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Objectivism Is The Everyman's Philosophy
In the universe, what you see is what you get,
figuring it out for yourself is the way to happiness,
and each person's independence is respected by all
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Rand's Philosophy in Her Own Words
- "Metaphysics: Objective Reality" "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed/Wishing won’t make it so." "The universe exists independent of consciousness"
- "Epistemology: Reason" "You can’t eat your cake and have it, too." "Thinking is man’s only basic virtue"
- "Ethics: Self-interest" "Man is an end in himself." "Man must act for his own rational self-interest" "The purpose of morality is to teach you[...] to enjoy yourself and live"
- "Politics: Capitalism" "Give me liberty or give me death." "If life on earth is [a man's] purpose, he has a right to live as a rational being"
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Objectivism Online Chat
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How would objectivists respond to the philosophy of Charles Taylor

By HappyDays,
I’m curious how objectivists would respond to the philosophy of Charles Taylor (PLEASE actually answer the question instead of “to the extent he agrees with objectivism, that’s the extent objectivists agree with him”, I don’t care what objectivists believe, I care why they believe what they do) so please actually respond to the parts of his philosophy which you disagree with
Reblogged:Blog Roundup

By Gus Van Horn blog,
A Friday Hodgepodge 1. "Is Capitalism to Blame for Americans' Poor Health?," by Jaana Woiceshyn (How to be Profitable and Moral):745 words/2 minutes 2. "A Case Study in Integrating Systems," by Jean Moroney (Thinking Directions):1890 words/6 minutes 3. "The Nature of Fundamentals," by Peter Schwartz (Peter Schwartz):5200 words/17 minutes 4. "A Sense of Proportion," by Harry Binswanger (Value for Value):825 words/3 minutes -- CAVLink to Original
Politics of India

By human_murda,
This question was asked in another thread ("About the Russian aggression of Ukraine"), but that thread's too big and I want to answer this question about what's going on in India (or at least prompt a discussion).
As an introduction: India is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu-nationalist party under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Before BJP, Indian electoral politics was dominated by pressure groups involving thousands of castes and ethno-linguistic groups who wanted t
Reblogged:Expertise and Writing

By Gus Van Horn blog,
For the purposes of this post, I'll clear the air first: The attitude of ordinary people towards expertise should be neither unquestioning acceptance of whatever an expert says, nor an equally naive suspicion of anyone regarded as an expert. This should be obvious, but the promotion of these attitudes -- the former usually by leftists and the latter usually by populists -- makes it necessary. With that out of the way, I am impressed by oncologist Peter C. Everett's succinct post titled, "On Pr
A Misapplication of Property Rights

By MisterSwig,
In the April 1964 edition of The Objectivist Newsletter, Ayn Rand published an article called "The Property Status of Airwaves." In it she argues against the idea that radio waves should be public property, and I tend to agree with that basic conclusion. As far as I can tell, the radio waves themselves rightfully belong to the owner of the station broadcasting those waves. Rand, however, makes an important mistake in her argument for that conclusion. She doesn't acknowledge how radio broadcaster
Reblogged:Trump's 'Left Turn'

By Gus Van Horn blog,
The following headline appears in The Financial Times: "Donald Trump Leans Left in Bid to Revive Flagging Poll Numbers." I completely agree with the first four words; the rest of it is true, but wrongly implies that this is a new development on his part. The blurb does indicate the cause of that perception, though: US president's proposed pharma price cuts and tax increases for the rich echo policies of progressive Democrats . The piece elaborates:This pro-capitalist voter saw enough of this b
What did Ayn Rand think of eugenics?

By the new hedonist,
I know she'd be against coercion but surely the only way to realise her idealised Spencerian (Herbert) society would be if the most intelligent procreate together on a voluntary basis. Was Ayn Rand a nature or nurture person? Did she hold to genetic determinism?
Does the linguistic philosophy on possibility disprove the objectivist claim that arbitrary claims aren’t possible

By HappyDays,
As I understand, objectivism believes claims without evidence are not to be regarded as possible. Does the work on possibility through distinguishing propositions which are true in all possible worlds by definition (eg water is H2O) vs possible/contingent truths (eg water is blue or water is red) which include many claims without empirical validation (such as water possibly being red in the future) as the claims made about properties aren’t essential to the concept or proper name (this goes int
Reblogged:China Reminds: He's Just a Bully

By Gus Van Horn blog,
"Trump is a classic bully who craves submission and fears conflict. His fervent supporters want him to be Michael Corleone, but he's more like Biff Tannen. Standing up to Trump does not mean that you win. But giving in guarantees that you lose." -- Jonathan Chait *** Jonathan Chait's postmortem on Trump's trade war with China provides insight into the President's psychology -- meaning that it will offer a partial road map to anyone with the misfortune of having to deal with him. (The sooner th
Reblogged:Air Farce One

By Gus Van Horn blog,
Over the weekend, Donald Trump showed his true colors regarding "the swamp" by announcing his acceptance of a bribe from Qatar:On top of the legal fiction that the plane isn't being given-given to Trump, we have the following:I am not an attorney: Perhaps this is literally legal, but it so blatantly ignores the whole point of the Foreign Emoluments Clause as to insult the intelligence of any halfway intelligent, semi-conscious adult. What practical difference does it make that Trump himself doe