Three ARS Philosophers in a Panel on Rand

Back in November, ARS members recently spoke at a student conference in Atlanta: Gregory Salmieri (Rutgers/Anthem Foundation), Onkar Ghate (the Ayn Rand Institute), and Jason Hill (DePaul University). Hill will also be presenting a paper at the upcoming ARS meeting at the APA Eastern, where Salmieri will be commenting. A video of the panel is now on YouTube and you can watch it here.

Here you’ll see panelists answering questions from students, often regarding the practical dimension of Objectivist ethics, especially as applied to career choice. But the questions are generally of a high caliber and occasionally touch on theoretical topics in philosophy, and in any case underscore important connections between theory and practice.

Topics discussed include: metaethics (Rand’s view on the is/ought question), normative ethics (Rand’s trader principle, the distinction between altruism and benevolence, prisoner’s dilemma problems), moral psychology (ethical egoism vs. psychological egoism) and legal philosophy. There are also interesting discussions of standards for interpreting and understanding Objectivism (related to the Peikoff/Kelley dispute), and questions about Rand’s views of sexual psychology.

by Ben Bayer