| Type | Title | Author | Date |
| FAQ | FAQ Love and Sex | Andrew Bissell | 3/9/2005 |
| Description: Romantic love is a profoundly selfish act: it is based in one’s own values and should be undertaken for the sake of one’s own happiness. Objectivism holds that we love another person most profoundly when we love him or her as a whole person, one who is physical and spiritual, sexual and rational. And we experience our greatest sense of self and one of the fullest pleasures in life when we are loved in this complete and integrated way. |
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| Article | Generosity and Self-Interest | David Kelley | 1/7/2005 |
| Description: People give directions to strangers, contribute to charities, volunteer in hospitals, and send food and supplies to earthquake victims. Why? |
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| Article | Epistemology and Politics: Ayn Rand's Cultural Commentary | David Kelley | 12/1/2004 |
| Description: The events Rand wrote about are long past, the people long gone. Many of the issues and trends have disappeared off the rader screen. But her essays remain relevant today and her comments have staying power because she brought a philosophical perspective to bear. |
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| FrontReport | The Incredibles | David Kelley | 11/22/2004 |
| Description: The Incredibles: David Kelley reviews the movie, the many references to Ayn Rand that have been made by reviewers, and the culture of egalitarianism. |
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| Letters | Letters: Animal Rights, Frank Quattrone | | 11/1/2004 |
| Description: Animal rights; the case for Frank Quattrone. |
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| Center News | Hudgins Debates a Subjectivist | | 9/1/2004 |
| Description: Edward Hudgins debates a subjectivist at The Institute for Humane Studies. |
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| Article | Why Art Became Ugly | Stephen Hicks | 9/1/2004 |
| Description: Stephen Hicks shows that approximately a hundred years ago artists started down a road that has led them step by step to today's aesthetic dead-end. Hicks outlines the postmodern philosophy that underlies modern art, reviews famous pieces, and ends with a call for a new aesthetic that will be attuned to the realities of the twenty-first century. |
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| Review | Hard America, Soft America: A New 'House Divided' | Frank Bubb | 7/1/2004 |
| Description: Hard America consists of “the parts of American life subject to competition and accountability”; “Soft America” consists of “the parts of our country where there is little competition and accountability.” That is the intriguing disjunction that informs Michael Barone’s new book, Hard America, Soft America, employs to analyze the history of the United States during the last century. |
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| Article | In Defense of Cowboy Capitalism | Roger Donway | 7/1/2004 |
| Description: Pro-capitalists need to offer a defense of big-business executives that is not undercut by libertinism, postmodern moral skepticism, religious morality, or utopian illusions. |
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| Center News | Las Vegas Conference on Values of Capitalism | | 5/1/2004 |
| Description: The Objectivist Center held its 2004 Spring Conference on April 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The theme was "Values of Capitalism." The scene was the sumptuous Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. |
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| Commentary | Honoring the Choice to Die | Michelle Marder Kamhi | 4/1/2004 |
| Description: What is the most humane way to treat individuals who, at the end of a long life, express a clear-minded wish to die? As a society with an increasingly aged population, we need to confront this question head-on. |
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| Op-ed | The Problems with ''The Passion's'' Moral Message | Edward Hudgins | 3/3/2004 |
| Description: The controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's film ''The Passion of the Christ'' reflects a deep divide between those who are concerned about the erosion of morals that traditionally are provided by religion and those who fear that religious dogma will promote intolerance. In this op-ed, I argue that Gibson's thought provoking film ultimately delivers that wrong message concerning sin, sacrifice and suffering. Only a moral code of personal responsibility, not original sin; self-interest, not self-sacrifice; and achievement, not suffering; can avoid the dangers of moral relativism and intolerance, and ensure both personal happiness and a free society. |
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| Article | Death by Environmentalism | Robert Bidinotto | 3/1/2004 |
| Description: What does it mean, in practice, to hold a philosophy that values pristine nature, apart from any use that humans may make of it? The question is urgent because just that is the fundamental premise of the environmental movement, and the consequences are human deaths. |
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| Center News | A New Unrugged Individualism | | 12/1/2003 |
| Description: Announcing the publication of a revised edition of David Kelley's seminal tract Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence. |
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| Article | Better Never? | Sam Kazman | 12/1/2003 |
| Description: The Precautionary Principle is the idea that society should permit no new technologies to be developed without the certainty that they will cause no environmental harm. But to stop technologies in their infancy may well mean stopping them dead. And given that so much of human survival and flourishing depends on new technologies, stopping technology means curtailing civilization. |
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| Article | Is High Self-Esteem Bad for You? | Robert Campbell Walter Foddis | 8/1/2003 |
| Description: Recent studies that denigrate the value of self-esteem rely upon methodologies that fail to distinguish between genuine self-esteem and narcissism. |
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| Cultural Calendar | The Message of Alexander Graham Bell | Roger Donway | 3/31/2003 |
| Description: By hard work and hard thinking, Bell won the most profitable patent ever issued in America. Unfortunately, some historians have twisted his story to suggest that the rewards of invention under capitalism are a matter of luck. |
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| Commentary | Moral Wisdom in Manhattan | Shawn E. Klein | 10/1/2002 |
| Description: After Ayn Rand laid out a rational code of ethics, her followers worked at justifying and developing its values and virtues. The next step is to learn how best to apply morality to our lives. That is the field of moral wisdom, and it is the professional concern of Randy Cohen. |
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| Commentary | The Morality of Money | William Thomas | 6/30/2002 |
| Description: Ever since Ayn Rand wrote Francisco d'Anconia's soliloquy on money, Objectivists have proclaimed the sign of the dollar to be a badge of nobility. But the recent spate of corporate scandals has demonstrated the need to make certain distinctions regarding the ownership, acquisition, and expenditure of money. TOC's manager of research and training explains why. |
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| FAQ | FAQ: What is the Objectivist Position in Morality (Ethics)? | William Thomas | 3/15/2002 |
| Description: According to Objectivism, a person's own life and happiness is the ultimate good. To achieve happiness requires a morality of rational selfishness, one that does not give undeserved rewards to others and that does not ask them for oneself. |
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| Article | Beyond Good and Bad | Roger Donway | 2/28/2002 |
| Description: The virtue of selfishness has become a tough sell. National honors are being bestowed on firefighters who died by the hundreds trying to save strangers; on young americans killed while protecting their country; and on airline passengers who heedlessly threw themselves on would-be hijackers. In this climate, it is harder to make the case for a morality that says,
'Maximize your chances for survival and reap the rewards. |
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| FAQ | FAQ: Virtue of Selfishness | J. Raibley | 1/30/2002 |
| Description: What does Ayn Rand mean when she describes selfishness as a virtue? |
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| FAQ | FAQ: Homosexuality | Damian Moskovitz | 1/5/2002 |
| Description: Damian Moskovitz answers the frequently asked question, Is it moral to be homosexual? and what is Objectivism's view of homosexuality? |
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| Commentary | American Heroism | William Thomas | 10/15/2001 |
| Description: Does heroism mean sacrificing one's life to higher values? Will Thomas argues that heroism is based on a devotion to the values that support one's life. |
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| Commentary | Cloning: Toward a New Conception of Humanity? | Patrick Stephens | 4/1/2001 |
| Description: Though science has not progressed to the point where a human can be safely cloned, things are quickly moving in that direction. And the debate over whether a human should be cloned, says Patrick Stephens, TOC’s manager of current affairs, will help shape the future definition of humanity. |
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| Commentary | The Moral Necessity of Missile Defense | James S. Robbins | 3/1/2001 |
| Description: Homeland defense is the primary national security priority and ultimate moral requirement of any state. Today, says James Robbins, a professor of international relations at National Defense University, that means the United States must build an antiballistic missle system. |
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| Commentary | Supply-Side Ethics | David Kelley | 3/1/2001 |
| Description: David Kelley, TOC's executive director, notes that Ayn Rand was the first thinker who proposed a genuine supply-side ethic. She recognized that achievement, not suffering, is the central fact of human existence. She honored the act of creating value above the act of giving it away. Pride of place in her moral code went to the virtues that make achievement possible rather than the virtues of benevolence to others. |
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| Article | Objectivist Ethics in the Information-Age Economy | Nathaniel Branden | 2/1/2001 |
| Description: In a world of rapidly advancing technology, a capacity for independent thought is the quality employees need most. Because of that, says Nathaniel Branden, the virtues of Objectivism are becoming key factors in the workplace. In this article, Branden traces the history of work, and demonstrates how Objectivist ethics are used more than ever on the job. |
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| Commentary | Morality and Politics | David Kelley | 2/1/2001 |
| Description: A nation's political trends are governed by a host of factors, the most fundamental of these being the moral factor, according to TOC's executive director, David Kelley. In this commentary, Kelley illustrates his point by showing how morality permeates the seemingly pragmatic debate over Social Security privatization. |
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| Review | What is Morality Good For? | Will Wilkinson | 7/1/2000 |
| Description: A review of Viable Values by Tara Smith. |
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| Commentary | Markets or Morals? July/August 2000 | Roger Donway | 7/1/2000 |
| Description: Continuation of the debate: Which is more fundamental: markets or morals? |
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| Letters | Letters: The Moral Argument for the Death Penalty (Feb 2000) | | 2/1/2000 |
| Description: Letters concerning The Moral Argument for the Death Penalty. |
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| Review | Self-Help: Egotists and Egoists | Roger Donway | 12/1/1999 |
| Description: While a lot of the self-help movement is garbage, a substantial segment of the movement is genuinely concerned to help people improve their personal efficacy and sense of self-worth. Roger Donway reviews three works that are more or less egoistic in their orientation. |
|
| Article | The Virtue of Pride | William Thomas | 10/1/1999 |
| Description: A comparison of the Objectivist understanding of pride with a humanist's more classical view. |
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| Review | A Humanist Ethics of Pride | William Thomas | 10/1/1999 |
| Description: A review of Restoring Pride: The Lost Virtue of Our Age by Richard Taylor |
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| Article | Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and Ayn Rand's Moral Triad | Roger Donway | 9/1/1999 |
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| Article | Why Should One Act on Principle? | William Thomas | 5/1/1999 |
| Description: What are objective principles? How do they differ from whims and rules?
William Thomas addresses these issues in this short essay. |
|
| Article | Why Did Kitty Genovese Die? | Christine Silk | 4/1/1999 |
| Description: An article exploring the famed 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese. |
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| Commentary | Markets or Morals? | Roger Donway | 4/1/1999 |
| Description: Which is more fundamental: markets or morals? |
|
| Perspectives | Hope | David Kelley | 1/1/1999 |
| Description: A philosophical defense of hope and its expression in Ayn Rand's novels |
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| Review | Must Politics Rest on Morality? | Eyal Mozes | 12/1/1998 |
| Description: A review of The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law by Randy E. Barnett |
|
| Review | Libertarianism and Punishment | Eyal Mozes | 12/1/1998 |
| Description: Outtakes from the review of The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law by Randy E. Barnett. In this outake, Mozes focus on Libertarianism and Punishment. |
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| Review | Helping Hands | Fred Groh | 11/1/1998 |
| Description: A review of Generosity: Virtue in Civil Society by Tibor Machan |
|
| Miscellaneous | Soundings, November 1998 | | 11/1/1998 |
| Description: Taxi discounts limited, English versus American policing, Kantian morality and Christianity, Big Business: the persecuted minority. |
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| Excerpt | Two Strains of Altruism | David Kelley | 10/1/1998 |
| Description: David Kelley distinguishes two strains of altruism—self-sacrifice and egalitarianism—how they have been masked throughout history and the different political consequences of each, as well as a program by which Objectivists can meet the challenges of each. |
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| Letters | Letters: Responsibility (September 1998) | | 9/1/1998 |
| Description: Debate over David Ross's controversial argument
that a biological father should have no legally enforceable financial responsibility for
the rearing of his child. |
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| Article | Moral Tradition: Responsibility | David Ross | 5/1/1998 |
| Description: David Ross puts forth a controversial view on responsibility and fatherhood. |
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| Center News | A Slogan Is Born! | | 5/1/1998 |
| Description: Michael Milken was a greater benefactor to mankind than Mother Teresa. |
|
| Interview | Fulfilling the Enlightenment | | 4/1/1998 |
| Description: An interview with David N. Mayer, a professor of both law and history at Capital University, in which he fields questions on the moral basis of the ideals of the Founding Fathers, which authors they relied on when seeking guidance on fundamental political issues, and many more. |
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| Article | A Doctor Looks at Assisted Suicide | Todd Goldberg | 3/1/1998 |
| Description: Geriatrician and professor of medicine Todd Goldberg examines the legal, moral, and prudential considerations surrounding the question of suicide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. |
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| Article | Is it Nobler to Give than to Create? | David Kelley | 2/1/1998 |
| Description: David Kelley's article analyzing the ethical difference between giving and creating, arguing that creating is far nobler. |
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| Excerpt | Excerpts from Greed | | 2/1/1998 |
| Description: Excerpts from ABC's Greed |
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| Article | The Moral Tradition: The Concept of Loyalty | Roger Donway | 2/1/1998 |
| Description: A short Moral Tradition column that asks the question "What are the facts of reality that give rise to the concept of 'loyalty?'" |
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| Letters | Letters: Family Values or Evil (Jan 1998) | | 1/1/1998 |
| Description: Robert Tinney and David Kelley debate: Family Values or Evil? |
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| Article | The Moral Tradition: Marriage | Roger Donway | 11/1/1997 |
| Description: "What are the facts of reality that give rise to the concept of marriage? And why do people vow to love one another when they wed? |
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| Review | The Wrong Way to Rights | William Thomas | 8/1/1997 |
| Description: A review of Moral Rights and Political Freedom by Tara Smith |
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| Article | Ruled -- Or Principled? | David Kelley | 2/1/1997 |
| Description: An article about the differences between rules and principles, and the great importance of the latter. |
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| Excerpt | The Best Work of the Best Minds | Stephen Hicks | 6/1/1994 |
| Description: An excerpt from a forthcoming book on business ethics by Professer Stephen Hicks. |
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| Article | Altruism and Capitalism | David Kelley | 1/1/1994 |
| Description: An article on altruism and capitalism by David Kelley of the Objectivist Center. |
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| Excerpt | The Code of The Creator | David Kelley | 9/1/1993 |
| Description: Excerpt from the 50th Anniversary Celebration of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand |
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| Excerpt | Introduction to Unrugged Individualism | David Kelley | |
| Description: The introduction to David Kelley's monograph Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence. |
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| Excerpt | Introduction to Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand | David Kelley | |
| Description: The introduction of Truth and Toleration by David Kelley. Truth and Toleration has been republished as The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand |
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| Audio | What Are Our Spiritual Needs? | Nathaniel Branden | |
Description: Nathaniel Branden explores the meaning of spirituality, the misconceptions about it, and the use of the term "spiritual" in Ayn Rand's writings. Based on his many years of practice and reflection, Dr. Branden presents his own understanding of our spiritual needs and their role in our development.
Buy the audiotape at The Objectivism Store |
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| Audio | Choosing Life | David Kelley | |
Description: Audio Excerpt. Objectivists have debated whether life is a value because one chooses to live, or whether one should choose life because it is a value. David Kelley illuminates the logic of this abstract issue, and then shows its concrete meaning in our lives.
Buy the audiotape at The Objectivism Store |
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| Study Guide | Foundations Study Guide: Business Ethics | Stephen Hicks | |
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