Wednesday
January 16, 2008 |
 Another Distortion at the Movies, etc.
by Tibor R. Machan
American Rhapsody is a movie about a family that gets smuggled out of Hungary in the early 1960s and all the various complications this gives rise to. Since I went through this ordeal myself when I was 14, not with my family but several perfect strangers and a paid guide, I thought I’d check out the movie. (Read more...)
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 Certainty
by Joseph Rowlands
Certainty is a topic that confuses a lot of people because they use an unrealistic standard. The typical problem is that they mean certain in a way that doesn't allow for any possibility of being wrong. The typical line is that if you can't know everything, you can't know anything. So as long as you don't know everything, you can't really be certain, can you? Obviously that kind of standard would be impossible to meet unless you were omniscient. And we're not. (Read more...)
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ATLAS SHRUGGED: Socialist Manifesto
by Dennis C. Hardin
Ayn Rand used 645, 000 meticulously chosen words to construct her philosophical and literary masterpiece--Atlas Shrugged—but fifty years later, many if not most readers still do not “get it” and never will (Read more...)
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Freedom & the Needy
by Tibor R. Machan
The defenders of the free society assume that, generally, people can fend for themselves, often alone, more often in voluntary cooperation. But they are not blind to the plain fact that not everyone can or will do this--there are serious hard luck cases, people in dire straits, as well as many who make mistakes by failing to prepare for bad times or by producing bad circumstances for themselves. So such folks will require support in order for them to live reasonably well. (Read more...)
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Volition, Focus and Evasion
by Joseph Rowlands
I mentioned that Objectivism supports the position of Free Will. There is still a question of how this is manifested. Yes, we can choose between different actions, or different ideas, etc., but how? Is there a basic kind of choice?
The answer is volition. According to Objectivism, volition is the choice to focus or not to focus, and it is the fundamental choice. It amounts to choosing to think or not to think. To examine, or to not examine. Since consciousness is awareness, it's really a choice to be aware or not. That's as fundamental as you get. (Read more...)
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"I'll Think of Something!"
by Tibor R. Machan
Often when some unexpected challenge faces a person, someone asks, "What are you going to do about this?" The answer, frequently delivered with casual confidence, tends to be: "I’ll think of something." (Read more...)
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From the 60's to the 90's and Beyond...
by W Chase
An analysis of American culture and consumerism from the Cold War era to the present times. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 26, 2007 |
It's deja vu All Over Again
by Tibor R. Machan
Back in 1971 the late Harvard behaviorist psychologist B. F. Skinner published his popular best seller, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York, Knopf). The book followed several more technical works by Skinner arguing that the belief that human beings have free will and are morally responsible is all wrong, a pre-scientific prejudice that needs to be discarded and replaced with a technology of behavior.
(Read more...)
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 A Christmas Package Deal
by Eric Rockwell
This article examines the merits of a beloved holiday classic by Charles Dickens. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 19, 2007 |
Who Fires or Lays you Off?
by Tibor R. Machan
During economic downturns many people become hostile toward their employers, thinking whatever hardship they suffer is their fault. In fact, however, the responsibility lies with customers, consumers, and a host of other economic agents, rarely if ever with one’s employers. (Read more...)
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 Free Will and Volition
by Joseph Rowlands
The debate between Free Will and Determinism has been raging forever. It's one of the trickier issues, and there's little agreement on terms. You'll even find arguments about it on Objectivist forums, although the official Objectivist position sides with Free Will. Let me do a little introduction to the topic (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 12, 2007 |
Are Values Universal?
by Tibor R. Machan
A frequent claim by erudite people is that the values on which America was founded--individual rights, rule of law, due process--are obsolete. They have been superseded by more recent ways of seeing things, of understanding people and their world. (Read more...)
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Axiomatic Concepts
by Joseph Rowlands
Going back to Epistemology now, I'm going to discuss a greatly misunderstood topic. Axiomatic concepts, commonly referred to as the axioms. (Read more...)
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The Refueling of our Power for Creation
by Manfred F. Schieder
Ayn Rand, I, and the Universe, Part 7 and 8 (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 5, 2007 |
Foreign Policy with Limited Means
by Joseph Rowlands
Life is full of possible values to pursue, always restricted by a limitation on means. We always have to search for ways to take those limited means and get as much value with them as we can. The same is true in foreign policy. While it would be nice to have unlimited ability to pursue your goals, we have to live with real constraints. (Read more...)
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 A Fine Line
by Eric Rockwell
This fictional account examines the purpose of principles, their application, and how they can be betrayed and abandoned by those that are the most devoted to them. (Read more...)
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Varieties of "Imperialism"
by Tibor R. Machan
Imperialism is the policy one country has toward others when it is intent on ruling them. But these days the idea is also used to point to one country’s efforts to spread ideas and institutions outside of its borders, regardless of what those ideas and institutions are. So by some people’s account—evi... (Read more...)
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Objective Reality
by Joseph Rowlands
The phrase "objective reality" means that reality exists independent of our minds. The description "objective" doesn't make a lot of sense on its own, but it does in comparison to the competing theory of the relationship between consciousness and existence. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 21, 2007 |
Some Pros and Cons of Ron Paul
by Tibor R. Machan
Texas Republican House member Ron Paul is undoubtedly the most committed libertarian among all the presidential hopefuls. Dr. No, as he is sometimes called, opposes virtually all government spending and other forms of oppression. He believes that many of the laws passed by Congress aren't authorized by the U. S. Constitution—a document he believes is sound because of its support of the free society and a limited federal government—and could only be passed by state political bodies, not by the feds. He is pro-life but instead of wanting to outlaw abortion—a dubious libertarian idea in my book—he wants the issue of whether there is a right to have an abortion to be dealt with at the state level. His views on banking, the Federal Reserve Bank, hard money, the IRS, and, especially, military adventurism all follow sound strict libertarian principles. (Read more...)
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 Crystal Cabinet
by Julian Huxley
This poem, composed by Julian Huxley, one of the chief architects of the Darwinian Synthesis of the 1930's, was the frontispiece to his Essays of a Biologist. It repays careful rereading, and presents a fully naturalistic spirituality. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 14, 2007 |
Good Argument Ain’t Enough
by Tibor R. Machan
As rational animals, human beings do best when they think matters through and act accordingly. This is no less true in public policy matters. From the time of Socrates, political philosophers have urged us to be rational in our political affairs. Indeed, arguably the most famous Platonic dialogue, The Republic, is but a call to reason, what with the philosopher placed in the position of king, a symbolic role in a mythical society to remind us all that what matters most in both our personal and public lives is to think!
(Read more...)
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Discriminatory Nondiscrimination
by Eric Rockwell
ENDA stands for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. This article considers the pros and cons of this legislation, which attempts to eliminate workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. (Read more...)
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The Logically Resulting Type of Society
by Manfred F. Schieder
Ayn Rand, I, and the Universe, Part 6 [Editor's Note: Last week I accidentally clipped two sections out of the end of this article. Here it is with those two sections restored.] (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 7, 2007 |
Life & Property
by Tibor R. Machan
When both life & property are threatened, there is much talk about how property is only stuff, easy to replace, so one should be concerned only or primarily with life. There are even those who disparage the right to private property, claiming it is not really a human right at all. Some prominent academics have been calling ownership itself a myth, claiming that no one really owns anything and all wealth belongs to government that’s supposed to manage it for the collective or public good. (See Murphy & Nagel, The Myth of Ownership [2002].) (Read more...)
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Government is Violent Pornography
by William D
A prostitute asked her customer if he wanted to be bound and gagged, to heighten the excitement of their sex. A man, convinced of his god-given power, asked his neighbors if they wish to be ruled by stone, sword, and gun to make life better for everyone. Both the customer and humanity had a choice, but it is unlikely that either recognized the grave significance of the decision. Once total control is granted to the dominatrix or king, all consequences to the individual or group under control are determined by the whim of the captor. (Read more...)
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