We are Radicals for Reason
The past two shows have been focused on Egoism vs. Altruism (Show 084) & Arguments Against Philosophy (Show 085). I hope to get some show notes up on these shows shortly. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week!
Update: Arthur describes Show 085 as follows: “This episode addresses three arguments that are frequently given against being philosophical. They come primarily from the first half of the first lecture of Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s course, Understanding Objectivism.”
For Halloween weekend, Mosley and Arthur discuss various relevant topics starting with the supernatural then moving on to Halloween and the significance of the various activities surrounding it. Toward the end of the show, they discuss the election, which is almost here.
Being somewhat distracted in the chat room, I was not able to note all the topics, but they include: the supernatural; ghost stories for entertainment; philosophic significance of Halloween; dressing up and trick-or-treating; haunted houses; horror movies; fiction vs. non-fiction movies & TV shows; benevolent and malevolent universe premise; the election; Obama & religion; lesser of two evils; voting; and more.
We hope you enjoyed the show and will see you next week!
Last week on Show 081 Mosley and Arthur began to discuss their views on the nature of volition. Arthur presented a perspective, as he cautioned, that may not be in complete coherence with the Objectivist position. Dr. Paul Hsieh, of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM) and the NoodleFood blog, wrote us an email that offers his views from an Objectivist perspective and indicates where he differs with Arthur. After review, Arthur still maintains his position, but believes that Paul brings up several important points which he proceeds to discuss.
Topics include: TalkObjectivism blog and content; upcoming Objectivist events (see post below for more information); Paul’s email; choice and being able to do otherwise; the introspective evidence for volition; development of life compared to development of volition; volition and deliberation; determinism as an excuse; “could have done otherwise” as shorthand; determinism as necessary for understanding; genetic influences on behavior; what is under volitional control; sexual attractions; can choices be foreseen; volition and animals; consciousness as an action process; emotions; and much more.
LOGIC, the UCLA Objectivist Club, is hosting an informal debate on universal health care between Professor Mark Kleiman (UCLA Department of Public Policy) and Dr. Peter LePort, M.D. (Ayn Rand Institute Board of Directors):
Universal Health Care: The Cure or the Disease?
Thursday, October 30
7:00pm – 9:00pm
UCLA Campus: Moore 100
Health care has been an important issue in politics, especially in the last several years. Amidst much specific policy analysis and political quibbling over superficial issues, the fundamentals have been ignored: What are the underlying philosophic and economic considerations? Is universal health care moral? Does it achieve its stated goal? Is there an ethical and practical alternative?
Come hear Professor Mark Kleiman and Dr. Peter LePort answer your questions about the issue of universal health care.
7:00pm: Brief Position Statements
7:30pm: Q&A
Official Event Page:
http://www.clublogic.org/events/display.php?id=131
For more information, please email info@ClubLogic.org
We hope that you can attend!
Show 081 consists of a fantastic discussion among Mosley, Arthur, and the chat room participants regarding the nature of judgment, free will, and consciousness. After a brief recap and a few clarifying examples of applied judgment, the topic moves on to the relevant issue of free will. This then develops into a very interesting discussion on the nature of consciousness.
Topics include: follow-up on Pittsburgh smoking ban; review of judgment; examples of applied judgment; what free will is; the primary choice as the choice to focus or not; focus vs. being aware; determinism; policeman thought experiment; consciousness reduced to material processes as non-problematic; suspending judgment because of determinist view as erroneous; nature of consciousness; searching for causes of behavior; materialism; causality; and much more.
There was not enough time to discuss all the questions and so some of these issues will be discussed next week. If you have any questions and comments, feel free to post them here or join us next week!
Here are some relevant links to the Ayn Rand Lexicon on moral judgment, justice, free will, consciousness, the soul-body dichotomy, and causality.
