General
Sessions
Session
Descriptions
The
Axioms of Induction
Leonard
Peikoff
These are the two new opening lectures of Dr. Peikoff's "Induction
in Physics and Philosophy," a course he gave last summer
in Palo Alto. After reviewing the course, Dr. Peikoff decided
that a substantial amount of new material must be added at the
beginning, in order to lay a proper base for the rest of the
course. The result is this revised first lecture, which contains
about 75 percent new material.
Topics include: the problem of
induction; the reduction of higher-level generalizations to
lower-level ones; grasping cause and effect by sense perception;
how one omits measurements in reaching a generalization; why
does an inductive conclusion follow necessarily from its premises?
the real distinction between inductive and deductive inference.
Wednesday, July 9, 2003; 10:15-11:45
AM
Thursday, July 10, 2003; 10:15-11:45 AM
Leonard Peikoff's appearance
at this conference does not imply that he agrees with the ideas
or formulations of any other speakers.
Induction
Through Experimentation: Galileo
Leonard
Peikoff
This is a repeat, by popular request, of the discussion of Galileo
from Dr. Peikoff's course "Induction in Physics and Philosophy,"
given last summer in Palo Alto; it does not contain new material.
Topics include: the nature of experimentation; the pendulum
experiments; the discovery that motion has two components; the
Law of Free Fall; Galileo's new concept of "speed"
as a "green light" to his inductions; four roles of
measurement in Galileo's scientific work.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003; 10:15-11:45
AM
Leonard Peikoff's appearance
at this conference does not imply that he agrees with the ideas
or formulations of any other speakers.
The
Art of Sculpture
Mary
Ann Sures
In these lectures, Mrs. Sures presents the application of Objectivist
esthetics to the art of sculpture.
Part I includes a brief review of the basic principles of Objectivist
esthetics as applied to the visual arts; the definition and
distinctive nature of sculpture; the role of the human figure;
how abstract values are conveyed in the medium: subject, theme
and style in sculpture. Throughout the lecture, points made
will be illustrated with examples drawn from the history of
art.
Part II is a survey and comparison of selected works of Michelangelo,
Bernini and Houdon, seen in the context of their respective
historical periods: the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Enlightenment.
Sunday, July 6, 2003; 10:15-11:45
AM
Monday, July 7, 2003; 10:15-11:45 AM
Vanderbilt and American Free Enterprise
Eric
Daniels
The history of American business
in the 19th century is an inspiring story of accomplishment
and
innovation. This lecture examines the life and achievements
of one of America’s great businessmen of that era: Cornelius
“Commodore” Vanderbilt. He was condemned for his virtues
by contemporaries and maligned by historians as a corrupt “robber
baron.” Ayn Rand admired Vanderbilt and considered him
a businessman-hero, and we can see shades of Vanderbilt in the
character of Nat Taggart in Atlas Shrugged. This lecture
investigates how Vanderbilt first entered and dominated the
steam-shipping industry and then the railroad industry. Dr.
Daniels reviews Vanderbilt’s major accomplishments—which
included promoting free competition—and discusses the impact
of Vanderbilt’s accomplishments in the larger context of
American business history.
Wednesday, July 9, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
Fallacies
as Characterization in Atlas Shrugged
Amy
Peikoff
Ayn Rand said that the challenge in characterization is to present
that which is essential to a certain kind of person, “while
at the same time giving enough specific detail so that the character
comes across as this particular human being.” In Romantic
fiction the characters can be divided into the heroes and the
villains—in Objectivist terms, the rational and the irrational.
To differentiate villainous characters from one another, an
author must choose for them different forms of irrational thought,
action and statement. In Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand does
this, in part, by using dialogue that includes textbook-quality
examples of several logical fallacies. In this lecture, after
an essentialized review of some common fallacies, Mrs. Peikoff
will pull such examples right from the pages of Atlas.
She will explain how putting different fallacies in the mouths
of the novel’s various villains helps to develop their
characterization. The result is a new perspective on Miss Rand’s
classic work—and, at the same time, an entertaining mini-refresher
course in logic.
Monday, July 7, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
We
the Living: '36 and '59
Robert
Mayhew
We the Living was first
published by Macmillan in 1936. Owing to the publisher’s
neglect, it went
out of print the following year. Over twenty years later, after
the publication of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand revised We
the Living for its reissue in 1959, making more than 3,000
changes. In this lecture Dr. Mayhew discusses the nature, extent
and significance of these revisions, which range from minor
corrections of typographical errors to the rewriting or cutting
of entire paragraphs. Special attention is given to the novel’s
love scenes, and to those passages in the original which seem
to reflect Ayn Rand’s early interest in Friedrich Nietzsche.
Sunday, July 6, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
The
Assault on Self-Esteem
Edwin
A. Locke
In this lecture Dr. Locke identifies
the objective basis and critical psychological need of self-esteem,
and examines four contemporary intellectual movements that—
while sometimes claiming to build self-esteem—are working
to destroy it. First among these are psychologists who claim
that self-esteem is based on social approval, thereby encouraging
people to become second-handers. In education the trend is to
make students “feel good” by sacrificing academic
standards, which makes students less competent to deal with
reality. Dr. Locke also looks at the
assault on self-esteem mounted by religionists, who advocate
humility and faith, and by philosophers, whose persistent attacks
on reason have resulted in widespread skepticism and moral self-doubt.
The result of these influences has been the gradual destruction
of the true source of self-esteem—man’s confidence
in his own mind. Dr. Locke argues that the antidote to these
influences is the philosophy of Objectivism.
Tuesday, July 8, 1:45-3:15 PM
The
Road to Roark
Soshana
Milgram
By creating Howard Roark, Ayn Rand achieved full success in
the task she identified as the
motive and purpose of her writing: the projection of an ideal
man. Starting with a visual image, she went on to identify the
essence of the human ideal and to dramatize it in action. She
faced and solved an important literary challenge: portraying
her hero as, simultaneously, changing in his state of knowledge—and
changeless in his fundamentals. The lecture, which draws on
Ayn Rand’s hand-edited drafts of The Fountainhead,
shows how she worked to give Roark the consistency and integration
that are the core of his character. Her revisions in language
and content are evidence of the dedication and passion that
characterize Ayn Rand’s hero and Ayn Rand herself.
Thursday, July 10, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
The Early
Development of Ayn Rand's Ethics
Darryl
Wright
Ayn
Rand held that moral values are a necessity of human survival
and happiness. Her final
elaboration of this view is well-known to readers of Atlas
Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness, but her early
fiction and journal writings provide important insights into
how her revolutionary ethical theory developed. This lecture—based
on Dr. Wright’s contribution to a forthcoming collection
of essays on We the Living (edited by Robert Mayhew)—explores
the perspective these early writings offer on the role of moral
values in human life and on what the absence of life-based values
does to those who lack them. Besides We the Living, the
lecture discusses (among other sources) Ayn Rand’s plays
“Think Twice” and Ideal, and the notes and
drafts for her unfinished monograph The Moral Basis of Individualism.
Saturday, July 12, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
How
The "Peace Movement" Created Modern Terrorism
Robert
W. Tracinski
In another era terrorist attacks would have been regarded as
an obvious provocation for full-scale war. Yet over the past
30 years, thugs such as Yasser Arafat and the Ayatollah Khomeini
developed the new strategy of the terror war—a war in which
terrorism is not a prelude to armed combat, but a substitute
for it. What makes that kind of war possible? The contemporary
“peace movement,” which paralyzes the victims of terror
and prevents them from fighting back with all of their overwhelming
military power. In this talk Mr. Tracinski examines the underlying
meaning and deepest philosophical roots of pacifism, explains
why such an obviously disastrous
idea has such pervasive influence (even on political leaders
who are not pacifists) and shows how the “peace movement”
determines the very nature of the terror war, from its broadest
outlines to the day-to-day “cycle of violence” of
the Mid-East “peace process.”
Sunday, July 13, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
Nietzsche
and the Nihilism of Our Times
John
Ridpath
Zarathustra, the hero of Nietzsche’s epic
poem, is the shepherd who climbs to the top of the highest mountain,
sees the greatest distance (into the future) and then returns
to report that
he has seen beyond the looming nihilistic future.
Nietzsche called Zarathustra his “victor over God and nothingness,”
which has supported the view that Nietzsche is not a nihilist
and therefore not a source of the nihilism now engulfing contemporary
culture.
Is this true? Or is the opposite true: that Nietzsche is, in
fact, a major source of nihilism?
In these two lectures Dr. Ridpath will address this question.
He will consider the nature of nihilism and its underlying assumptions,
as well as the necessary repercussions of holding such a doctrine.
He will show, using Nietzsche’s biography and writings,
that Nietzsche is one founder of today’s nihilism, and
that it is Ayn Rand, not Nietzsche, who is the true victor over
nihilism.
Saturday, July 12, 2003; 10:15-11:45
AM
Sunday, July 13, 2003; 10:15-11:45 AM
Capitalism:
The System of the Mind
Andrew
Bernstein
In Atlas Shrugged Ayn
Rand establishes that the mind is man’s tool of survival
and that the mind requires freedom. Her thesis is true not only
historically and economically, but also morally and philosophically.
Political-economic freedom—capitalism—was founded
on the pro-reason theories of the Enlightenment. The technological
and industrial Revolutions initiated by capitalism in the late
18th century were direct applications of Enlightenment principles.
The only nation founded on Enlightenment principles—the
United States of America—became the world center of scientific,
technological and industrial progress. Economically, by liberating
the individual, capitalism permits an incalculable amount of
mind power to be devoted to problems of production, something
impossible under statist regimes. This talk establishes the
myriad ways in which capitalism is the system of the mind.
Monday, July 14, 2003;1:45-3:15
PM
Teaching Values in the Classroom
Lisa
VanDamme
Many educators believe a fundamental goal of lower
education is to instill good values in children. Some advocate
required courses in the “core values.” Others believe
the schools should be value-neutral, but should teach students
to become “moral thinkers.” Many take the worst of
both approaches, encouraging children to make their own, arbitrary
moral judgments within the confines of two absolutes: diversity
and environmentalism. In this lecture Mrs. VanDamme discusses
these theories of moral education and presents her own view
regarding the proper place for values in a curriculum. She describes
how she and the other teachers at her school lead their students
to become strong, independent valuers.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
The
19th-Century Atomic War
David
Harriman
Scientists spent the 19th-century caught in the
cross fire between experimental evidence in favor of the atomic
theory and philosophic arguments against it. From Dalton’s
chemistry to Maxwell’s gas theory, strong evidence that
matter is composed of atoms accumulated rapidly. By about 1870
the theory should have been regarded as proven. Instead, many
physicists and chemists were in the grips of a post-Kantian
empiricism that rejected all hypotheses not verified by direct
observation. These scientists led a zealous fight against the
atomic theory. This fascinating chapter in the history of science
dramatically illustrates the power of philosophy.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003; 10:15-11:45
AM
The
Cause and Consequence of the Great Depression
Richard
Salsman
The Great Depression (1930–38) came on the
heels of a U.S. stock market crash in 1929 and brought with
it widespread bank failures, a 25 percent unemployment rate
and widespread poverty. Both the market crash and the Depression
were blamed on the alleged excesses of
free-market capitalism. Investors were blamed for reckless speculation.
Bankers were accused of fraud. If free markets failed, said
economists and politicians at the time, then government intervention
would “fix” the failure. A vast expansion of government
ensued, including a more
powerful Federal Reserve, the Social Security system and laws
favoring labor unions. But the tragedy of the 1930s reflected
a failure—not of capitalism—but of statism. In this
lecture Mr. Salsman explains how government intervention caused
the economic-financial debacle of the 1930s, and how a radical
re-assessment of that period is a crucial element in any rehabilitation
of capitalism in modern life.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003; 1:45-3:15
PM
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