Summer Seminar for Students

TOC's summer seminar is scheduled for June 28 through July 5, at Bentley College in Waltham, Masssachusetts, just outside of Boston. It welcomes participants of all ages and offers a wide variety of lectures, activities, and workshops.

At its heart stands a rich curriculum for students interested in Objectivism. For those who want to learn the philosophy, there are weeklong courses at the introductory and intermediate levels. There is training in the details of Objectivist epistemology, as well as primers on individual rights and on Objectivism's atheism. There are applications and extensions of the philosophy, and Objectivist reflections on the state of our culture today. For students only, there is a special mini-seminar examining the most recent Objectivist Studies monograph, Is Virtue Only a Means to Happiness? by Neera Badhwar, which digs into the theory of values and virtues, and the nature of human emotions—be sure to apply if you want a spot.

The summer seminar resembles, as many student participants have remarked, a university as it might and could be, one that takes reason as its highest value and gathers the finest, most enthusiastic, most accessible faculty. But it is also a vibrant week of parties, games, and discussions, a week of making friendships and having fun. It is a week of living your values, among peers who also prize them.

And it doesn't have to cost much, either. In addition to the special, low conference fee available to current and recently graduated students, the center is able to offer student scholarships that cover the conference fee and even room-and-board costs at the conference. It is thanks to the generosity of our members' contributions to our scholarship fund that we are able to do so.

The application deadline for student scholarships and for conference assistantships is April 21. See the TOC Web site or the summer-seminar brochure for more details.