We’re told that the gap between the poor and the rich has widened. Many decry the “injustice” of income and wealth inequality. But is it actually a problem and are the proposed remedies truly just? What is a fair “distribution” of income and wealth? Yaron Brook takes on these and related issues and argues that a genuinely laissez-faire capitalist society is, in fact, the only system of fairness, that is, justice.
Recorded March 5, 2014
Central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the question of whether the state of Israel has a moral right to exist. In this talk Dr. Yaron Brook argues that Israel deserves — but is not receiving — America’s moral and political support; that by sacrificing its loyal ally for the sake of appeasing our common enemies, America is undermining its own war on terrorism.
Recorded December 12, 2002
Gay wedding cakes. Compulsory union dues. Mandatory disclosures for pregnancy centers. Police searches of cell phone records. These are just a few of the subjects the Supreme Court has taken up this term. The Court’s major cases impact freedom in America and involve fascinating political and philosophical questions. Our panel of experts: Amy Peikoff, Larry Salzman and Steve Simpson, analyze some of the Court’s most momentous decisions from this term and explain their implications.
Recorded live at OCON 2018 on July 3, 2018.
Think about celebrities who tweet about their politics all the time, or think about companies who want you to buy their products because they’re supposedly eco-friendly. Some say that these are symptoms of an epidemic that’s coursing it’s way through social media and through our political discourse generally, an epidemic they call “virtue signalling”.
Ben Bayer, a fellow at The Ayn Rand Institute, has some questions about this. You’re said to be a virtue signaller when you promote some cause or criticize some figure people love to hate in a way that doesn’t involve much cost, but which draws attention to your own right way of thinking.
What, if anything, is wrong with this kind of behavior? Is there a kind of behavior here at all or do the critics of virtue signalling lump together lots of different things? Is speaking out ineffective only because it’s speaking? Does profiting from the judgment of others make you insincere?
Join Ben Bayer and explore the question: What’s wrong with “virtue signalling”?
What makes you who you are? Is it nature or nurture—or a bit of both?
Or does that very way of framing the question leave out something very important, namely—you? Can you take credit for who you are? If so, how?
We can’t and we don’t create ourselves out of nothing. Some people are born with advantages that other people don’t have. So, how can we take credit for our achievements? How can we be blamed for our crimes?
Join Ben Bayer to explore one of life’s big questions: Can you take credit for who you are?
Recorded live as part of ARI’s Philosophy of Living on Earth webinar series on August 10, 2019
Sign up up to attend the next webinar live at http://courses.aynrand.org/webinars/register