4//16/08 Tara Smith Lecture at University of Chgo

The University of Chicago Objectivist Club and the Ayn Rand Institute

will be hosting the lecture "Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The

Virtuous Egoist" by Dr. Tara Smith on Wednesday, April 16 from 7:00-

9:30 pm in Harper Memorial Library, Room 140. Admission is free and

open to the public. Free pizza will be available starting at 6:45 pm.

Directions to the University of Chicago campus and parking

information can be found at maps.uchicago.edu

Lecture Description:

Ayn Rand is well known for advocating selfishness, yet the substance

of that selfishness is rarely understood. This lecture presents

Rand's ideal: a virtuous egoist.

Dr. Smith explains why a person should be an egoist, the kind of

egoism that Rand does and doesn't commend, and the kinds of virtues

that a person must exercise in order to actually advance his self-

interest. Along the way, Dr. Smith differentiates Rand's rational

egoism from hedonism, materialism, and predation, and sketches Rand's

egoistic account of two vital but widely misunderstood virtues:

honesty and justice.

Tara Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas,

where she currently holds the Anthem Foundation Fellowship for the

Study of Objectivism. She is the author of Moral Rights & Political

Freedom; Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root & Reward of

Morality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); and Ayn Rand's Normative

Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist. Dr. Smith has published articles or

lectured on such topics as self-interest, objectivity, individual

rights, judicial "activism," pride, justice, forgiveness, and

romantic love.