self-interest

Using Reason to Cultivate Passion: A Moral and Psychological How-To Guide by Gena Gorlin

April 13, 2022 arilive_user 59:07 0 Comments

Despite all the graduation speeches enjoining us to “be passionate” about something, the experience of deep, passionate emotion is not an easy one to achieve, much less sustain. This talk offers guidance for achieving that rarified quality which Ayn Rand ascribed to one of Atlas Shrugged’s heroes — a “disciplined capacity to feel too deeply.” The talk by Gena Gorlin, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, integrates tools from cognitive-behavioral therapy with insights from Rand’s theory of values, without assuming prior knowledge of either.

This talk was recorded live at Objectivist Summer Conference 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, June 11, 2017.

Earning Your Own Trust: The Psychology of Honesty by Gena Gorlin

March 10, 2021 arilive_user 1:31:09 0 Comments

This talk discusses the meaning and importance of being honest, especially with oneself—why it matters, why it can be hard and how to make it habit. Dr. Gorlin offers tools for introspecting the difference between reason and rationalizing, for staying selfishly committed to facts even when it hurts, and for correcting habits to the contrary. The talk draws on research and clinical experience, further clarified by Ayn Rand’s insights on the choice to focus.

Recorded live at OCON on June 25, 2019.

Q&A Panel on Reason, Purpose and Self-Esteem with Yaron Brook, Onkar Ghate, Elan Journo, Aaron Smith

January 27, 2021 arilive_user 1:12:37 0 Comments

Recorded live at Ayn Rand Conference Europe 2020

Transforming Burnout with Selfishness – Ellen Kenner, Edwin A. Locke and Jean Moroney

October 14, 2020 arilive_user 1:28:44 0 Comments

Burnout is a vicious cycle involving loss of motivation for one’s job or career. Internal causes include altruism, the duty premise and secondhand values. External causes include unrealistic expectations of others and injustice. Our panel of experts: Ellen Kenner, Edwin A. Locke and Jean Moroney discuss how making selfish value choices breaks the vicious cycle of burnout, so you can experience a virtuous cycle of productivity for achieving selfish goals.

How Can One Be Fully Independent in Today’s Society? by Harry Binswanger

November 13, 2019 arilive_user 1:00:38 0 Comments

Independence is the theme of Ayn Rand’s great novel The Fountainhead. Howard Roark, the novel’s hero, is the epitome of independence. He speaks of the need to have a self-sufficient ego and says nothing else is as important. What is a “self-sufficient ego”? What is independence and how does one preserve one’s independence in a society like ours when much of the weight of the media and the intellectual establishment is on the side of dependence and is pushing collectivism: the opposite of independence?

Join special guest Harry Binswanger as he asks another one of life’s big questions: How can one be fully independent in today’s society?

Is Selfishness the Root of All Evil? by Keith Lockitch

August 28, 2019 arilive_user 1:01:48 0 Comments

If there is one thing that almost everyone agrees on today, it’s that selfishness is bad. From day one, we’ve been told, “don’t be selfish” or “selfishness is the root of all evil.”

But what if the way we think about selfishness is completely wrong?

What if our conventional understanding of what it means to be selfish is totally confused—and it’s not just that we’re mistaken, but we’re mistaken in a way that actually makes it harder for us to achieve a happy, fulfilling life and a better world?

Throughout history, various thinkers have challenged us to rethink conventional wisdom. Copernicus and Galileo challenged our view of a motionless earth. Darwin challenged our understanding of how all of life’s species developed.

Ayn Rand, the writer and philosopher famous for her bestselling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, was a thinker who challenged our conventional wisdom about morality.

She was a moral revolutionary in the same way that Galileo and Darwin were scientific revolutionaries.

Join Keith Lockitch and explore Ayn Rand’s moral revolution. He’ll be addressing one of life’s big questions: Is selfishness the root of all evil?

What Is Self-Esteem? How Do I Get It? by Elan Journo

August 7, 2019 arilive_user 1:00:38 0 Comments

Is having self-esteem a good thing?

Most people will say it’s part of living a good life. And we all know someone who lives with gnawing self-doubt, someone with little or no self-esteem at all. It really holds them back.

But is self-esteem something anyone can attain, or is it just for the lucky few? And who can give it to you?

Elan Journo explores these questions.

Recorded live as part of ARI’s Philosophy of Living on Earth webinar series on August 03, 2019
Sign up up to attend the next webinar live at http://courses.aynrand.org/webinars/register

Ayn Rand’s Philosophy for Living on Earth (Part 2) by Ben Bayer

May 1, 2019 arilive_user 1:01:48 0 Comments

Discussing Objectivism: Ayn Rand’s Philosophy for Living on Earth (Part 2). Recorded at Objectivist Summer Conference 2018. This session explores the basic contours of Ayn Rand’s overall philosophy by discussing highlights from Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged. (We try to avoid Atlas plot spoilers.)