Category: The Atlasphere

All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.

Rand Admirer Teaching Positive Psych at Harvard

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Yesterday’s Harvard Crimson has a long and terrific article — The Science of Smiling — about Tal Ben-Shahar’s psychology classes at Harvard.
One of Harvard’s most popular and successful lecturers, Ben-Shahar is a long-time admirer of Ayn Rand’s work, and even founded the Harvard Objectivist Club as an undergraduate.
He views his positive psychology class as an opportunity to teach life-affirming values:

â??I want to reawaken peopleâ??s desire to do good, peopleâ??s desire to improve their lives and the lives of others,â? Ben-Shahar says. â??Is it naïve? I donâ??t think so. The greatest things in the world were achieved through people who were discarded very often as idealists, as naïve. I think these are the kinds of people who ultimately make a difference. And there are many of them here at Harvard, and there can be many more.â?
Indeed, almost every other class at Harvard teaches students how to think well, how to read well, and how to write well. Shouldnâ??t someone be teaching them how to live well, too?

Continue reading “Rand Admirer Teaching Positive Psych at Harvard”

The Baltimore Sun Interviews Andrew Bernstein

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Baltimore Sun published today an interview with Andrew Bernstein, the author of The Capitalist Manifesto. Bernstein was introduced by the interviewer as follows:

The philosophy professor – author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire, published in September – defends and celebrates capitalism as “the system of freedom.” He is an Objectivist, a follower of the individualistic philosophy created by Ayn Rand, best known for the novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

The interview was concluded with a direct question about Rand and Objectivism:

Q: You say your book is grounded in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. What is Objectivism?
A: She’s given us for the first time in history a philosophy that stresses reason, the rights of a human being to pursue their own happiness, freedom – these are the ideas that the United States was founded on, but Ayn Rand provided the philosophic foundation and validation.

The interview made a reference to Bernstein’s upcoming speech about Capitalism in Columbia, Maryland on February 18, which was announced on this meta-blog.

Major Development at Journal of Ayn Rand Studies

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies — the first and only peer-reviewed academic journal devoted exclusively to the study of Ayn Rand’s ideas — was just picked up by three of the most prestigious indices in the scholarly community.
This means that their articles will be regularly available to scholars worldwide who conduct searches for topics related to those within the Journal. It’s a major step towards achieving scholarly credibility in academic circles.
Congratulations to Chris Sciabarra and the other editors of the Journal on this huge achievement.

BB&T Grant to Teach Capitalism at WJU

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Wheeling Jesuit University is a recent recipient of a grant from BB&T for the teaching of free-market economics. According to the University’s announcement, the grant will “enhance the universityâ??s business curriculum â?? especially the teaching of free-market capitalism.”
According to the director of the MBA program at WJU, Prof. Ed Younkins, the program will include a Conceptual Foundations of Business course focusing on Capitalism, in which Atlas Shrugged will be a required reading, and a course in the philosophies of economics that will include Objectivism, and will use Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff as one of the texts. A resource center for Capitalism will also be established at the Universityâ??s library, and will include the works of Ayn Rand and other writers in the field.
BB&T provided grants for the teaching of Capitalism at several universities, as we noted before here and here.

Mark Cuban on a New Fountainhead Movie

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Cinematical has published a new interview with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who is now getting into film production and taking steps to reform the way films are distributed.
From the interview:

Today, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh will premiere his new film, a small-town murder mystery called Bubble, in theaters. And on television. And it will arrive on DVD in just a few days. By releasing Bubble on their own, without the blessing of the studio dons, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and his partner Todd Wagner have taken the first step towards rattling Hollywood’s creaky distribution and exhibition foundation.

And later in the interview:

Ryan: I read somewhere that you are fond of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. The last film adaptation of that book was in 1949. Is it time for an updating? Who, off the top of your head, would you cast as Howard Roark and Dominique Francon?
MC: I don’t know who owns the rights, but I would love to see it re-done. I would have to think about who. No one says it has to be anyone we have heard of.

I, for one, would love to see a new movie version of The Fountainhead! The old one had a nice style about it, but it feels rather dated to those of us who enjoy modern production techniques.
See the full interview for more about Cuban’s activities and ambitions as a budding movie producer.

Stopping the Reiner "Preschool for All" Initiative

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Many admirers of Ayn Rand’s writings are also admirers of the Montessori method of teaching. In that vein, some readers of this site may be interested in a new initiative that would deeply threaten the viability of Montessori schools in California.
It is called the “Reiner Initiative,” and you can learn more about it at stopreiner.org:

Hollywood actor/director Rob Reiner wants to change California’s constitution to create a new $2.4 billion government-run preschool program, funded by a massive tax hike.

In the subscribers-only article “Meathead Is at It Again,” the Wall Street Journal had this to say on the subject:

Celebrities with a social conscience are a growing breed in Hollywood. But it would be nice if they’d stick to whales and landmines and leave our children alone.
Unfortunately, California parents have no such luck.
Movie-director-turned-child-advocate Rob Reiner recently acquired a million signatures to put his Preschool for All initiative on the California ballot next June, his second attempt to launch a “universal” preschool program. The initiative would impose a 1.7% income tax on couples making over $800,000 a year ($400,000 for individuals) to offer three hours of free preschool for all the state’s 4-year-olds.
This soak-the-rich scheme would put $2.3 billion into the state’s coffers that Mr. Reiner might himself control if he unseats Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next governor of California. (The gubernatorial ambitions of Mr. Reiner — who once played Meathead alongside Archie Bunker in “All in the Family” — are an open secret in the Golden State).

The stopreiner.org web site is a good place to start learning more.
If you care about the Montessori method, please take time to bring this to the attention of your friends and colleagues.

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