The Ayn Rand Institute will hold its 2006 Summer Conference at the Seaport Hotel in Boston from June 30 to July 8. The early registration deadline is March 15.
Some of the diverse highlights of the program include:
– Aristotle’s Ethics: Its Critics through History
– Essential developments towards Musical Romanticism
– Understanding 20th-Century Philosophy – The Case of Quine
– Ayn Rand, Public Speaker: A Philosopher Who Lived on Earth
The conference schedule offers the flexibility of registering for optional courses, individual sessions, and special events.
Check the registration and pricing information here.
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Where Is Avis M. Brick?
Excerpts from a letter that was forwarded to us:
My parents split in the United States way back in February 1960. My mother went to New York, we children (one boy and two girls aged 7,6,5) stayed back in the Chicago vicinity with my father and his bookstore. Years later we moved to Germany and as I grew up I took up searching for our mom, who never had left my mind. In the beginning my efforts were timid for fear she might reject any contact — thus maybe losing her for good. Later I realized I would have to do throw those fears overboard if I wanted to have a chance at all.
I pictured my mother always with a book in her hand and managed to detect book titles on old photographs which helped me to know just a tiny bit more. This way and with the help of other bits of information I discovered that Ayn Rand had become important to her shortly around the time of the divorce. A bit of research revealed that “Avis M. Brick” later became the manager of the NBI Book Service (ca. 1967). Furthermore she is said to have assisted Joan Kennedy Taylor together with David Dawson editing the magazine “Persuasion” (1965-1968). These are real clues, but I actually have lost track beyond the year 1969. Did Avis stay engaged to Objectivism? Did she make friends there, maybe marry again? Did she change her name? Did she stay in New York? — Is she still on earth?
[…]It also must be said that I am aware that I would have to leave it up to Avis alone to decide whether she wishes any contact at all.
But I would defininitely like her to know I have highest respect for her early made decisions and it would mean a world to me to meet her in the end.
There’s currently no one named “Avis” in the Atlasphere. If you have any leads, please contact us and we’ll pass along the information.
Greenspan Authoring Autobiography
From an article at CNN:
Recently retired Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan believes that there will be a major independent candidate for president from the nation’s political center, according to a published report.
In an interview with The New York Times about his post-Fed activities, Greenspan said he makes that prediction in a memoir, for which he recently got an estimated $8.5 million advance from Penguin Press, a unit of British publishing concern.
Greenspan told the Times he plans to argue that the current “ideological divide” separating conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats leaves “a vast untended center from which a well-financed independent presidential candidate is likely to emerge in 2008 or, if not then, in 2012.”
He also told the newspaper the book will focus on “the forces that will determine how the next decades are likely to unfold.” Among his conclusions are that “global competitive pressures are likely in the years ahead to bias most market-oriented economies toward the U.S. model.”
Later in the article:
He told the newspaper he plans to write some of his early life history, including the influence of his mentor, the author and novelist Ayn Rand, who shaped him as a young man into a libertarian. And he promised the newspaper he also will describe his “encounters with, and impressions of” numerous politicians, cabinet members, presidents and world leaders.
See the full article for more about Greenspan’s post-retirement activities.
Hm, gotta figure out how we can get an interview with him….
UPDATE: Incidentally, the $8.5 million advance Greenspan received from Penguin for this book is the second-highest advance ever for a non-fiction book.
Modern Individualism in 'An Army of Davids'
My copy of Glenn Reynolds’s new book An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths arrived in the mail a few days ago.
I’ve not had time to read it yet, but I skimmed it at some length the other night, and it looks readable and very interesting. It also struck me as one of the most thoroughly pro-individualist books I’ve seen in recent years.
Hopefully we’ll be able to publish a formal review of the book soon at the Atlasphere. In the interim, John Podhoretz provides a pretty good review in the New York Post. It begins:
It’s only March, but I can guarantee you there won’t be a more exciting or inspiring book published this year than “An Army of Davids.” Glenn Reynolds, its author, is best known for the Web log called Instapundit, but he is also a musician, the creator of a record label, a law professor, an expert on space (he drafted a position paper on the matter for Al Gore’s 1988 campaign) and an unpublished novelist.
“An Army of Davids” is a book about how technology has freed people like Reynolds to pursue their interests in ways that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. For example, Reynolds can record, mix and complete an album in his basement with a $1,500 computer and software written in Poland – a process once restricted to those with access to multimillion-dollar studios.
Keep reading for more. Or just buy An Army of Davids and see for yourself!
Dr. Madeleine Cosman, RIP
The Objectivist Center reports that Dr. Madeleine Cosman has died. See their announcement for more information.
Full Context‘s Karen Reedstrom conducted a lengthy interview with Dr. Cosman in 1997. The Full Context web site seems to be down, but a cached version of the interview (with excerpts, at least) is still available via Google.
Here are some tasty excerpts:
Q: Your book Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. What is it about and why do you think it was so well received?
Cosman: Iâ??ve written 14 books and that one was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Award. That sounds somewhat startling for someone who is an expert in medical law. It is a very lavishly illustrated book, which has approximately 800 or more medical/legal documents as its origin. My original intent, and this is one of the things the Pulitzer Prize committee liked, was to determine whether it was possible to take a very demanding and unforgivingâ??as well as unpopularâ??subject, medical law, and make it appealing to an intelligent popular audience. To my great delight, the book got a huge amount of favorable response, and itâ??s still selling beautifully in several languages, including Japanese. In fact, when I was doing work at the Supreme Court this past summer, I went with one of my medical students to the Library of Congressâ??s book store, and they were featuring Fabulous Feasts! So, completely without preparation I ended up doing some book signings in the Library of Congress.
Q: You were one of the activists working to derail the Health Security Act of 1993. How do you view your own role in the defeat of “ClintonCare?”
Cosman: With gratitude. I worked exceedingly hard, and Iâ??m extremely grateful that the message was effective. I did several things, besides lecturing nationwide, after I had read all 1,364 pages of that pernicious legislation. I wrote The ABCâ??s of the Clinton Medical World which the Cardozo Law Forum published. We did it in a special tabloid version illustrated whimsically with Renaissance woodcuts. It was an elegant and charming document, but its intent was to force people to actually read the legislation. I felt confident that once they read it that they inevitably would reject it. I originally wrote it for the U.S. Congress because I was testifying in Washington, and discovered, to my horror, that no one had actually read the legislation. They had read short versions, précis, and synopses, but no one had actually read this turgid and quite vicious legislation with its desperate penal sanctionsâ??really horrible criminal sanctionsâ??against physicians for actions which under other circumstances would probably be considered ethical and proper.
Q: Well, my readers and I would like to thank you for your efforts! What was the effect of The ABCâ??s of the Clinton Medical World?
Cosman: It was extremely effective. Though originally created for Congress, it was then disseminated throughout the country. The effect was quite dramatic. Some in favor of the Clinton Health Plan were so upset that they actually made threats against the Cardozo Law School for having published it. People were alerted to what was truly in the plan as to, say, “capitation,” or “community rating,” or “medically necessary” and other terms which do not mean, in the legislation, what they mean in plain English. Their definitions in the legislation were truly pernicious.
I never had the opportunity to meet Dr. Cosman personally, but like many I appreciate her work and I know she will be missed.
The Man Who Took on Socialism – and Won
The Telegraph had a moving column about Arthur Seldon, the British champion of Capitalism who passed away in October, under the unequivocally assertive title: “The man who took on Socialism – and Won.”
In 1957, Arthur Seldon established the Institute of Economic Affairs with fellow-economists Ralph Harris and Antony Fisher. They advocated free-market economics and limited government – against the established Keynsian theories and Welfare State morals – and succeeded in rescuing Britain from its post World War II decline.
Seldon stood out among pro-free market economists by announcing that Capitalism was not only practical, but moral. He opened his book The Virtues of Capitalism, with the declaration:
Capitalism requires not defence but celebration. Its achievement in creating high and rising living standards for the masses without sacrificing personal liberty speaks for itself. Only the deaf will not hear and the blind will not see.
The Telegraph goes even further:
Seldon understated his point. Not only did capitalism raise living standards without sacrifice of personal liberty: it also guaranteed it. Capitalism has nothing to do with its caricature of oppressed workers enslaved to big bosses and exploited by them. Markets, which are the metaphysical temples in which the creed is practised, bring together buyers and sellers of goods and labour, and allow them the freedom to exercise their will about what, or what not, to buy and sell.
Seldon’s victory over Socialism is patently clear:
Now, as huge economies like China and India learn the Seldonian lesson, the options that socialists and sentimentalists have for dining à la carte from the menu of capitalism become ever more restricted. There will still be outbursts about a non-existent concept called “market failure”, and protests that welfarism liberates people from poverty rather than traps them in it, or that the state must know best. But these are merely tragic harrumphs from the defeated. Seldon has won.
Read the entire column…
When Did You Realize Rand Was Truly Important?
Diana Hsieh asks a terrific question over at NoodleFood: “At what point in reading Ayn Rand did you realize that she had something really significant to contribute to your understanding of the world?”
The comments in response to her posting make for some interesting and enjoyable reading.
Wafa Sultan on Al-Jazeera TV
If you’ve not yet watched the video of Arab-American psychologist Wafa Sultan on Al-Jazeera TV, do it now…
It’s incredible. An intelligent, articulate woman taking Muslim relionists to task, right on an Arab TV network? Unbelievable!
Here are some choice quotes:
The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, two eras.
It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century.
It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. […]
The Jews have came from the tragedy (of the Holocaust), and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror, with their work, not their crying and yelling.
Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. 15 million people, scattered throughout the world, united and won their rights through work and knowledge.
We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people.
The Muslims have turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a Mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy.
Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results.
The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for mankind, before they demand that humankind respect them.
Can you imagine a woman saying this, with great force, to Middle Eastern audiences? This is a woman of great courage.
There’s much more, and it’s good. Watch the whole thing.
Lisa VanDamme to Speak in Maryland
Lisa VanDamme, a frequent speaker at the ARI Summer Seminars, whose work focuses on the application of Objectivism to educational theory, will speak at the annual conference of the Maryland Home Education Association in Annapolis on April 1.
Ms. VanDamme will deliver the conference’s keynote address, “The Hierarchy of Knowledge: The Most Neglected Issue in Education.” She will also present two sessions: “A Conceptual Approach to Education,” and “Applying the Principle of Hierarchy in the Homeschool Program.”
In the first session, Ms. VanDamme will discuss the importance of understanding rather than just memorizing the learned material, by means of “requiring that in every subject, students not just recite or do rote exercises, but explain their knowledge in words.” In the second session, she will discuss the practical implementation of the principle of hierarchy, from the simple to the abstract, in all subject areas.
Ms. VanDamme is the owner and director of the VanDamme Academy, a private school in California, where she also teaches grammar and literature. She developed a curriculum that “emphasizes those subjects essential to fostering the child’s intellectual maturity, one that recognizes a necessary and inviolable sequence of knowledge in all subjects, and one that stresses the connections within and between subjectsâ??and between school and life.”
For more information and to register, check the MHEA Conference Page.
'Chris Shrugged' in Columbia Newspaper
Columbia University sophomore Chris Kulawik has a column in the Columbia Spectator called “Chris Shrugged,” which runs every other Wednesday.
In this week’s column, he takes up the familiar (to anyone on a college campus during the past 20 years) question of why college administrators promote every kind of diversity except for, you know, the ideological kind. From the article:
If feminist and black scholars criticize the faulty thinking of Aristotle or Jefferson and get included in the curriculum, why is there no text from this modern era critical of Karl Marx or secular progressivism? Why no Friedrich Hayek? Why no Ayn Rand (a woman, no less)? What of William Jamesâ?? classic, Varieties of Religious Experience?
He’s a good writer, and makes good points. Three cheers for campus activism! Brought back lots of memories of my own time as a campus columnist.