This week Arthur is attending and working at the Objectivist Conference in Newport Beach, California and Brandon was in New York City for the weekend, so they could not attend. (Brandon visited a few sites relevant to Ayn Rand in New York, so there may be a write-up on his trip soon.) However, Mosley was able to host the show!
The show mainly consisted of a conversation between Mosley and a caller, but first Mosley discussed a few different topics. First of all, he mentioned the Ayn Rand Institute’s new website design at http://aynrand.org/ which he finds to be much more user-friendly and easier on the eyes. Check it out!
Then Mosley had a brief discussion on video games, which he was playing before the show, and explained how they don’t have to be mindless time wasters like some people think. They can be a form of recreation like any other. In order to stay productive, one sometimes needs to take time to rest and enjoy the fruits of labor. Video games can be one way to do this — they often exercise the mind and are a good reason to get together with friends and have fun, which can promote a more benevolent view of life.
Mosley also discussed how he discovered Objectivism and gave some suggestions on where to start for newcomers. He suggests that Ms. Rand’s fiction such as Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged are great places to start and a good next step would be to move onto some of her other works such as For the New Intellectual, The Virtue of Selfishness, and Philosophy: Who Needs It.
Afterward, there was a caller who explained how he stumbled into talkObjectivism a few months ago and found it interesting. Being familiar with Objectivist ideas through reading Ayn Rand’s works (such as Atlas Shrugged many times over), he and Mosley carried on a discussion about how Objectivist ideas are in the minority and how this can be changed. The caller suggested an experiment: ask around and see how many people have heard of Objectivism and Atlas Shrugged. Other may wish to do this as well. If you do, let us know what your findings are. Also, don’t forget to recommend Ayn Rand’s works if they haven’t read them!
The topic this week was another question from a listener of the show asking about Ayn Rand’s views on gender issues such as hero-worship, femininity, a woman president, and homosexuality. For her own words, I would suggest checking out the Ayn Rand Lexicon.
The first point to be made here is that Ayn Rand’s views on these issues are not to be taken as a part of Objectivism, but as an application of Objectivism according to her understanding of psychology.
Mosley and Arthur share their thoughts on her views, and express some of their own views on these topics as well. They also reference Dr. Peikoff who discusses Ayn Rand’s views as well as his own on many of these issues in an informal Q & A entitled Love, Sex, and Romance which is available at the Ayn Rand Bookstore. Also, you can hear Dr. Peikoff’s views on homosexuality in Episode 14 of his podcasts (which are now available on iTunes thanks to Arthur).
Hello everyone, sorry for the delayed show notes. From now on, I will be posting a place holder for the show notes with a very brief description of the topic on the day of the show. Within a day or two after, I will add a more detailed description. This way it will be easier to make comments about the show ASAP and to check the site or RSS feed for the show’s topic if you missed it . Now for the notes on Show 064:
This was a shorter show to make up for the very long show last week (which was very good). The topic was a question from a frequent listener of talkObjectivism who asks: Can you be a supporter of Objectivism and still go to church?
The answer to this question depends on what you mean by “supporter of Objectivism” and why exactly you’re going to church. Does “supporter of Objectivism” mean an Objectivist or someone who accepts some of the Objectivist ideas but not necessarily all of them? Are you going to church because you’re religious, because it’s convention with your family, or are you just visiting? Mosley and Arthur discuss their views on various interpretations of this question. A short answer is that someone can support some views of Objectivism while still holding some religious views, but the two are so diametrically opposed that this can not go far. Religion, for example, upholds the supernatural, mysticism, and altruism, whereas Objectivism stands for objective reality, reason, and selfishness.
Other related topics include: Accepting religion in only some parts of one’s life; how and to what extent irrational people can experience happiness; religious and secular conceptions of duty; discussion of socialism, communism, altruism, and sacrifice; how to deal with religious friends.
For Show 063, Objectivists Mosley and Arthur have a discussion with a libertarian caller, Charles, about how Objectivism significantly differs with libertarianism.
It begins as Arthur presents his basic criticisms of libertarianism from an Objectivist point of view. Two of his mains points were that a) libertarians generally hold that an underlying philosophy is unnecessary, implicitly if not explicitly, and b) because of this, they do not grasp the concept of individual rights, and therefore have no means by which to determine that which constitutes force, something they hold to be axiomatically bad (which it is not). These deficiencies are very destructive in that they lead to the improper defense and misrepresentation of capitalism.
The discussion then briefly moves on to the topic of cultural change. Mosley and Arthur talk about how to bring about capitalism, which is by changing the dominant ideas of our culture. The continued dominance of altruistic ideas is discussed here as well.
Then the conversation goes back to politics, which lasted for the remainder of a show. It was a very interesting conversation on the initiation force, the enforcement of contracts, and the nature of government. This was an excellent show and I highly recommend that you check it out.
This show consisted of a discussion between Mosley, Arthur, and a new caller. They talked about many of the points from last show from different points of view. Some of the topics include the enforcement of contracts, libertarianism, and the gold standard, just to name a few.
Also, Paul Hsieh of NoodleFood Blog sent us a well-written email with commentary on the last show, whose points Mosley read and discussed on the show as well. Below is the email in its entirety.
Dear Jason,
I hadn’t heard of TalkObjectivism.com until recently, but I decided to listen to your Memorial Weekend podcast (show 061) today. First, I’d like to thank you and your co-hosts Brandon and Arthur for creating another venue for interested, active-minded people to discuss Objectivism.
I’d also like to make a few comments in response to some points that were raised during your discussion with Charles the Libertarian. I hope you’ll accept these in the spirit of constructive criticism. You are free to share this to your co-hosts or to anyone else that might be interested. (I was also going to CC this to Arthur and Brandon, but I didn’t see their e-mail addresses on the website.) You may also read any of this on the air or post it to your blog if you think it would be beneficial.
