merjet Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 On 27 December, ARS will have a session on the topic The Moral Basis of Capitalism: Adam Smith, the Austrians, and Ayn Rand. Presenters will be James Otteson, Peter Boettke, and Yaron Brook.Otteson was very recently interviewed on EconTalk. It's about an hour to listen, or read the transcript. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Campbell Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 The one ARS session I attended, in 2006, had roughly 3 times as many in attendance (I say roughly because I didn't count the house) as the 12 that Mr. Boydstun reports for the session on Nozick and Rand last year.So a decline has already set in, and it may be ongoing, whether anyone who was planning to go this year has changed his or her mind on account of a boycott.Perhaps Yaron Brook will speak and only his scheduled commentators will be there to listen.Then they would have the audience they deserve.Robert Campbell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules Troy Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yaron who?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 Occasionally, APA symposia have only presentations of a few papers and no commentators, although some time for Q&A. That is the design of the ARS session at Eastern Division this year.The largest attendance of any session of the Ayn Rand Society I recall was in 2005. I haven’t been to all ARS sessions by a long shot, but of those I attended, I’m pretty sure that was the largest. I have gathered from attending APA sessions in general, including various Society meetings, that attendance is affected strongly by who is presenting (together with who else is presenting in the same time slot at some other session). The presenters at the 2005 meeting* were James Lennox, Allan Gotthelf, Fred Miller, and Robert Mayhew, and the session was chaired by John Cooper (!) (no commentators for this session). Those papers will be included in the forthcoming collection Ayn Rand and Aristotle: Philosophical and Historical Studies.The lowest attendance I’ve experienced at an ARS session was “Egoistic Virtue in Nietzsche and Ayn Rand” in the 2008 Pacific Division Meeting. There were only 7 or 8 in the audience. It turned out, in my assessment, that the commentator paper (Darryl Wright) was especially fine. Both of those papers are included in Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue: Studies in Ayn Rand’s Normative Theory.*On a somber personal note, I’d like to mention the death last month of Patrick Suppes,* whom I had the pleasure of hearing as presenter and as audience member at meetings of American Philosophical Association. His works light my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Continuing #29Dense and Sparse Meaning SpacesComments on Travis Norsen, "Scientific Cumulativity and Conceptual Change: The Case of Temperature"John D. Norton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaalChatzaf Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Continuing #29Dense and Sparse Meaning SpacesComments on Travis Norsen, "Scientific Cumulativity and Conceptual Change: The Case of Temperature"John D. NortonTerms can retain meaning, but as background assumptions change, their application differs. However some terms change meaning. For example entropy. Entropy in statistical mechanics is proportional to the log of the number of micro states. Probablisticallly entropy still increases but the underlying quantity differs. This gets back to a remark I made in another posting. I claim that physical laws are scale-sensitive. The world of thing subatomic is not like the gross world of man-scale. Ba'al Chatzaf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Bob, I don’t see how coming to an understanding of micro-things and -processes composing macro-things and -processes necessarily changes earlier concepts of the latter. Was the concept of electric charge and its magnitude changed by our coming to know electrical charge comes in discrete irreducible units? The earlier concept of quantity of electric charge could simply leave open whether there were tiny elementary minimal units of electric charge, provided only that if there were such units, they must be sufficiently small that charge could be treated as if continuous to the needed level of approximation for then-current science and technology. It would seem the story was the same for fluid dynamics and for classical thermodynamic entropy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaalChatzaf Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Bob, I don’t see how coming to an understanding of micro-things and -processes composing macro-things and -processes necessarily changes earlier concepts of the latter. Was the concept of electric charge and its magnitude changed by our coming to know electrical charge comes in discrete irreducible units? The earlier concept of quantity of electric charge could simply leave open whether there were tiny elementary minimal units of electric charge, provided only that if there were such units, they must be sufficiently small that charge could be treated as if continuous to the needed level of approximation for then-current science and technology. It would seem the story was the same for fluid dynamics and for classical thermodynamic entropy. Here is the bottom line. Classical Electro dynamics does not work. It cannot predict the photo electric effect. So what difference does the "ultimate philosophical definition" of charge make? It is predictions that count, not definitions.That is why physical science produces useful devices and philosophical dissertations on the philosophically pure definitions of physical concept produces approximately bupkis. Ba'al Chatzaf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules Troy Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Bob. I kind of think you are barking up the wrong tree here. Do you knowwww of Stephen's background in mathematics and physics?To say he has one of the keenest minds on the entire planet would be an understatement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Bob, I don’t see how coming to an understanding of micro-things and -processes composing macro-things and -processes necessarily changes earlier concepts of the latter. Was the concept of electric charge and its magnitude changed by our coming to know electrical charge comes in discrete irreducible units? The earlier concept of quantity of electric charge could simply leave open whether there were tiny elementary minimal units of electric charge, provided only that if there were such units, they must be sufficiently small that charge could be treated as if continuous to the needed level of approximation for then-current science and technology. It would seem the story was the same for fluid dynamics and for classical thermodynamic entropy. Here is the bottom line. Classical Electro dynamics does not work. It cannot predict the photo electric effect. So what difference does the "ultimate philosophical definition" of charge make? It is predictions that count, not definitions.That is why physical science produces useful devices and philosophical dissertations on the philosophically pure definitions of physical concept produces approximately bupkis. Ba'al ChatzafArgumentum ad philosophicum is your fallacy as you didn't demonstrate Stephen used it while accusing him of it. Science is nothing but philosophy at work, an idea you're purblind and impervious to. Science completely shares metaphysics and epistemology with Objectivism. The rest is in the details. As for classical electro-dynamics not working, if it doesn't work it doesn't have to work for it's the work that works and the theory can do what it wants, which is bupkis.--Brantyou can have a philosophy and eat it too for everyone has a philosophy and it's only pretend eating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaalChatzaf Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Bob. I kind of think you are barking up the wrong tree here. Do you knowwww of Stephen's background in mathematics and physics?To say he has one of the keenest minds on the entire planet would be an understatement.I am well aware of that. Half the books in my library are there because Stephen recommended them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules Troy Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 I have a friend that asked for help moving once(also named Bob). I thought " how hard could it be?" He lives like a hermit doesn't even own a T.V. and sleeps on a cot! He had a bunch of books mostly. Thennnn he took me to his storage unit. It was fully 12' long lined with book shelves in both sides and a double row in the middle. All of them 8' tall and packkkked! I thought I had walked into the lost vault of Alexandria! Somehow I think your library might be bigger!He actually gave me a spare copy of Hobbes -Leviathan, a book on Mendelbrot fractals illustrated in nature, Market wizards, as well as Aristotle, and a few others for helping him out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Every four feet is 2000 books, max.--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 . . .On 27 December, ARS will have a session on the topic The Moral Basis of Capitalism: Adam Smith, the Austrians, and Ayn Rand. Presenters will be James Otteson, Peter Boettke, and Yaron Brook. The session will be chaired by James Lennox. The session will be 6:30–9:30 p.m. at the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown. Admission is registration, which unfortunately is steep if you’re not a member of APA.* The papers in this session will join earlier ARS papers in a future ARS book dealing with Rand’s political philosophy.A couple dozen people attended the session. Greg Salmieri writes:The papers were followed by a lively and far-ranging discussion, which included topics such as the relation between Rand’s morality and Aristotle’s, and the respective roles of empirical data and abstract argument in assessing moral and economic theories.I am also pleased to report that our session at next year’s APA Eastern will concern racism and related issues, and that one of our panelists will be Jason D. Hill (De Paul University), whom some of you may know from his interesting article in Salon last year about Rand’s influence on his life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 At the end of August, a new book by Tara Smith will be published by Cambridge Press. Its title is Judicial Review in an Objective Legal SystemFrom the publisher:How should courts interpret the law? While all agree that courts must be objective, people differ sharply over what this demands in practice: fidelity to the text? To the will of the people? To certain moral ideals? In Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System, Tara Smith breaks through the false dichotomies inherent in dominant theories - various forms of Originalism, Living Constitutionalism, and Minimalism - to present a new approach to judicial review. She contends that we cannot assess judicial review in isolation from the larger enterprise of which it is a part. By providing careful clarification of both the function of the legal system as well as of objectivity itself, she produces a compelling, firmly grounded account of genuinely objective judicial review. Smith's innovative approach marks a welcome advance for anyone interested in legal objectivity and individual rights.This book is not a project of ARS, but I think this is a sensible place for this notice. Prof. Smith is a scholar of Ayn Rand's philosophy. Her earlier books have been the subject for a couple of ARS sessions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Thank you Stephen...Any pre-publication reviews?A... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 .Not yet. Some of her thinking about Originalism can be previewed here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 .Not yet. Some of her thinking about Originalism can be previewed here.Great title, Milton and I used to call it Fric and Frac law... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 .An audio interview of Greg Salmieri yesterday by Elucidations at the University of Chicago on the topic of Ayn Rand’s moral philosophy is here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 .Christine Swanton, who has made presentations at three sessions of The Ayn Rand Society, has a new book:Virtue Ethics of Hume and Nietzsche(Wiley 2015)In the forthcoming third number in the series Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies, Prof. Swanton contributes the chapter: “Virtue of Creativity and Productivity, Moral Theory, and Human Nature.” The title of this third number is Ayn Rand and Aristotle: Philosophical and Historical Studies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 The volume referred to here under the projected title Ayn Rand: A Companion to Her Works and Thought will be issued by Blackwell this coming March with the title A Companion to Ayn Rand. I expect it to include a contribution from Harry Binswanger on art and metaphysical values, from Tara Smith on objective law, and from John David Lewis on Rand’s cultural and political commentary. Much more, and more surely, I’ll let you know when its TOC becomes available.This book is now at the printer, and the TOC has been released:Part I Context 11 An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand 3Gregory Salmieri2 The Life of Ayn Rand: Writing, Reading, and Related Life Events 22Shoshana Milgram Part II Ethics and Human Nature 473 The Act of Valuing (and the Objectivity of Values) 49Gregory Salmieri4 The Morality of Life 73Allan Gotthelf(completed by Gregory Salmieri)5 A Being of Self-Made Soul 105Onkar Ghate6 Egoism and Altruism: Selfi shness and Sacrifice 130Gregory Salmieri Part III Society 1577 “A Human Society”: Rand’s Social Philosophy 159Darryl Wright8 Political Theory: A Radical for Capitalism 187Fred D. Miller, Jr. and Adam Mossoff9 Objective Law 209Tara Smith10 “A Free Mind and a Free Market are Corollaries”: Rand’s Philosophical Perspective on Capitalism 222Onkar Ghate Part IV The Foundations of Objectivism 24311 Objectivist Metaphysics: The Primacy of Existence 245Jason G. Rheins12 The Objectivist Epistemology 272Gregory Salmieri Part V Philosophers and Their Effects 31913 “Who Sets the Tone for a Culture?”: Ayn Rand’s Approach to the History of Philosophy 321James G. Lennox14 Ayn Rand’s Evolving View of Friedrich Nietzsche 343Lester H. Hunt15 A Philosopher on Her Times: Ayn Rand’s Political and Cultural Commentary 351John David Lewis and Gregory Salmieri Part VI Art 40316 The Objectivist Esthetics: Art and the Needs of a Conceptual Consciousness 405Harry Binswanger17 Rand’s Literary Romanticism 426Tore Boeckmann Coda 45118 Hallmarks of Objectivism: The Benevolent Universe Premise and the Heroic View of Man 453Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I mentioned in the preceding post #70 that the 3rd ARS volume would be Ayn Rand and Aristotle: Philosophical and Historical Studies. That title has been moved to 4th in the series, and a volume on Rand's political philosophy has been moved up to third in the series. I'd be surprised, though delighted, if the Aristotle volume should appear before 2019. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 . . .Our presenter Lester Hunt has been working on a book, for Blackwell, on Robert Nozick’s Anarchy State and Utopia. . . .Anarchy, State, and Utopia: An Advanced GuideLester H. Hunt (2015) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 .A blog for the Ayn Rand Society has launched: Check Your Premises Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 .The two papers delivered last Thursday at ARS in DC were excellent. Jason Hill’s topic was “Biological Collectivism and the Politics of Racial Identity.” Greg Salimeri wrote a stimulating Comment. I expect both papers will be included in the forthcoming ARS volume on Rand’s political philosophy. The ensuing discussion was also very fine. James Lennox was our moderator.The audience was only eight people. They ranged in age from about twenty to seventy. Attendance at the APA Meetings, at least our Eastern Division ones, seems to be falling. The prices of the hotels and the conference registration are rising, but there is likely some other factor(s) unknown to me that have led to this reduction. Most of the sessions I attended were about the size of the ARS one. At one session there were only three of us in the audience.The quality of papers at the APA meetings remains superb, and I learn so much. Three sessions for me were absolutely stellar and were well attended, drawing twenty to thirty people for each:(1) Sartre on Mind and Body(2) Formal Unity in Early Modern Aristotelianism(3) Author Meets Critics: The Activity of Being – An Essay on Aristotle’s Ontology (Aryeh Kosman)At the book booths, the number of books being display by the massive presses Cambridge and Oxford were significantly reduced. Fear not. Scattered across the venders, I bought eleven books and had to resist so many others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 The more substantial blog posts at Check Your Premises in this first quarter of the year have been: “The History of Objectivity in Light of Rand’s Epistemology and Ethics” – Ben Bayer / Regarding Rand and the book Objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison (Prof. Bayer is presently at Loyola New Orleans, and this semester he is teaching his first course on Rand. Atlas is the main text, with readings from classical philosophers for comparisons.) “Recent Work on Epistemic Possibility and the Burden of Proof” – Ben Bayer “What’s Wrong with the Concept ‘Libertarian’?” – Greg Salmieri “A Mostly Bibliographic Note on the Objectivist View of the Arbitrary” – Greg Salmieri I’ve made some comments at that blog on some of these and others. On that second one by Ben, these two comments: Quote I’ve lately been studying Barbara Vetter’s Potentiality (2015) and particularly her efforts on the relation of potentials to possibilities. You might find this book and the literature it engages pertinent to your present work. But I have an elementary question. Concerning many arbitrary assertions, it would seem the assertion is not neither true nor false, but demonstrably or flatly false. I mean one might make an arbitrary (no evidence) assertion that states a falsehood such as that boiling a nail after being wounded by it will help heal the wound or that something can come from nothing. Isn’t there some sort of caveat(s) needed to further narrow down the context for saying an arbitrary assertion is neither true nor false? Or should we say those sorts of assertions I gave as examples are not arbitrary, not “inherently detached from facts”? I gather Leonard Peikoff should say Yes and Yes (OPAR 166). We have a context, ours, a context of established facts of existence, in which those claims are assessable for truth. Yet, further, isn’t that always the case for any claim that is fully understandable, so that no understandable, but purely arbitrary, claims are neither true nor false, but rightly judged presumably false if not demonstrably or flatly false? Harry Binswanger concludes: “An arbitrary claim is not to be taken as true, nor as even possibly true. But neither is it false. To be false, a statement must first say something: it must attribute some definite characteristics to a clearly designated subject” (How We Know 283). A claim “Blorites exist” would fit the bill because the subject (let us assume) is without specification. But this seems to fail in having a truth value already by being meaningless, apart from its arbitrariness and lack of evidence. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My first challenge for Objectivism in this area was this category of assertion: An arbitrary assertion not meaningless on its face but provably meaningless and not flatly or provably false. The first problem would be to bring forth an example of such an assertion. A second problem might then be whether the example-assertion should be said to be entirely meaningless, hence neither true nor false (just like an assertion meaningless on its face--"Blorite exists"), or partly meaningful and to that extent presumptively false (because without evidence). Whether proven entirely meaningless or only partly meaningless, the burden would be on the one making the assertion to (give it up or) transmute it into a fully meaningful and evidenced assertion. At Objectivist Living there are comments by Robert Campbell on the second of Greg’s posts here. I participate also at Policy of Truth (blog of Irfan Khawaja), and I’m enjoying greatly the substantial posts being contributed by some Ph.D. philosophers there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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