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The Illusion of Determinism: Sam Harris’ Aborted Attempt to Refute Free Will

This review was based on Dr. Locke’s book: The Illusion of Determinism: Why Free Will is Real and Causal. The book deals with these issues at greater length and includes additional topics such as the nature of the self and what free will is not. It also deals with the Libet experiments which are misinterpreted in Sam Harris’s book.   A review of Sam Harris’ “Free Will” By Edwin A. Locke Sam Harris’s well-publicized attack on volition in his book Free Will is based on the assertion that in order to possess free will, you would have to, in effect,… Read More »The Illusion of Determinism: Sam Harris’ Aborted Attempt to Refute Free Will

Whittaker Chambers’ Review of Ayn Rand’s Novel “Atlas Shrugged” in The National Review

The following article by Dr. Michael Berliner, Ph.D. is a revised excerpt from “Reviews of Atlas Shrugged,” a chapter in Essays on Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” (ed. Robert Mayhew), due in 2009 from Lexington Books. Dr. Berliner is the senior advisor to the Ayn Rand Archives. He was the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute from its founding to January 2000. The most significant review of Atlas Shrugged from the political Right appeared in The National Review (December 28, 1957) and signaled the “official” conservative position.[1] The 2,700-word review was written by ex-Communist, Whittaker Chambers, and was republished on… Read More »Whittaker Chambers’ Review of Ayn Rand’s Novel “Atlas Shrugged” in The National Review

Yeonmi Park at OCON 2023

Ayn Rand Institute’s Elan Journo’s interview with Yeonmi Park at closing banquet for OCON 2023. Journo needs his own TV show, and everyone needs to her book While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector’s Search for Freedom in America.

The False Alternative of “Open” vs. “Closed” Objectivism

Insightful analysis by Ayn Rand Institue’s Onkar Ghate with Yaron Brook on the false alternative of “closed” vs “open Objectivism”, and the fraud of riding on Ayn Rand’s name to push their own ideas, while smearing Ayn Rand at the same time. Related: Fact and Value By Leonard Peikoff, Ph.D. “Let us not cohabit with or become alchemists in reverse, i.e., men who turn the gold of Ayn Rand into lead.” @Peikoff

We the Living Movie To Be Honored at Italian Film Festival

The film version of Ayn Rand’s powerful, semi-autobiographical novel, We the Living is being honored at Il Cinema Ritrovato (Cinema Rediscovered) on June 27, 2022 in Bologna, Italy. Il Cinema Ritrovato is the world’s major festival of film restoration. Held annually since 1986, the eight-day festival is a unique celebration of classic films. Screenings are held simultaneously in as many as 12 venues, including an outdoor plaza seating 5000 in the center of Bologna. The festival attracts thousands of film lovers, filmmakers, and celebrities from around the world. We the Living was initially released in Italy during World War II.… Read More »We the Living Movie To Be Honored at Italian Film Festival

Ayn Rand’s Property After Peikoff

Dr. Peikoff has made this letter available for the public: “For obvious reasons, I have been asked this question frequently in recent years. By far the most important property she left me is the copyrights to her books, articles, and lectures. The owner of a copyright is the only one with the prerogative to manage it (i.e., to decide on all issues pertaining to publishing, anthologies, permission to quote, movies, and the like). In discussing Ayn Rand’s Will with her, it was self-evident to both of us that I should, when my time came, pick the individual or group that… Read More »Ayn Rand’s Property After Peikoff

Ayn Rand: The Best Aspect About Christmas

From Ayn Rand, The Objectivist Calendar, December 1976: “The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions — the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors —provide the city with a spectacular display, which only ‘commercial greed’ could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist… Read More »Ayn Rand: The Best Aspect About Christmas

Poems I Like and Why by Leonard Peikoff

“Dr. Peikoff discusses the value of poetry and its capacity for enriching your life. Encouraging his listeners to “renounce your fear” of poetry, he blends dramatic readings with analysis, using his personal favorites as a window on the world of poetry. He gives as examples poems by Nash, Kipling, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and others. He also discusses the nature and definition of poetry.” This talk was recorded in 1999 at Second Renaissance Conference in Lake Tahoe, California.

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