Over at FreeMarketNews.com, Tibor Machan has published an interesting article titled “Cooper on Rand & Aristotle” with reflections on Princeton scholar John M Cooper’s talk at the December 2005 meeting of the Ayn Rand Society. Check it out if you’re interested in the connection between Aristotle and Rand.
Category: Events
Bernstein to Talk in Maryland on February 18
Andrew Bernstein will have a book signing and presentation about his new book The Capitalist Manifesto in Columbia, Maryland on February 18. The title of the talk is: “The Capitalist Manifesto: How in Two Brief Centuries Capitalism Brought Freedom and Widespread Wealth to Mankind After Millennia of Oppression and Destitution.” Multiple copies of the book will be available for sale.
Atlasphere member Manfred Smith is organizing this event. If you would like to help Manfred adverise the event, or have any suggestions about advertising it, please contact him at 410-730-0073 or manfredsmith_at_comcast.net.
Book Signing and Presentation
Saturday, FEBRUARY 18th at 1:00 pm
Howard Community College
Columbia, MD
Kittleman Room (ILB 100)
Hudgins to Speak at Hillsdale College
Ed Hudgins plans to address this interesting topic soon at Hillsdale:
Having Your Economics and Ethics Too
(Or Can Mises’ Subjectivism Lead to Ayn Rand’s Objectivism?)
By Edward Hudgins, Executive Director
The Objectivist Center & Atlas Society
7:30pm, Thursday, November 17, 2005
Roberts Room, Cresge Building
Hillsdale College — Hillsdale, Michigan
Ludwig Von Mises was one of history’s greatest free- market thinkers. But while this key figure in the Austrian School believed there could be a science of the means — praxeology — and thus an objective foundation for economics, he maintained that all ends and thus all ethics ultimately are subjective.
But Hudgins shows that using Mises’ own methodology and focusing on the same phenomenon that he studied — human action — one finds the foundations for an objective ethics as well, a foundation without which a free market is impossible.
For further information, contact Brendan McCurdy, bmmccurdy at hillsdale.edu or 630-631-4897.
TOC Summer Seminar 2006
The Objectivist Center has announced that it will hold its 17th Annual Summer Seminar conference July 1-8, 2006, on the campus of Chapman University. The Chapman campus is located in Orange, California, close to Orange County/John Wayne Airport, Disney World, Huntingdon Beach, and of course everything else in the Los Angeles area. The Seminar program and registration information will be available in early 2006.
C-SpanII Book TV: Was Communism A Threat to Hollywood?
As pointed on this blog entry, the Liberty Film Festival featured a panel of authors who have written books about Hollywood debate the quesstion: Was Communism a threat to Hollywood? The event was recorded and will be broadcasted on C-SPAN II’s Book TV on Saturday, November 5 at 9:00 pm and Sunday, November 6 at 7:00 pm
See the announcement of the show on C-Span II Book TV.
Two Upcoming TIA Teleconference Lectures
This Thursday, November 3, Atlasphere member Andrew Bernstein will present a live teleconference lecture on the subject “Ten Neglected Truths About Capitalism.” Dr. Bernstein will share new insights into the nature and history of Capitalism, which he learned from his research on his book The Capitalist Manifesto. The lecture will run 8:30-10:00 EST and will include a 30-minute Q&A.
Next Wednesday, November 9, M. Zachary Johnson, a composer and musicologist in the New York City area, will present a live teleconference lecture on the subjet “The Head and Heart of Music.” The lecture will run 8:30-10:00 EST and will include a 30-minute Q&A.
From the description:
This lecture will introduce the idea that the philosophic issue of the relationship between man’s mind and body is the crucial issue in the field of musicâ??that it is this abstraction which ties together and explains a vast range of seemingly disparate concretes in the field. This “head-heart” issue is a basic determinant of a person’s taste in musicâ??and sets the course of the history of music.
Both lectures are presented under the auspices of The Intellectual Activist.
Liberty Film Festival: "Was Communism a Threat to Hollywood?
As was announced on this Meta-Blog item, the upcoming Liberty Film Festival will honor Ayn Rand with the screening of We the Living. The festival will feature an additional item of interest to Ayn Rand fans: a panel discussion on the blacklisting of the Hollywood Ten, titled: “Was Communism a Threat to Hollywood?”
In 1947, Ayn Rand testified before the House of Un-American Activities Committee, who was investigating the Communist inflirtation of the Holloywood film industry. Rand, who testified on the false portrayal of life under Communism in the movie “Song of Russia,” had been vilified for her support of the HUAC. The recently published Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood provides a detailed re-examination the role of communism in Hollywood, the nature of the HUAC, and the famously blacklisted Hollywood Ten.
PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE BLACKLIST:
“Was Communism A Threat to Hollywood?”
Moderator: Film historian/journalist John Meroney
Panelists: Richard Schickel (TIME film critic, noted film historian), James Hirsen (best-selling author, Hollywood Nation), Ron Radosh (Red Star over Hollywood), Patrick Goldstein (LA Times film critic, columnist), Ed Rampell (author, Progressive Hollywood) and Jeff Britting of the Ayn Rand Institute (producer of the Oscar-nominated Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life). Authors Richard Schickel, Ron Radosh, James Hirsen, Ed Rampell and Jeff Britting will do book signings after the panel.
EVENT 7 – Saturnday, October 22, 6:00PM – 7:15PM
Ticekt price – $8
Liberty Film Festival to Honor Ayn Rand
From a press release we received yesterday:
As part of its “100th Birthday Tribute to Ayn Rand,” the Liberty Film Festival will be screening the 1942 Italian classic, “We the Living,” based on Ayn Rand’s novel of the same name. Preceding the film will be special introductions by co-producer Duncan Scott, and by Jeff Britting of the Ayn Rand Institute.
The 2005 Liberty Film Festival will be held the weekend of October 21-23, 2005 at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California. The Liberty Film Festival showcases films that celebrate the traditional American values of free speech, patriotism, and religious freedom. This yearâ??s festival includes over two dozen feature films, short subjects, panel discussions, and special events. The tribute to Ayn Rand will be the grand finale of the three-day festival.
â??We the Livingâ? was originally produced in Italy during World War II without the knowledge or consent of Rand. The film premiered in Rome, Italy, in 1942 in two parts entitled, NOI VIVI and ADDIO KIRA. Long thought to be lost, the film was rediscovered many years later by Randâ??s attorneys, Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer. Rand authorized the film’s restoration and Scott will talk about that process and of the embattled production history of the film.
Drawing from her early years as a young woman in Russia, â??We the Livingâ? is, perhaps, the most personal expression of Randâ??s ideas. New York Newsday said the film â??Stirs the soul… dazzling performances… qualifies in every respect as film treasure… one of the best movies of the year”. In his review of the film, movie critic Michael Medved called it “An amazing piece of cinema… I loved every minute of it…Valli has the same kind of quality as Garbo– just magical.” Medved will be at the Festival, moderating a panel discussion on Sunday afternoon.
For more information about the movie, visit www.wethelivingmovie.com.
100th Birthday Tribute to Ayn Rand with screening of â??We the Livingâ?
Event 13 â?? Sunday, October 23rd 2005 at 6:15pm
Ticket Price: $10
Pacific Design Center
SilverScreen Theatre, 2nd Floor Center Green,
8687 Melrose Avenue,
West Hollywood, CA 90069
For tickets to the â??100th Birthday Tribute to Ayn Randâ? or for other Liberty Film Festival events, go to www.libertyfilmfestival.com. Please note that tickets are only available for purchase on-line at the Liberty Film Festival website (Please do not contact the Pacific Design Center for tickets).
Ayn Rand Society program: Ayn Rand as Aristotelian
The Ayn Rand Society announced its program for December 2005. The title of this year’s program is “Ayn Rand as Aristotelian.”
The details of the program are as follows:
Ayn Rand as Aristotelian
Chairman: John M. Cooper (Princeton University)
Speakers:
James G. Lennox (University of Pittsburgh) – “Axioms and their Validation”
Allan Gotthelf (University of Pittsburgh) – “Concepts and Essences”
Fred D. Miller, Jr. (Bowling Green State University) – “Values and Happiness”
Robert Mayhew (Seton Hall University) – “Literary Esthetics”
New York Hilton
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York City
Thursday, December 29th
1:30-4:30 pm
Nassau Suite B (Second Floor)
The Ayn Rand Society is affiliated with the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division. Its aim is to foster the scholarly study by philosophers of the philosophical thought and writings of Ayn Rand. Membership in The Ayn Rand Society is open only to members of the American Philosophical Association. Non-members of the APA may affiliate with the Society as a “Contributor.” Contributors receive papers and other mailings, including memos, meeting announcements and invitations, along with members. The ARS membership/contribution form is available on the ARS website.
The ARS program “Ayn Rand as Aristotelian” is open to everyone registered at the convention, whether an ARS member or not; and registration is open both to members and to non-members of the APA. Advance registration forms, and the entire program for the December 2005 convention are posted at the APA Eastern Division website
TIA Teleconference Lectures by Andrew Bernstein
The Intellectual Activist is offering a series of three live teleconference lectures by Andrew Bernstein, a frequent writer and lecturer on the novels and philosophy of Ayn Rand, and an Atlasphere member. The second lecture will take place on August 11, at 8:30pm-10:00pm EST. It is titled: “Kantianism vs. Objectivism in The Fountainhead”
From the description:
Even before writing Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand recognized, at least implicitly, what were the major philosophical principles shaping the battle for the world. Already in The Fountainhead, in the life-and-death struggle between “first-handers” and “second-handers,” she showed the philosophical essence of the phenomenon. In this talk, Dr. Bernstein shows how the plot, the theme, and every major character of Ayn Rand’s first great novel dramatize the philosophical struggle between Kantianism and Objectivism.
The third lecture is scheduled for August 25, and is titled: “The Mind vs. Collectivism in Ayn Rand’s Novels” This talk shows that the theme of every one of Rand’s novels is a variation on the principle of the mind vs. collectivism–and explains why collectivism, not religion, constitutes the philosophical essence of her antagonists.
The first lecture in this series, “Atlas Shrugged as the Culmination of the Romantic Novel” took place on July 28. In that lecture, Dr. Bernstein discussed the three greatest romantic novels: Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. He analyzed the philosohpical principles at the root of the world view behind each novel and how they relate to the success or failures of the main characters.
Each lecture includes 30 minutes of Q&A. The two upcoming lectures are recommended for those who love Rand’s novels for their integration of fiction and philosophy.