Our session next week at the American Philosophical Association meeting in New York

Valuing and Desire

I’m writing to remind members of our session next week at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in New York City.

Out session is scheduled from Thursday, January 9th from 7pm to 10pm at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. The specific room will be listed in the final conference program ad on the associated app.

The session will open with a new paper by Tara Smith (University of Texas, Austin) called “Reason Breathes: Notes on the Reason-Desire Relationship in Rational Egoism.” In it, Dr. Smith revisits the topic of desire, treated in chapter 1 of her 2024 book Egoism Without Permission, expanding on the role of reason in desiring and correcting some possible implications of her earlier treatment that she thinks are incorrect.

This will be followed by a paper by Steven Warden (University of St Andrews), "Value and Desire,” on the relationship between these two phenomena in reality and in Rand’s work.

I will serve as chair and short comment on the pair of papers. Then there will be time for discussion among the panelists and with the audience.

The papers, comment, and a report of the event will be circulated to Society members in the weeks after the event.