This provocative lecture was given at the Laissez Faire Supper Club in New York City on November 10th, 1988 by David Kelley, the noted Objectivist philosopher, author of The Evidence of the Senses, The Art of Reasoning, former contributor to The Objectivist Forum and frequent editorial writer for Barron’s.

Kelley defends Objectivism’s role in helping to form the intellectual foundations for a free society in a twofold sense: its necessity for what he sees as a rigorous intellectual defense of the free society, and its role in defending and promoting those cultural values that must be widely accepted for a free society to be stable.

Kelley demonstrates the indispensable role of individual rights as a defining characteristic of a free society, and then proceeds to launch a devastating attack on any form of ethical subjectivism as a basis for defending individual liberty. He examines three broad principles that he argues are absolutely essential in defending and sustaining individual freedom: the primacy of reason; egoism or the doctrine that every individual is an end in himself; and a rejection of the mind/body dichotomy. Finally, Kelley eloquently summarizes some of Ayn Rand’s major contributions in defending these principles.

This concise and persuasive talk is followed by a freewheeling question and answer period that is sure to be controversial, as David Kelley fields questions from Libertarians and Objectivists alike, showing once again why his is a mind to be reckoned with and why any thoughts of Objectivism’s demise is premature to say the least.

This course is not the same as NBI’s “Principles of Objectivist Psychology” and was recorded circa 1976. The audio quality has been enhanced, but unfortunately some residual problems are not resolvable.

Here are some of the highlights of this course:

• The need, the motivating power and the requirements of self-esteem. Its relation to sex, productive work and human relationships.
• The need to understand yourself and other people.
• The psychology of romantic love.
• The nature and source of emotion.
• Neurotic disorders: their meaning and cause.
• Principles of motivation.
• Emotional blocking.
• Disowning the self.
• Self-alienation and social alienation.
• Reason and emotion: A new interpretation.
• Self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertion.
• Anxiety and depression.
• A critique of contemporary psychology: Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, “Humanistic” Psychology.
• Biocentric Therapy: Its goals and techniques.
• Biocentric Therapy and the Objectivist Ethics.

Permission to offer this product has been given from Dr. Nathaniel Branden who holds the copyright. For further information regarding Dr. Branden, please visit his website: www.nathanielbranden.com/

Summary

Aristotle’s influence on modern culture has become more and more important in recent years. His contribution to the sum of all wisdom dominates all our philosophy and even provides direction for much of our science. And all effective debaters, whether they know it or not, employ Aristotle’s three basic principles of effective argument, which form the spine of rhetoric: “ethos,” the impact of the speaker’s character upon the audience; “pathos,” the arousing of the emotions; and “logos,” the advancement of pertinent arguments. In his discussion, Aristotle observes several aspects of epic poetry, lyric poetry, and comedy. He maintains that poetry has greater philosophical value because it deals with universals, while history states particular facts.

Originally written in the fourth century BC

Summary

First published as a pamphlet in June 1850, The Law is already well over 150 years old, and it will still be read when another century has passed.

America now faces the same situation France did in 1848 and the same socialist-communist plans and ideas adopted there are now sweeping America—the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe notwithstanding. Bastiat’s explanation of and arguments against socialism are as valid today as they were when written, and his ideas deserve serious consideration.

“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”—Frédéric Bastiat

© 1950 by Dean Russell

Review Quotes

“Full of truths that are not merely relevant but are absolutely vital to our future.”—Dick Armey, former majority leader, US House of Representatives

“No work before or since has made such a compelling case for freedom. Bastiat’s message will influence students of liberty for years to come.”—Laissez Faire Books

Summary

Published in 1922 during those dark and dreary years of socialism’s near-complete triumph, Socialism stunned the socialist world. Mises has given us a profoundly important treatise that assaults socialism in all its guises, a work that discusses every major aspect of socialism and leaves no stone unturned. A few of the numerous topics discussed include the success of socialist ideas; life under socialism: art and literature, science and journalism; economic calculation under socialism; the ideal of equality; and Marx’s theory of monopolies.

With this monumental work, Mises laid the foundations for free society. Socialism has influenced scores of influential thinkers, including Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman. It is read over and over again today, all over the world, inspiring throngs of new defenders of freedom. © 1981 by Margit von Mises

Review Quotes

“This book must rank as the most devastating analysis of socialism yet penned…An economic classic in our time.” –  Henry Hazlitt

Summary

Xenophon, after being exiled from Athens, spent the last years of his life hunting, writing, and recalling in his books the great days of the Persian expedition. This record of one of the most famous marches in history contains an account of the day-to-day life of ordinary men and soldiers. It demonstrates how Greek theories of government and morality worked out in practice—for with his admiration for the great, Xenophon had a rare ability to understand and describe the outlook of lesser men. His own fortunes, too, are intensely moving. Cool, calculating, brilliant, and intensely pious, he is one of the most fascinating characters of history, and his account of his own doings is so far from being self-conscious that he seems to be one of the very few Greeks whose ways and manners have been accurately documented.

Originally published in Greek in the fourth century BC

Author Bio

Xenophon (c. 431–355 BC) served for some years as a mercenary in the Middle East and Asia Minor and later wrote pioneering works on history, politics, and philosophy, as well as a number of technical treatises.