Wednesday
January 25, 2006 |
 Government Revisited: The central role
by Joseph Rowlands
What is the primary purpose of government? The typical Objectivist position is that the government’s job is to protect our rights. This inevitably leads to the question of whether the protection of rights needs to be done by the government, or if it can be done privately. Before even going down that path, I want to ... (Read more...)
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 Principles of Activism 5: Unique Advantages
by Joseph Rowlands
What kinds of activism should we focus on? That can be a tough question with no easy answer. The problem is that there are so many things you can do to promote Objectivist ideas. We could promote life-affirming art, less taxation, financial responsibility, or countless other ideas. Any of these ideas move us closer... (Read more...)
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Principles of Activism 4: Non-sacrificial activism
by Joseph Rowlands
A question that has come up often in the past is whether activism is even compatible with a morality based on self-interest. Isn't activism a kind of sacrifice? Aren't you throwing away your happiness to try to improve the lives of others? If someone dedicated his life to "the cause", wouldn't he be betraying the ve... (Read more...)
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Principles of Activism 3: Head in the right direction
by Joseph Rowlands
I've been asked many times over the years how I expect to get from where we are now to where we want to be. How do I expect to create an Objectivist world? I think they were expecting me to pull out a notebook with a timeline, some graphs, and a list of milestones, and titled "The Master Plan". Maybe they don't expe... (Read more...)
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Principles of Activism 2: Low Hanging Fruit
by Joseph Rowlands
In continuing with the identification of principles to make our activism more effective, we need to turn to a very simple one. The principle is to aim for the low hanging fruit. It means we should be seeking the easy accomplishments first instead of jumping at the most challenging.
... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 14, 2005 |
Principles of Activism 1: Capital Accumulation
by Joseph Rowlands
This is the first part in a series of articles exploring the topic of activism, in an attempt to identify some basic principles to help guide our decision making process. (Read more...)
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The Problem of Benevolence
by Joseph Rowlands
It's one of the big mysteries in life why Objectivist forums contain so much hostility and lack of benevolence. (Read more...)
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 The Rebirth
by Joseph Rowlands
Welcome to the Rebirth of Reason website. (Read more...)
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  All or Nothing: Philosophy with Degrees (Part 3) - Objectivism's Solution
by Joseph Rowlands
How prevalent is the all or nothing approach? Keep your eyes open and you'll see plenty of examples. But the important point to take away is that degrees really matter. They may require more thinking. They may be more difficult to explain or to utilize. But they're a basic part of comprehension and you can't avoid them without sinking into blind ignorance. (Read more...)
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Saturday
September 3, 2005 |
All or Nothing: Philosophy with Degrees (Part 2) - General Reasons
by Joseph Rowlands
The all or nothing view, whether caused by rationalism, intrinsicism, or just mental sloppiness, cannot see important relationships, or maybe just doesn't care. It's not concerned with degrees, and can't deal with them. It draws very clear boundaries, and you have easy, definitive uses. It doesn't matter how close you are to the boundaries, the results are the same. (Read more...)
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All or Nothing: Philosophy with Degrees (Part 1) - A Survey of Errors
by Joseph Rowlands
I’m going to talk about a widespread pattern of philosophical errors, which I refer to as the “all or nothing” mentality. The basic problem is an inability to see things in terms of degrees. Instead, everything is viewed as all or nothing. It’s either 100 percent, or 0 percent, with nothing in between. (Read more...)
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What's Wrong with a Little Injustice?
by Joseph Rowlands
In my recent article, "Those Tough Choices," I gave an example of lending money to a friend. I suggested that if the money is lent without formal agreement, it can be abused by the borrower, who may delay repayment, even when he has enough to pay back. It may seem like a lot of hassle. Isn't it reasonable to ask why someone should go through such hurdles? (Read more...)
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Objectivism: Not Just a Better Set of Rules
by Joseph Rowlands
Perhaps they think that Objectivist morality is just another set of rules, just like other obedience-based moralities. They may even believe that it's a better set of rules. They can argue that since the rules are designed to enhance your life, the rules work better in practice. (Read more...)
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Those Tough Choices
by Joseph Rowlands
A man has a dilemma. He's cheated on his wife, and now he has to decide what he's going to do. Now he has to choose between telling her or keeping it a secret. Even if she decides not to leave him, she may never trust him again. If he decides not to tell her, he's got a different set of problems. What should he do? How does Objectivism help him decide on a course of action? (Read more...)
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The Path of Most Resistance
by Joseph Rowlands
This is the story of a man. Let's call him Bob. He's a young man in a good college, very bright, and with a huge future ahead of himself. The sky is the limit, and he can do anything he sets his mind to. It's the picture-perfect benevolent universe premise. (Read more...)
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Virtue Dichotomies
by Joseph Rowlands
Virtues must be a synthesis of productivity and rationality, or they fall into the camp of the mind-body dichotomy. They would discuss the morality of how you think, but in a way that's severed from how you act. (Read more...)
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Two Halves of Independence
by Joseph Rowlands
In Objectivist discussion of independence, the focus has generally been on the virtue of thinking for yourself. Independent judgment is viewed as the primary component of the virtue. You need to use your own best judgment when it comes to determining your values, considering facts, or deciding how to act. This is in... (Read more...)
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Bad Philosophy Is Inconsistent
by Joseph Rowlands
Bad philosophy has a number of effects, even though it isn't practiced consistently. We don't expect it to be practiced consistently. But we've seen that when it really matters, your philosophical views become important and bad philosophy will impact your life. We've also shown that the more frequent problems come from the unseen effects of a bad philosophical view. What you miss is as important as what you mistakenly believe. (Read more...)
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Philosophy vs. Science
by Joseph Rowlands
If scientists try to divorce themselves from philosophy by ignoring it, they will fall victim to it. And worse, they probably won't know it. Philosophy is concerned with one's fundamental premises, and sets the stage for how you interpret the evidence of your senses. (Read more...)
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Utopianism
by Joseph Rowlands
Any attempt at a rational improvement of the world will necessarily involve contrasting what we have with what we think is better. If the mere act of claiming something is better is considered utopian, there's no possible way of improving. If we're afraid of projecting ideals, we'll always be stuck where we are now. (Read more...)
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SOLO In Review, Part 3: Pyramid Of Activism
by Joseph Rowlands
"We seek nothing less than to change the world." - SOLO Credo (Read more...)
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Principles Of An Objectivist Forum
by Joseph Rowlands
The benefits of moderation quickly became clear. A group of fascists decided to try to impress us with their intellectual abilities by shouting obscenities and death threats. Foreshadowing a theme made by most of the later insane people, they tried to win arguments by posting as often as they could. That's easy to do when you're not stymied by trying to be intelligent or holding down a job. (Read more...)
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SOLO In Review, Part 1: In The Beginning
by Joseph Rowlands
What is it that we hope to accomplish? How successful have we been? What lessons have we learned along the way? And where do we see it all going? (Read more...)
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Transitioning to Self-Interest
by Joseph Rowlands
A worldview is not like a political party, where you can just join another by signing a piece of paper. It is fundamentally the way you view the world and how your life fits in it, and that's not something that changes overnight. In this article, I just want to touch on some of the issues that can be problems for people who are trying to adopt the Objectivist morality. (Read more...)
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A Ban on Objectivist Cloning
by Joseph Rowlands
If ideas are destroying the world, provide better ideas. (Read more...)
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