 A Proto-Objectivist Defense of Teetotaling?
by Luke Setzer
During my transition from Christianity to Objectivism in late 1988, I found myself repeatedly engaged in rationalistic justifications of common Christian dogmas. This one examines alcohol consumption. As Joseph Rowlands explained at SOLOC 4, the "all or nothing" fallacy demonstrates itself here. I published this column in October 1988 in the North Carolina State University newspaper, the Technician. It only received two responses, one supporting my critiques and the other challenging my "all or nothing" approach. I confess now that some studies support positive health effects of moderate red wine consumption, but remain skeptical of the idea that drinking to the point of reducing inhibitions offers egoistic benefits. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Columns for Mind Teasing
by Tibor R. Machan
A few things I do know, about why I write columns, involve certain goals. Among these, foremost is the achievement of a world in which freedom is in greater rather than lesser abundance, the freedom of the individual from coercive intervention in his or her life. But why bother about this, one might ask? (Read more...)
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The Issue of Evolution - Part 2
by A. Robert Malcom
The first thing which needs be remembered is that Reason is the absolute, the fundamental means of knowing reality - not believing, but knowing, a crucial distinction. (Read more...)
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The Issue of Evolution
by A. Robert Malcom
Perhaps no word has had so much controversy and mis-understanding as the word 'evolution' - largely because it was not being explained in terms of context, and oft considered through only one of its applications: biology. To begin with, evolution is nothing other than the recognition that the universe is, by its nature, dynamic - and that aspects of the universe which involve measurable duration reflect changes as a consequence. (Read more...)
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Cuss 'em Under Your Breath - Then Do The Deal
by David Elmore
One thing I do do with lowlifes like this, if the deal gets done, is I don't shake hands with them to seal the deal or at the closing table, as I would with people who act morally. I'll find a way to avoid the situation in which the traditional hand-shake would occur. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Coercive Zeal Gone Wild
by Tibor R. Machan
Today, thinking it's the Right that's a threat to civil liberties is clearly wrong, what with political correctness guiding universities and other institutions in their hiring and promotion policies. (Read more...)
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Why We Unschool
by Kelly Reynolds
I won't be sending my child to school. I won't be schooling her at home, either. We are unschoolers, which means that we don't dictate what our child will learn and when. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Death & Dying
by Tibor R. Machan
Fretting about one’s death is pretty useless and is merely going to contribute to making one’s life more unhappy than it has to be. (Read more...)
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Adam Smith's Moral and Economic System
by Edward W. Younkins
It was left to Rand to formulate a more explicit and fundamentally moral, rather than economic, justification for capitalism. Her rationale was based on moral individualism, rational self-interest, rational epistemology, and reason as the paramount and fundamental means for people to associate and interact with one another.
(Read more...)
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Phallophobic Feminism
by Alec Mouhibian
Gender studies has nothing to do with dialogue or discourse on gender issues—but with one long vagina monologue that seeks to viciously silence all other views while promoting sexual paranoia, political correctness, and lies. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings: The Right to Be Dumb - or Peculiar
by Tibor R. Machan
It’s one thing to urge people not to be dumb or carry on indulging themselves unwisely, imprudently. It’s entirely another to coerce them to act as you would want them to act. (Read more...)
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Perigo Renounces Objectivism
by Lindsay Perigo
Just kidding, folks. Actually, this is just to assure y'all that the current article lull, brought about by the editor's absence at SOLOC 4 & other delights, will end shortly when I return to NZ. Normal transmission will resume as soon as possible ... thank you for your patience. :-)
Linz (Read more...)
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John Rawls' Theory of Blind "Justice"
by Edward W. Younkins
What makes Rawls’ idea of justice so important is that he systematically expresses a vision that had already underpinned a great deal of social policy, legal theory, and even international relations. The goal of Rawls’ conception of justice is to put certain segments of society in the position that they would have been in except for some undeserved and unfortunate circumstances. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Misunderstanding Private Property Rights
by Tibor R. Machan
Attacking private property rights comes not so much to making sure that people don’t just care for themselves but to making sure that they don’t get to choose what the goals are that gain support, including goals having little to do with themselves. In other words, attacking private property rights amounts to attacking the right of individuals to choose, to decide what kind of goals they support and how much support they receive. (Read more...)
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Talents and Values
by Kelly Reynolds
Talents are inborn, not chosen. They are the equivalent of beauty. Just as no one has any obligation to be a model because he is incredibly handsome, no one has an obligation to be an opera singer because he has an incredibly beautiful voice. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - A Basic Legal Debate Nearly Grasped
by Tibor R. Machan
We live in a largely anti-philosophical age and without philosophy the nature of law is impossible to grasp. Rosen and Co., especially the major critic of the Constitution in Exile movement he cites, Professor Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago School of Law, unfortunately wish to have a grasp without the grounding this requires. (Read more...)
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30 Years after Fall of Saigon, 7.5 Million Murdered
by Michael F Dickey
April 30th marks 30 years since the fall of Saigon. Three decades in which the Vietnamese communist government and proxies killed 7.5 million people. With minor material support South Vietnam could have defended itself indefinitely, just as South Korea has for nearly 50 years. Activists and protestors have been as silent as the 7.5 million murdered by the Vietnamese Communist government and its proxies. (Read more...)
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"Nobody's Perfect"
by Robert James Bidinotto
I'll stick my neck out, appear to march completely off the Objectivist reservation and give a totally honest, but Philosophically Incorrect answer: I mean that I've never yet met anyone who is immune to "errors of knowledge" or "errors of morality." In other words, I've never met any morally perfect person. (Read more...)
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The Open-Space Mentality
by Alec Mouhibian
It's much easier to hug a tree than to cut it down and turn it into a house. And the people who hug trees are the same people who complain that there isn't enough housing. (Read more...)
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Audubon Wildcatters: Environmental Duplicity
by Robert Davison (Wolf)
It may come as a surprise to many that The Audubon Society has decades of experience in developing oil resources in the midst of their environmental refuges. Despite propaganda flyers like "A Refuge Is No Place for Oil Rigs!” The Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples, Florida, and the Bernard Baker Sanctuary in southern Michigan all have had active oil production without environmental Armageddon. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Creeping Censorship
by Tibor R. Machan
This is really scary. And there isn’t even any allusion to terrorism here, so the folks pushing for this censorship are evidently very confident that they have worn us all down in our resistance to the creeping expansion of government power. (Read more...)
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Objectivism, Venus and Mars
by Robert James Bidinotto
Sexually-based (or -influenced) differences in cognitive and communications styles, and core personal values, have profound implications for those who wish to run Objectivist clubs and events. Communicating Objectivist ideas and values in a typical "male" fashion -- i.e., via "logical structure" discussions, and abstract, largely deductive analysis seeking the "one right answer" to a given question -- is a sure-fire way to guarantee that most women will never return to your events. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Why Freedom Doesn’t Sell Well
by Tibor R. Machan
There simply are too many people who want to take shortcuts, refuse to take responsibility for their own conduct and believe they can get away with this—and sadly often do—by calling upon the government to force others to shoulder burdens they ought to assume. (Read more...)
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A Conservative Explains The Virtue Of America
by Jason Pappas
During the 20th century, as we faced the ravages of totalitarianism – wars, concentration camps, enslavement and death on a vast scale – we re-examined the principles and practices that kept our country from a similar fate. For many, this led to a reaffirmation of the tradition of individual rights. The concept of indi... (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Dissing Liberating Technology
by Tibor R. Machan
I say to technological innovation, bring it all on! We will do fine sorting out the good and bad uses of it without the churlishness of the likes of the people Newsweek chose to report on or Christine Rosen’s nay-saying. Just because the manners and mores of olden times may become somewhat moot, it doesn’t follow that new manners and mores of merit will not be forthcoming. (Read more...)
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