Morals

Elevating the Dialogue: Overcoming Today’s Intellectual Abyss with Sargon of Akkad and Gregory Salmieri

The political climate in the West, described by some as toxic, is deteriorating rapidly. The worse it gets, the more we hear about the conflation of speech and action, that words lead to violence, and that government should step in.

How serious are the problems around modern political discourse, such as trolling and de-platforming, and what is the best way to bring about constructive discussions on controversial topics?

This event was recorded live in London on October 12, 2018.

“Kill by Laughter”: Humor in The Fountainhead by Robert Mayhew

“Kill by Laughter”: Humor in The Fountainhead and Its 21st-Century Relevance

The Fountainhead is the novel in which Ayn Rand’s conception of humor (good and bad) comes across most clearly. The novel begins: “Howard Roark laughed.” Yet the villain Ellsworth Toohey, presenting his recipe for achieving power, recommends that we “kill by laughter.” This lecture discusses humor in The Fountainhead and the prevalence of the bad kind of humor in today’s culture.

Philosophy and the Human Soul with Yaron Brook, Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin and Gregory Salmieri

This panel discussion centers on the impact of philosophy on a person’s life, wrestling with topics ranging from the sovereignty of the individual to the nature of human consciousness to how values are derived from facts. This discussion took place on July 1, 2018, at Objectivist Summer Conference 2018 in Newport Beach, California.

America, Israel and the Middle East by Elan Journo

In his new book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Elan Journo explains the essential nature of this pivotal conflict, what has fueled it for so long, and America’s actual stake in the region. In this introductory talk delivered at Objectivist