Even though Arthur and myself were not able to make the show due to conflicting events during this Memorial Day weekend, Mosley persevered and hosted the show.
For the first half of the show, Mosley selected some topics to discuss from the wonderful NoodleFood blog that he found to be particularly interesting or exceptionally unnerving. These came from the following posts: To Hell with Economics, Creationist Science Teachers, Animals Breaking the Law, & Why the New Atheists Can’t Even Beat D’Souza.
He also discussed public-funded art, which is art paid for with tax money, and how this is wrong, citing a display he recently saw: a giant bronzed sculpture of a close-pin. This led to a discussion on taxes, more specifically, the Fair Tax Act and how it is not a solution to our tax problems.
Then, for the second half of the show, Charles, the once vice-chair of the Libertarian Party of Oregon, called in to express his views on capitalism and the enforcement of contracts which he debated with Mosley, and will continue to debate next week. Hope to see you there!
For Show 060, Mosley and Arthur discuss how best to bring Objectivism into the culture and ways that this is currently being done.
In order to influence the culture, one important factor is changing the academia. Presenting Ayn Rand’s ideas in schools is a great way to get young minds to start thinking about philosophy from a perspective that they might not otherwise consider because of the ideas that they have passively accepted. The Ayn Rand Institute influences the academia through various programs such as offering free classroom sets of Ayn Rand’s novels, holding essay contests on those novels, organizing campus clubs, providing talks, etc. (This is a non-exhaustive list.) Also, the Institute runs The Objectivist Academic Center which provides classes that systematically present the philosophy of Objectivism to help train the academics of the future. If you are a student and wish to help change the schools, some things you can do are: try to convince teachers to participate in the free books/essay contest program, start a campus club, and request The Undercurrent for your school.
Another way that the culture can be affected is through the media, bringing Ayn Rand’s ideas to audiences that may not have otherwise heard of them. ARI intellectuals frequently appear on television and radio spots (such as Yaron Brook on the Fox Business Network), release op-eds, and submit letters to the editor. Writing letters to the editor is a great way that anyone can promote Objectivism.
There’s also something else that everyone can (and should) do: live Objectivism. People need to see the unity between theory and practice, so it helps to lead by example. Besides this, there are all sorts of activism by which one can contribute. Diana Hsieh has created a website for Objectivist activism, OList that is worth checking out if you’re interested.
For details on what Ayn Rand had to say on this topic of influencing the culture, see the essay “What Can One Do?” in Philosophy: Who Needs It.
The show ended with a great discussion on the use of the words “selfishness” and “greed” and whether they help or hurt the cause for Objectivism.
We hope to see you next week! (We’re working on a scheduling a debate.)
This show was a short one that basically recapped a previous show on “the common good” (Show 055), focusing on the comments made here on the blog by iheartcells (Beth) and Brandon (myself).
Mosley started the show by reintroducing the topic with a brief summary of what Ayn Rand had to say on the issue and then explaining his own views. He proceeded by reading Beth’s critique of our previous discussion and then letting me read my rebuttal.
We may give a brief closing mention of this topic on next week’s show and then move on to something new. If you have any topic ideas, please let us know!
Show 058 is a follow-up to last week’s show on children’s rights. This time around Arthur gives us his two cents on the topic. He starts the discussion by going to the heart of the issue, the basis of rights, and identifying the facts of reality that give rise to them. In order to prevent any rationalistic view of rights (the idea that rights exist as some kind of other-worldly entity/Platonic form), he examines and makes the context clear.
After a thorough and thought-provoking analysis, Arthur considers how children rights differ from those of adults. He discusses how children are dependent on their parents to survive since their rational faculty is not fully developed, and what implications this has for rights. Acknowledging that the fine details are not for philosophy to answer (but rather the philosophy of law), he gave his general views as to what rights children have and how the law should protect them.
This was an excellent and entertaining show, so I hope you check it out. If you have any comments, feel free to post here or join us next week on TalkShoe.
Also, I just wanted to note that there is now a talkObjectivism facebook group. If you like the show, join up!
