Two participant-sponsored sessions

Summer Seminar 2007

Two participant-sponsored sessions

JerryB 06-19-2007, 5:36 PM
Hi 2007 Summer Seminar Attendees:

WELCOME to Baltimore!
Sort of my (adopted) "home town," since I live in Columbia, about 20 miles from Towson.

I have also posted here, two participant-sponsored sessions that I plan to present. If you have any questions or comments, please post a reply!

Thank You! Jerry Biggers

"AMERICAN PHILISTINE: the forgotten radical individualism of Hubbard ( - that's Elbert Hubbard, not L.Ron!)."

Although largely forgotten today, the influential books and journals of Elbert Hubbard attracted great popularity and controversy at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, with his unique championing of individualism, self-reliance, and capitalism - while issuing fusillades against socialism, government interventionism, and religion. At its height, Hubbard's iconoclastic journal, "The Philistine," had a circulation of over 200,000. This talk will present samples from his writings, discuss his influence, and compare and contrast with Rand's Objectivism.

"DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN? Some surprising - and ironic - comparisons of the development of the Positivist movements of Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte with that of the Objectivist movement."

Although diametrically opposed to Objectivism on most philosophical issues, an examination of the course and development of the Positivist movement shows some surprising and ironic simlarities, both in its political and sociological concerns and particularly in the behaviors of its advocates and organizations. The ultimate demise of the Positivist movement, to a large degree caused by the antics of its own advocates - and not necessarily its philosophy, presages a warning that Objectivists should heed in order to avoid becoming a footnote in American textbooks.

Re: Two participant-sponsored sessions

cjgrieb 07-06-2007, 7:26 PM
Jerry; Both your PSS sound interesting. I had heard of Elbert Hubbard. Did he die on the Lusitania.