This week I gave five talks at the impressive Universidad de la Libertad, a new university focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship. My hosts snapped this pic of me beside a favorite quotation adorning one of the walls there. For my fellow gringos whose Spanish could use an assist: “No price is too high to pay […]
Hannibal and Kipling at UL, Mexico City Read More »
In a letter to Karl Popper dated October 21, 1964, Friedrich Hayek proposed that they name their philosophy “Negativism.”[1] Hayek’s philosophy of economics holds that the limits of knowledge doom any attempt at central planning,[2] and Popper’s philosophy of science holds that observations can only falsify hypotheses.[3] Hence, “Negativism” would capture the central epistemic insight
Hayek, Popper, and “Negativism” Read More »
Mao Zedong on the ethical requirements of communism: “A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless
Mao on selflessness, altruism, and collectivism Read More »
This week I will be in Mexico to give five lectures at the new Universidad de la Libertad. I’m honored to be invited. My titles are: “The Morality of Money and Capitalism” “American vs. French Revolutions—and Why They Matter for Latin America Today” Why Property Rights? “The Morality of Free Trade” “On Being the Entrepreneur
Five lectures at Universidad de la Libertad, Mexico City Read More »
Lecture Four: Why has moral philosophy become skeptical and sterile? In contrast, Ayn Rand rejects the is-ought dichotomy and argues that ethics is “an objective necessity” for volitional, rational beings. Philippa Foot, also updating Aristotle, states that “the grounding of a moral argument is ultimately in facts about human life.” Themes: Naturalism. Bio-centrism. Value and
On Friday, October 4, I’m giving an invited talk at UFM in Guatemala City. My topic is: “On Being the Entrepreneur of your Life.” Thanks to the UFM Department of Psychology and Ayn Rand Center Latin America for inviting me. Related: My article in The Wall Street Journal on “What Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About
An Urdu translation of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault will be published in Pakistan in late 2024 or early 2025. An Urdu edition, translated by Dr. Nazir Azad, was published in India in 2023. Urdu is the first or second language of 230 million people in Pakistan and India, so
Pakistani edition of *Explaining Postmodernism* forthcoming Read More »
The ethics of altruism [from the Latin, alter-ism or other-ism] holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of others first, acts to achieve their interests, and, when necessary, sacrifices one’s interests for their sake. In The Fountainhead, Ellsworth Toohey is the major strategist of
Toohey’s five strategies of altruism Read More »