary theory are quite common. It's definitely a topic that I'd like to study more, not just because it's relevant to the refutation of William Paley's argument for design, but also because I find it intrinsically interesting. Biology has always been -- by a long shot -- the most interesting of the sciences to me. Brad Thompson published a great op-ed a while back entitled "An Open Letter to America's Students--Will Atlas Shrugged Change Your Life Forever?" If you haven't read it yet, you'll find it here. Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Monday, February 18, 2008 A New List: OActivists By Diana Hsieh @ 8:38 AM A message for Objectivists: We Objectivists often lament the sorry state of the culture. Too often, faith and emotion are lauded as superior to reason, the individual is merely a means to some collective, service to others is deemed more noble than personal happiness, and rights are nearly forgotten in politics. Yet we're also inspired by the unexpected inroads forged by the Ayn Rand Institute over the past few years, particularly by the wild success of their program offering "Free Books for Teachers." However, the Ayn Rand Institute cannot change the culture on its own, not even with our financial and moral support. It's just too big a task for a few dozen professional intellectuals. Objectivists must effectively advocate their values in the the forums open to them, if they want to see substantial and enduring change in the values of the culture. Thanks to Lin Zinser's FIRM (Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine), I'm now convinced that so much more is possible than most people imagine when like-minded people join forces in a loose, ad hoc way. In those ongoing efforts, FIRM's "Activists" mailing list for people committed to promoting freedom and individual rights in medicine in Colorado has been of surprising value. It enables us to quickly and easily alert each other to opportunities to advocate good ideas, to discuss effective methods of argument, to praise and encourage the work well done, to report on our own accomplishments, to marvel at our impact on the debate, to inform others of useful sources of information, to brainstorm about venues for advocacy, to announce upcoming events, and more. I've realized that a mailing list modeled on similar lines -- but specifically for Objectivists committed to fostering positive cultural change -- could be of similar value. So I've created OActivists @ OList.com. Here's the basic list description, including the requirements that all subscribers must satisfy: OActivists is an informal private mailing list for Objectivists committed to fostering positive cultural change by effective advocacy of Objectivist ideas. Its basic purpose is to facilitate communication about matters of mutual interest to Objectivist activists, such as opportunities for advocacy, methods of persuasive argumentation, announcements of upcoming events, useful sources of information on issues, examples of advocacy, and the like. To join the list, you must be an Objectivist, meaning that you agree with and live by the principles of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. You should support the mission and activities of the Ayn Rand Institute. You must also be committed to engaging in intellectual activism to promote Objectivist ideas in online or print forums on a semi-regular basis. (Notably, arguing with other Objectivists does not qualify as intellectual activism!) If you meet those criteria, please subscribe via the web interface. If you have any questions about the list -- including whether you qualify -- please e-mail me, the list's owner and administrator, at diana@dianahsieh.com. Subscribers will be expected to respect the purpose of the list. Those who prove themselves disruptive to its basic aims will be removed. To give people time to subscribe, the list will not open for discussion until Tuesday, February 26th. Finally: OActivists is not an Objectivist discussion list. Objectivists (including myself) have wasted far too much time and energy arguing amongst ourselves about minutia in far-off corners of the internet. We can do better. We can defend our values from attack in debates that matter. We can refute the standard strawmen of our philosophy. We can introduce people to rational, principled philosophic ideas. We can do all that more effectively if we communicate. That communication is what OActivists aims to make easy. Update #1: OActivists has 55 members in just 24 hours. Excellent! Update #2: Now it's 72 members in 48 hours. Even better! Labels: Activism, Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Saturday, January 19, 2008 Eric Daniels on Capitalism By Diana Hsieh @ 8:33 AM Mark your calendars, New Yorkers: The Morality of Capitalism Who: Dr. Eric Daniels, speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute and visiting scholar at Clemson University's Institute for the Study of Capitalism What: A talk making the case that capitalism is the only moral social system. A Q&A will follow. Where: Kimmel Center, Room 914, New York University, 60 Washington Square South, NY, NY 10012 Maps and directions: http://www.nyu.edu/about/virtual.html. When: Wednesday, January 23, 2008, at 7 pm Registration: Attendees must RSVP to nyu@objectivistclubs.org Description: Despite the enormous success of American capitalism at producing material abundance and political freedom, critics continue their assault on the system, calling it immoral. In this lecture, Dr. Eric Daniels makes the case that capitalism is the only moral social system. He also examines the conventional defense of capitalism, which relies on the practical, economic argument, and illustrates why only a defense of pure laissez-faire capitalism can succeed. Bio: Dr. Eric Daniels is a visiting scholar at Clemson University's Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He taught for five years at Duke University, in the Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace, and at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his doctorate in American history. He has lectured internationally on the history of American ethics, American business and legal history, and the American Enlightenment. Daniels's publications include a chapter in Abolition of Antitrust and five entries in the Oxford Companion to United States History. Eric Daniels is one of my favorite speakers. So go, if you can! Labels: Announcements, Objectivism E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Affirmative Action Debate By Diana Hsieh @ 10:00 AM On the evening of November 5th, the L.O.G.I.C. (the UCLA Objectivist Club) will be hosting a debate on affirmative action featuring Ward Connerly, Richard Sander, and Peter Schwartz. More details can be found on the club's web site. Update: Paul posted the following in the comments: The affirmative action issue is a good example where a single person can create significant positive political and cultural change. Ward Connerly's tireless efforts to eliminate race-based admissions in the University of California system seemed doomed to failure in the mid-1990s, especially given the liberal mindset of California in general and of the academicians in particular. And his initial efforts did fail. But he persisted, and as a result there have been significant changes in the university admissions policies in California, Texas, Florida, and Michigan. The battle is not over by any means, but a single person armed with clear rational convictions can and has made a tremendous difference in framing the terms of the debate and moving important parts of the culture in the right direction. I like to cite this issue as an real-life example whenever I am faced with gloom-and-doom Objectivists who say that "socialized medicine is inevitable" or "this country is going to the sewer and there's nothing we can do about it". Of course it's irrational to take a pollyanna-ish approach (e.g., "Objectivism is automatically going to win because the ideas are correct and in accordance with reality"), just as it's irrational to take a doom-and-gloom approach ("Objectivism will never win because the forces of irrationality are too powerful"). But if Objectivists are willing to work in their self-interest to advocate good ideas in the appropriate time and fashion, then I believe there is reason for rational optimism. In particular, I wholeheartedly agree with some of the folks at the ARI who think that Objectivists should be spending less time arguing minutia amongst themselves in internet Objectivist online forums and instead should be willing to go onto mainstream forums, blog comment boards, etc., and post their ideas to the wider world. Planting philosophical seeds in support of reason, ethical egoism, individual rights, and capitalism can bear fruit in surprising places. These comments don't need to be long essays - just a couple of short polite sentences stating ones views (perhaps with links to more detailed arguments on the ARI or other Objectivist websites) could suffice, depending on one's comfort level with writing. This is not to disparage Objectivist online forums per se. Those can be good places to discuss ideas in a friendly setting. But what I am criticizing is the kind of person who spends disproportionate intellectual effort engaging in pointless discussions of Objectivist hair-splitting in an insular setting, rather than taking up the more significant challenge of advocating his ideas in a constructive fashion to the rest of the non-Objectivist world. In that way, it's no different from hearing someone at work saying, "Shouldn't the government guarantee health care as a right for everyone?", then being willing to respond with something like, "Actually that would be a terrible idea; that would turn doctors and nurses into slaves, and screw over honest, responsible patients as well." Labels: Announcements E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Sunday, September 30, 2007 We the Living By Diana Hsieh @ 12:43 AM I'm super-excited by the recent announcement from the Ayn Rand Bookstore that the audiobook of Ayn Rand's We the Living will be available on CD in October. Until now, it's only been sold on cassette. It'll be available on both regular CD and MP3 CD. The MP3 CD is just $45, whereas the regular CD is $120. I love We the Living intensely: Kira is the Randian hero/heroine with whom I most strongly identify -- by a long shot. So I'm really looking forward to listening to it. (I wonder if it will also be available for download via Audible. I hope so!) Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Saturday, August 25, 2007 Galt’s Speech Dissected and Discounted By Diana Hsieh @ 5:07 AM Onkar Ghate's excellent course A Study of Galt's Speech is currently half price from the Ayn Rand Bookstore. It's part of their big fire sale on audiocassettes. (I love cheap!) Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Red Pawn By Diana Hsieh @ 7:34 AM Last year, one of my favorite courses at OCON was Dina Schein's Savoring Ayn Rand's Red Pawn. Not only was it delightful to talk about my absolute favorite work of Ayn Rand's outside her novels, but Dina did an excellent job of taking us step-by-step through the literary analysis. Finally, it's available from the Ayn Rand Bookstore. Hooray! Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Good Stuff and Awesome Stuff By Diana Hsieh @ 7:05 AM Registered users of the Ayn Rand Institutes's web site now have access to... The Ayn Rand Multimedia Library Thanks to an exclusive permission generously granted by the Estate of Ayn Rand, aynrand.org is now able to offer its registered users, free of charge, an expansive collection of Ayn Rand audio and video recordings. This unprecedented selection includes lectures, interviews, and the complete series of Ayn Rand's Ford Hall Forum lectures. The ARI Lecture Series: The Complete Video Collection On September 12, 2002, Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, inaugurated the ARI Lecture Series before a crowd of 600 with a lecture titled "9/11--One Year Later: Why America Is Losing the War!" Since then ARI speakers have delivered about six free public talks per year on topics ranging from ethics to foreign policy to history. As a registered user of aynrand.org, you now have access to the lecture portion of each of these talks. A complete selection of full-length video and audio recordings, including the Q-&-A sessions that followed, is available at the Ayn Rand Bookstore. The second is cool, but the first is simply awesome. I've listened to most of the recordings of Ayn Rand already. I particularly enjoyed the Ford Hall Forum lectures, for the reasons explained here. Even those well familiar with the in-print Objectivist corpus will likely find interesting tidbits to tweak their brains in these recordings. And, as I said about the Ford Hall Forum lectures, "those who wish for some small first-hand glimpse of the real Ayn Rand, undistorted by ax-grinding critics, will find these lectures to be an invaluable treasure." Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Thursday, March 29, 2007 Lecture Handouts By Diana Hsieh @ 2:32 PM A few days ago, I was delighted to discover that the Ayn Rand Bookstore has an online collection of handouts for the lectures they sell. The URL of the page that lists all of them is not public, but it is printed on the case of many of the relevant courses. I've never noticed that before, but you can check for it on lectures you've bought. The collection surely isn't complete, but I found quite a few handouts that I was missing. Also, please don't post the URL in the comments -- or elsewhere. These handouts are intended only for those who've bought the relevant courses. Labels: Announcements E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Saturday, February 10, 2007 Flemming Rose By Diana Hsieh @ 7:36 PM A while back, Ari Armstrong reported on Flemming Rose's December lecture in Denver. Even better, he posted the whole speech in MP3 format. Also, the full set of lectures from the fall 2006 Boston weekend conference "The Jihad Against the West" is now available from the Ayn Rand Bookstore. That version of Flemming Rose's talk was definitely better than the one given in Denver. I really enjoyed talking to Flemming Rose while he was in Denver. He's a remarkable -- and very admirable -- man. Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, September 12, 2006 Shoshana Milgram on Sale By Diana Hsieh @ 10:08 AM If you're interested in literature, four of Shoshana Milgram's lectures are on sale at the Ayn Rand Bookstore through September. I haven't heard any of them, so I cannot recommend them in particular. However, I've always found Dr. Milgram's lectures worthwhile. Oh oh oh! I just realized that one of the lecture courses on sale is Hugo's Notre-Dame of Paris. Since I just listened to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I'm definitely going to buy that. I was completely and utterly captivated by the novel; it was actually the first Victor Hugo that I've read, despite a year a half of French literature in high school and college. (I highly recommend the superb reading by David Case available from Audible.com. It far surpassed any other reading I've heard.) Update: *GRUMBLE* In the course of attempting to order some absurd number of lectures from the Ayn Rand Bookstore, I hit the "empty basket" button instead of the "update basket" button -- not once but twice. Augh! (In my defense, they're right next to each other... too close, I think.) To add insult to injury, I wanted to think on my selections for a while and verify that I didn't have one at home in some dark corner, so I didn't place my order right away. (I was at school.) Now that I've returned home, my shopping basket is empty yet again. At least I have my selections listed on a saved page. I'm not starting over though. I've given up: I'm just going to call in my order. (Really, that's quite unprecedented for me.) Labels: Announcements E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Friday, August 18, 2006 Darryl-Wright-O-Rama By Diana Hsieh @ 9:52 AM It's Darryl-Wright-O-Rama at the Ayn Rand Bookstore. Dr. Wright's very fascinating -- albeit dense and technical -- lecture from the 2005 OCON has just been released: "Ayn Rand and the History Of Ethics" Can reason prescribe the ends human beings should seek in life, as well as the means to those ends? This has been a central question in the history of ethics, and it is also a central question in Ayn Rand's Objectivist ethics. This lecture explores Ayn Rand's view on this question, bringing out its distinctive and important features and contrasting it with some of the most influential historical views, including those of Aristotle and Hume. 100 min., with Q & A -- Audio CD; 2-CD set: $23.95 or Audiocassette: $19.95 This lecture is fascinating, but also quite dense and technical. So if you don't have some familiarity with the history of ethics, including the standard categories of "consequentialism" and "deontology" and the standard questions about ultimate values, then you'll probably have trouble understanding it. However, if you have those meta-ethical basics, you're sure to find it worthwhile. The lecture does have a particularly interesting discussion of how to think of Ayn Rand's metaethics inductively. That's helped me understand it better, since before it always had something of the feel of a floating abstraction. Dr. Wright's other lecture courses are also on sale -- 50% off! Bonus clearance sale: 50% discounts on four other Darryl Wright titles! Offer good through October 1, 2006 Reason And Freedom This course extensively analyzes Ayn Rand's groundbreaking principle that the mind cannot function under coercion--and uses this principle as a case study in philosophic methodology. Audiocassette; 6-tape set; 7 hrs., with Q & A -- Regular price: $79.95, Sale price: $39.95 Advanced Topics In Ethics This course develops new perspectives on key topics in the Objectivist ethics. It focuses on two broad issues: the significance of the fact that everyone acts on some philosophy, and the dependence of the concept "value" on the concept "life." Audiocassette; 5-tape set; 6 hrs., with Q & A -- Regular price: $68.95, Sale price: $34.45 The Philosophy of Motivation Is achieving a value equivalent to avoiding a disvalue? Is pursuing life the same as avoiding death? This course, given by Dr. Wright, explores Ayn Rand's important distinction between "motivation by love" and "motivation by fear." Audiocassette; 6-tape set; 7 hrs., with Q & A -- Regular price: $79.95, Sale price: $39.95 Modern Political Philosophy: Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau This course contrasts Hobbes' and Rousseau's arguments for political absolutism with Locke's intransigent defense of individual rights and limited government. Dr. Wright corrects standard misinterpretations (such as the assertion that Hobbes' theory is egoistic and pro-capitalist, or that Locke endorses altruistic limitation on property rights), and compares their views with those of Ayn Rand. Audiocassette; 6-tape set; 7 hrs.,with Q&A -- Regular price: $69.95, Sale price: $34.95 I can't say anything about Modern Political Philosophy: Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, since I haven't listened to it yet. However, the other three courses are excellent. I would particularly recommend Advanced Topics In Ethics first and foremost, then Reason And Freedom, then The Philosophy of Motivation. Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Thursday, August 03, 2006 Two Lecture Courses on Sale By Diana Hsieh @ 7:04 AM The Ayn Rand Bookstore is selling two of Leonard Peikoff's excellent lecture courses at a substantial discount: Induction in Physics and Philosophy By Leonard Peikoff These historic lectures present, for the first time, the solution to the problem of induction--and thereby complete, in every essential respect, the validation of reason ... (13 hrs., 42 min., across 7 sessions, with Q & A) Audio CD; 14-CD set: Regular price: $210 Sale price: $145 Audiocassette; 12-tape set: Regular price: $180 Sale price: $125 The Dim Hypothesis: The Epistemological Mechanics by which Philosophy Shapes Society By Leonard Peikoff This 15-session course--part lecture, part discussion--was presented live to a worldwide audience by phone and on the Internet. It is based on Dr. Peikoff's The DIM Hypothesis (book-in-progress), in which he looks at the role of integration in the culture and in practical life ... (22 hrs., 9 min., with Q & A) Audio CD; 30-CD set: Regular price: $310 Sale price: $215 Audiocassette; 15-tape set: Regular price: $265 Sale price: $185 The sale ends on October 1st. Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Thursday, February 23, 2006 An Update on Andy Bernstein Lectures By Diana Hsieh @ 2:58 PM As an update on this inquiry about the lectures by Andy Bernstein on sale at the Ayn Rand Bookstore this month, I thought I should mention that Andy was kind enough to reply to my inquiry. And based upon his recommendation, I've decided to buy: Kantianism vs. Objectivism in The Fountainhead -- Sale Price: $14.36 (List Price: $17.95) Ayn Rand's Characters as Philosophic Archetypes (Parts 1 & 2) -- Sale Price: $88.74 (List Price: $147.90) Atlas Shrugged as the Culmination of the Romantic Novel -- Sale Price: $14.36 (List Price: $17.95) Philosophic and Literary Integration in Atlas Shrugged -- Sale Price: $63.67 (List Price: $90.95) (I saved over $90!) I'm looking forward to listening to them, although I'll probably wait until I listen to The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. (I recently bought the unabridged audio books with my Audible subscription.) That might be a few months though, since I can't afford to lose myself in the pleasure of listening to Ayn Rand novels when I'm utterly swamped by graduate school. Labels: Announcements, Recommendations E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis

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