I’m happy to announce a new edition of my “Ayn Rand and Business Ethics” has been published. Thanks to the team at The Atlas Society for producing it. The essay was originally published in The Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy and has since been translated into Korean, German, Serbo-Croatian, and Portuguese. Abstract: Most […]
Ayn Rand and Business Ethics — new booklet edition Read More »
Note the similarity: * The born-entitled-snob mentality says: My daddy’s a zillionaire, so I am special and you are dirt. * The resentful-anti-privilege mentality says: Your daddy’s a zillionaire, so you are repulsive and I hate you. The same premise is at work in both mentalities: One’s status is determined by one’s daddy’s money. Both
Snobs and “privilege” — a quick comparison Read More »
[My annual re-posting for this season’s festivities.] We all know the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Or do we? Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has generated an astonishing variety of interpretations, and as with most rich tales the interpretations often tell us as much about the interpreter as the original story. The legend of Robin Hood
Ebenezer Scrooge as an Aristotelian Hero Read More »
“It is not as easy as you imagine to be a pure egoist, and none such have ever succeeded. The apparent egoism of great nations and of great men is the inevitable sternness with which anyone who has his life fixed on some undertaking must bear himself. When we are really going to do something
Ortega y Gasset on egoism and dedication to purpose Read More »
Self-esteem is 90% of the battle.
Sexism or Racism? The Best Quick Responses Read More »
I wrote this brief entry on “Self-interest in Ayn Rand”, contrasting her view to the strong nativist e.g., Christianity, Freud) and strong tabula rasa (e.g., Skinner, Foucault) positions. Source: Ruth Hagengruber and Mary Ellen Waithe, editors, The Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers, Paderborn University, Germany, 2018.
Rand in *The Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts* by Women Philosophers Read More »
My two-minute advice to passionate young activists: “You’re a younger person, and things matter to you … but keep an open mind to the possibility that you have received only a partial education — one side of a set of arguments from some very clever people.” “Your life is important, and if you let yourself
My advice to young Social Justice Warriors Read More »
From Jacob Burckhardt’s great The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860): In the Middle Ages, “Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation — only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an objective treatment and consideration of the state
Individualism, and why I love the Renaissance Read More »