At Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
July 29–August 3, 2012
Instructors: Neera Badhwar, Alexander Cohen, Edward L. Hudgins, David Kelley, Shawn Klein, and William R Thomas
Syllabus
Last updated: October 9, 2018
Logistics
●Classroom: Hannan Hall Room 105: has an installed projector and screen.
●Housing: Regan Hall on the north end of the campus. All participants staying on campus will have single, air-conditioned rooms. Catholic University will provide each room with a linen package of 2 sheets, 1 wash cloth, 1 towel, 1 pillow case, and 1 coverlet, which will not be washed or changed during your stay. A pillow will also be provided. You should bring soap, shampoo, and detergent (this last if you plan to do laundry). Note: linen service towels can be small. Bathrooms are single-sex, shared, but with private shower and toilet stalls. You may want a bathrobe.
●Internet: There will be WiFi and Wired Ethernet internet access at CUA. An access password will be provided. Bring an ethernet patch cable to access ethernet plugs in the dorm rooms.
●Housing check-in: Check in and get your meal tickets at the information desk on the second floor of the Pryzbyla Center (open from 7am to 10pm), Sunday, July 29, from 2pm on. (Early check in is usually fine, and CUA has a 24-hour help line for guests: 202-319-5200).
●Dining: cafeteria food service on campus at the Pryzbyla Center food court, except for the final dinner on Friday.
●Course materials: Students will be responsible for acquiring the main text for discussion, Gotthelf and Lennox's Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue. Other readings will be provided electronically if possible, in hard copy if not.
●Travel: Catholic University campus is served by the Metro red line CUA-Brookland station.. Taxi: Cab fare from Union Station to CUA is approximately $9. CUA's street address is 620 Michigan Avenue, NE.
●Parking: Parking on campus costs $7 and can be paid for in advance or at the information desk in the Pryzbyla Center. See the campus map: .
●The TAS Office: 1001 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 830, is at the intersection of K Street, 17th Street, and Connecticut Avenue. It is across the park from the Farragut West stop on the Blue and Orange lines and is right on top of the red line stop Farragut North (which also serves CUA). TAS office hours are M-F 9:30-5:30, and all other times we are there.
●Contact:
CUA Conferences and Pryzbyla Management: (202) 319-5291
The Atlas Society: (202) 296-7263
David Kelley: (202) 296-7262 ext. 1
William Thomas: (202) 370-6880.
Seminar Description
The Graduate Seminar in Objectivist Philosophy and Method is a week of lectures, discussions, and workshops designed for graduate students, junior faculty, and post-doctoral scholars of philosophy and related fields such as history, political science, and psychology. It is organized by The Atlas Society (TAS), the center for open Objectivism.
Faculty: instructors for this intimate and intensive week of intellectual development:
●University of Oklahoma professor of Philosophy emerita Neera K. Badhwar, PhD, affiliated with the Dept. of Philosophy, George Mason University
●TAS Business Rights Center manager Alexander Cohen, MA, JD
●TAS Director of Advocacy Edward L. Hudgins, PhD
●TAS founder David Kelley, PhD
●Rockford College philosophy professor Shawn Klein, PhD
●TAS Director of Programs and lecturer in Economics, University at Albany, William Thomas, MA
Instruction in 2012 will focus on the foundations of ethics, in both human psychology and in fundamental, metaethical theory. Many readings will be drawn from the 2011 volume Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue, published by the Ayn Rand Society and edited by Allan Gotthelf and James G. Lennox.
The Graduate Seminar sessions will be held July 29–August 3 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Participants can expect to arrive on Sunday, July 29th, and depart on Saturday morning, Aug. 4th. Attendance will be strictly limited to around 10 participants to maintain a productive small-group setting and maximize the benefit participants can gain from taking part.
Assignments
To constructively participate in the seminar sessions, participants will need to do the assigned readings in advance. These are specified in the syllabus daily schedule and in the “Readings” section below.
Student Presentations. Each student will give a short presentation in essentials, covering a topic in the Objectivist ethics, metaethics, or philosophical anthropology. The primary purpose of the presentation is to give the student an opportunity to better understand Objectivist ethical theory and Objectivist method.
Each presentation is to take 30 minutes. The remaining 40 minutes of each student presentation session (as indicated in the schedule) will be used to discuss the presentation's content as well as techniques of presentation and idea organization. Students should observe each other’s sessions, consider how they might have organized or presented the material themselves, and offer each other constructive comments.
Please select three (3) possible topics from within the option categories listed below. Rank your preferred topics in terms of your preference (we will assign you one of the three). Note that it is possible to choose all three topics from within one option category as long as each topic is distinct. The option categories are not topics themselves: a topic would be a species of the category class.
You will be assigned an instructor who will correspond with you about your topic and may ask you to define your idea further. We will try to assign each student his or her most preferred topic, but this will depend on the overall pattern of topics selected and the need to balance the program and schedule.
Presentation topic preferences are due by June 4, 2012.
Category A: Virtues and Values
Present the essential definition and argument for an Objectivist major virtue or value (do one: e.g. rationality or art). (These are discussed in such publications as Atlas Shrugged, The Virtue of Selfishness, Objectivism: the Philosophy of Ayn Rand, The Logical Structure of Objectivism, TAS webinars, Unrugged Individualism, and Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics.)
Category B: Virtue in Terms of Vices
Discuss an Objectivist virtue in terms of vices. Define the vices the virtue stands against. See William Thomas's webinar “The Virtue of Rationality” for an example of this kind of approach. Note that the converse of the virtue is not typically a well-defined vice. A vice has a definition independent of the virtue that stands against it. (For instance, irrationality is not a vice in this sense. Emotionalism is.) (A topic from this option could form the basis of an original research paper.)
Category C: Assess a Metaethical Position
Assess an important non-Objectivist metaethical position from an Objectivist perspective, or discuss a defining metaethical position in Objectivism. (A topic from this option could form the basis of an original research paper.)
Category D: Propose an Objectivist Virtue
Argue for a virtue that isn't an established Objectivist major virtue. Relate it to the ultimate value of life, the pursuit of values, and the taxonomy of the virtues. ( A topic from this option could form the basis of an original research paper.)
Category E: Philosophical Anthropology
Pick a distinctive Objectivist position with regard to human nature and discuss it in light of the body of scientific knowledge that relates to it. What testable predictions does the Objectivist position imply? What facts of reality gave rise to the Objectivist position in the first place? Discuss evidence against the Objectivist position and assess how the evidence bears on testable implications of the Objectivist view. Also, consider whether scientists have made philosophical errors. ( A topic from this option could form the basis of an original research paper.)
Readings
As a graduate-level course, the Seminar will presuppose that you are familiar with Objectivism, and that you have access to the major works that are relevant to this year’s topic, including
Ayn Rand, For the New Intellectual [FNI]
Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It [PWNI]
Ayn Rand, TheArt of Nonfiction [ART]
Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto [RM]
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness[VOS]
Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand [OPAR]
William Thomas and David Kelley, The Logical Structure of Objectivism Beta Draft [LSO Beta]
Neera Badhwar and Roderick Long, “Ayn Rand,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, updated version at: [older PDF also available ]
Allan Gotthelf and James G. Lennox, editors, Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue: Studies in Ayn Rand's Normative Theory (Participants should acquire a copy of this affordable volume.)
Additional readings include:
Nathaniel Branden, The Psychology of Self-Esteem, chap. 4, pp. 36-47
David Kelley, "Free Will and Causality," lecture in "Foundations of Knowledge" audio series [digital audio + PDF of extensive notes, 12 pages]. Optional.
Who is Attending [for attendees only]
page 1
Atlas Society Graduate Seminar Schedule 2012
Classroom: Hannan Hall, Room 105
Standard daily schedule
Breakfast: 8:00 am, cafeteria
AM1: 9:00 – 10:30 am ( 9:00 – 10:10 am Tuesday)
AM break: 20 minutes
AM2: 10:50 am – 12:00 pm (10:30 am – 12:00 pm Tuesday)
Lunch break: 90 minutes, cafeteria
PM1: 1:30 – 2:40 pm (1:30 – 3:00 pm Tuesday)
PM break: 20 minutes
PM2: 3:00 – 4:30 pm (3:20 – 4:30 pm Tuesday)
Dinner: 6:00 pm, cafeteria
Evening session Sunday begins at 7:30pm
Date and Time / Topics / Readings and Course MaterialsSunday afternoon / Room check-in: 2:00-5:00 pm
Orientation: 5:30 to 5:55 pm
Opening dinner: 6:00-7:20 pm / [Readings are listed in a suggested reading order from top to bottom in each period.]
Sunday evening
7:30 – 9:00 pm / Overview: Foundations: metaethics and also philosophical anthropology
What are the limits of social science? What are the limits of ethical theory? / Excerpt from “The Objectivist Ethics” (VOS p. 19-25)
Excerpt from Galt’s Speech (FNI p. 128-31)
Monday
Monday AM 1
9:00 – 10:30 am
Primary instructor: Cohen / The Objectivist theory of reason and emotion, subconscious, sense of life / PWNI, ch. 1 (West Point speech)
RM, ch. 2 (“Philosophy and Sense of Life”)
ART, ch. 6 (“Writing the Draft”)
RM, ch. 8-10 (“Art and Moral Treason”; “Introduction to Ninety-Three”; “The Goal of My Writing”)
Monday AM 2
10:50 am – 12:00 pm
Presentation adviser: Thomas / Student Presentation: Kate Herrick: Objectivity as a Value
Monday PM 1
1:30 – 2:40 pm
Presentation adviser: Klein / Student Presentation: Susette España: “Integrity.”
Monday PM 2
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Primary instructor: Kelley / Experimental Philosophy: The research program; issues and objections / Joshua Knobe, et.al., "Experimental Philosophy," Annual Review of Psychology, January 2012, Vol. 63: 81-99 [PDF]. Read through section "Moral objectivism and moral relativism" (13 pages)
Eddy Nahmias, et.al., "The Phenomenology of Free Will," Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, No. 7–8, 2004, pp. 162–79 [PDF, 16 pages)]
Tuesday
Tuesday AM 1
9:00 – 10:10 am
Presentation adviser: Thomas / Student Presentation: Joe Duarte: “Egoism and our social needs”
Tuesday AM 2
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Primary instructor: Badhwar / Discussion of social psychological experiments on certain deep-set human propensities / In-class exercises
Tuesday PM 1
1:30 – 3:00 pm
Primary instructor: Badhwar / Methodology in Ethics: Intuitions and Reflective Equilibrium / Norman Daniels, “Reflective Equilibrium,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online and PDF)
Tuesday PM 2
3:20 – 4:30 pm
Presentation adviser: Kelley / Student Presentation: Jason Walker, “Critique of Intuitionism as proposed by Ross and Schafer-Landau.” / Background reading: Ross, W.D. “The Basis of Objective Judgments in Ethics.” International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 37, No. 2 (January 1927), pp. 113-127.
Shafer-Landau, Russ. (2003) Moral Realism: a defense. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wednesday
Wednesday AM 1
9:00 – 10:30 am
Primary instructor: Hudgins with Thomas / Tabula rasa and the Objectivist concept of reason related to the new pyschology
Humean desire theory and collectivism in Haidt's moral psychology / Stephen Pinker on “The Blank Slate,” 18 min. video lecture read the book).
Jonathan Haidt, “Moral Psychology And The Misunderstanding Of Religion,published online 22 Sept. 2007 up to “In what follows...” a bit over half-way through.)
Feinberg et al. “Liberating Reason from the Passions, Overriding Intuitionist Moral Judgments Through Emotion Reappraisal” Psychological Science, published online 25 May 2012 (PDF)
Wed. AM 2
10:50 am – 12:00 pm
Presentation adviser: Thomas / Student Presentation: Kathy Prellwitz: “The rationally selfish life is inconsistent with hedonism”
Wednesday PM 1
1:30 – 2:40 pm
Presentation adviser: Kelley / Student Presentation: Ray Raad, “The Objectivist View of Free Will: some psychological support.”
Wed. PM 2
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Primary instructor: Kelley / The psychology of free will: Varieties and dimensions of attention—self-control, meditation, and flow / Roy F. Baumeister and Todd F. Heatherton, "Self-Regulation Failure: An Overview," Psychological Inquiry, 1996, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1-15. [PDF]. Read pages 1-9
Scott R. Bishop, et. al., "Mindfulness: A Proposed Operational Definition," Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2004, V11 N3 [PDF]. Read pages 230-35.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper, 1990), chap 2 [scan PDF, 20 pages]
Thursday
Thursday AM 1
9:00 – 10:30 am
Primary instructor: Klein / Life as the ultimate value
Is a thick survival credible? (e.g. Wright's psychological survival.)
Is thin survival plausible? / David Kelley, “Choosing Life”
Darryl Wright “Reasoning About Ends” in MEV
Douglas Rasmussen “Obligation and Value,” Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, 2002
Allan Gotthelf “The Choice to Value,” from MEV (reply to Rasmussen)
Thursday AM 2
10:50 am – 12:00 pm
Presentation adviser: Thomas / Student Presentation:Ole Martin Moen: “Is Life the Ultimate Value?” (paper presentation workshop) /
Thursday PM 1
1:30 – 2:40 pm
Presentation adviser: Cohen / Student Presentation: Christopher Hurtado: “Independence, Productiveness, and Pride.”
Thursday PM 2
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Primary instructor: Klein / Contrast of Objectivist and analytic ethics and comparisons / Irfan Khawaja “The Foundations of Ethics,” MEV
Paul Bloomfield, “Egoism and Eudaimonism,” MEV
Friday
Friday AM 1
9:00 – 10:30 am
Primary instructor: Cohen / Altruism, benevolence, and the limits of egoism / David Kelley, Unrugged Individualism
Christine Swanton, “Virtuous Altruism and Virtuous Egoism,” MEV
Tara Smith “On Altruism and the Role of Virtues in Rand's Egoism,” MEV
Friday AM 2
10:50 am – 12:00 pm
Presentation adviser: Klein / Student Presentation: Nathaniel Branch, “The Categorical Imperative”
Friday PM 1
1:30 – 2:40 pm
Presentation adviser: Cohen / Student Presentation: Nicholas Schroeder, “The Objectivist virtue of Rationality compared with Aristotelian phronesis” / Background: reading: Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Terence Irwin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1999.
Rand, Ayn. “Selfishness Without a Self.” PWNI 46-51.
Friday PM 2
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Primary instructor: Klein / Virtue, principles, and consequentialism / William R Thomas "Why Should One Act on Principle"?
Philippa Foot, “Utilitarianism and Virtues” [PDF
Rosalind Hursthouse, On Virtue Ethics, chap 1 [PDF]
Friday Evening / Final dinner