123 Articles tagged with: Ethics

• The Violence in Charlottesville

  The vast majority of people in the United States have no interest whatsoever in street battles between the alt-right (better described today in more poignant terms) and the counter-protesters. Most people have normal problems like paying … Read Article

• Is Theft Now Legal in Italy?

  The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that stealing small amounts of food out of desperation “does not constitute a crime.” The adverse moral and political effects of this ruling will be large and downright criminal.

   

  License to s… Read Article

• Is equality a social value?

  Is equality a social value? Political equality—equality before the law—is an important value, required by the universal principles of individual rights. Laws should be applied uniformly to everyone.

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• Minimum Wage is not Economic Justice

  California has approved a new law hiking the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022. Governor Jerry Brown calls the plan “economic justice.” In fact, it is gross injustice.

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• Kelley to speak at American Philosophical Association meeting

  Atlas Society founder and CEO David Kelley will speak at the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division Annual Meeting in Chicago. Kelley will comment March 3 on a recent book, Toleration, by Andrew Jason Cohen.

  The session wa… Read Article

• Research Workshop discusses "Virtues in Action" and "Virtues for Life" virtue lists

  The Atlas Society's Research Workshop met online on Thursday, October 22, for a discussion of virtues derived from the positive psychology movement.

  Ayn Rand listed seven main virtues in “Galt’s Speech” and in “The Objectivist Ethi… Read Article

• Intermediate course in Objectivist Ethics

  This 5-part course in the Objectivist ethics was filmed this summer, in Nashua, New Hampshire, as part of our annual Atlas Summit. 

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• Ethics in Society - Lecture 4 (Intermediate Course in Objectivism)

  While Objectivism holds that you’d need ethics even living alone, interacting with other people raises distinctive ethical questions and requires principles designed for the purpose. This session discusses the trader principle and its applicatio… Read Article

• Ethics for the Individual: Lecture 3 (Intermediate Course in Objectivist Ethics)

  Objectivism holds that each person needs ethics regardless of his or her social situation. Indeed, a Robinson Crusoe needs ethics as much as anyone. This session discusses the core content of ethics for the individual as such, including principl… Read Article

• Selfishness: What and Why

  This session explains the radical difference between Ayn Rand’s conception of selfishness and the conventional sense of that term.

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• The Nature of Ethics

  Objectivism conceives of ethics as a practical code to guide our actions. Is this what ethics is?

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• Justice and Benevolence

  Justice is an essential virtue in the Objectivist ethics. This Atlas Summit session, filmed this summer, covers the nature and importance of justice, both for personal life and for a good society.

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• Secular Sharia Law in Indiana

  Americans cannot tell the difference between ethics and politics.

  The Indiana religious freedom law—now being amended, it appears—has exposed the American version of sharia: Americans want to require people to be moral.   Indiana's fre… Read Article

• The Nature of Free Will

  Free will is a fundamental question in philosophy because it is the foundation of ethics. If man has no free choice in his actions then he does not need a moral code of how to choose his actions from a range of alternatives. In its broadest sens… Read Article

• Toward An Objectivist Feminism

  Objectivism has the potential for a dynamic relationship with feminism, which can ground, challenge, and ultimately sharpen each school’s arguments toward the ultimate ends of both freedom and flourishing for women (and all human beings). A ne… Read Article

• The Value of Play

  Atlas Summit 2014 --  Work and career are central values in Objectivism. Play doesn’t get a lot of focus in Ayn Rand’s fiction or in Objectivist philosophy. Play, though, offers many positive benefits and is a ubiquitous feature of human ci… Read Article

• Objectivist ethics for parents and children

  Atlas Summit 2014 -- When children are born, they are mentally and spiritually unformed. For parents, they imply an obligation to provide love and care. Why should people consider taking on such an obligation? And what do the values at stake in … Read Article

• The Moral and Cultural Significance of "Genie, you're free"

  “Genie, you’re free.” In Disney’s Aladdin, those are the words in which the Genie learns that after thousands of years of being forced to grant the wishes of whoever rubbed his lamp, he will finally get the one thing he’s always wished… Read Article

• Virtue and Selfishness

  Atlas Summit 2014 -- The Objectivist ethics is based in a recognition that, for each organism, its life is its ultimate value. This is the egoism, or "selfishness," that lies at the root of the Objectivist ethics. In this session, William R Thom… Read Article

• Desperate exchanges in the kidney black market

  Atlas Summit 2014 -- Economists claim that a voluntary exchange has to be mutually beneficial, and that such an exchange can never be exploitative or unjust. But in desperate circumstances, an individual might, with full knowledge, accept a shor… Read Article