 General Sessions
All of our General Session options, including the special lecture about the U.S.S. Constitution and the July 6 evening panel, are available with one convenient registration. (Note: the July 5 ARI Presentation and the July 7 Academic Panel are both free.)
Session Descriptions
Motivation in Education
Lisa VanDamme
Few educators understand that offering students the right motivation is essential to a proper education. Many hold variants of the Platonist view that knowledge is an end in itself, desirable for its own sake. On this view, no motivation is necessary. Others regard education as a means to some subjectively desirable goal. On this view, motivation involves simply tapping into the child's randomly held interests and desires.
On the objective view, education consists of training in the knowledge and skills necessary for one to function as a mature, informed, rational adult, i.e., to efficaciously pursue a fulfilled human life. Knowledge is practical and selfish—to fully grasp something is to understand its power to help one achieve values in the real world.
In this lecture, Ms. VanDamme will discuss why one should offer proper motivation to students and how to do it, illustrating this method and its results with stories from her successful school. She will discuss implications of her view for motivation in adult education.
Saturday, July 1, 2006; 10:15–11:45 AM
Boston and the American Revolution: Men and Monuments
John Ridpath and Mary Ann Sures
In many ways, the American Revolution started in the Boston area of colonial America. Dr. Ridpath will offer brief biographical and intellectual sketches of some of the individuals who played an important, but less widely known role in this event.
Included in this saga will be John Hancock, James Otis, Samuel Adams, the young John Adams, James Warren and his influential wife Mercy Otis Warren, as well as the notorious cabal known as the Sons of Liberty.
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Mary Ann Sures will give an illustrated tour of historic sites in Boston and its environs, including: the Old State House; the site of the Boston Massacre; Old North church ("One, if by land, and two, if by sea"); Lexington Green ("But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here"); Concord and the North Bridge ("Here once the embattled farmers stood"); Bunker Hill. Mrs. Sures will also offer further recommendations of what to see in this great American city.
Saturday, July 1, 2006; 7:30–10 PM
Perception
Harry Binswanger
The perceptual level of awareness, which man shares with the higher animals, is the incontestable base of all knowledge. Objectivism provides an understanding of perception that differs radically from the representationalist and subjectivist views infecting all philosophy since Thomas Aquinas. By integrating Objectivism with recent scientific work in the psychology of perception, especially that of the late J. J. Gibson, Dr. Binswanger provides a new perspective on perception as an active, physically determined process. Topics to be discussed include: the error of naive realism, why "perceptual illusions" are not sensory errors, the seductive fallacy of representationalism, the form-object distinction, the crucial role of differentiation in perception, perception as entity-centered and the disastrous error of the "snapshot" view of visual perception.
Sunday, July 2, 2006; 10:15–11:45 AM
The Value of Ayn Rand's Philosophy of Art
Mary Ann Sures
Most people have mistaken assumptions about art, such as: art really can't be defined or explained; or, art is a matter of subjective "taste"; or, appreciating and responding to art comes from innate talent; or a combination of the above. Consequently, their experience of art is marred by uncertainty and confusion. What difference would it make in their lives if they accepted and applied Ayn Rand's philosophy of art?
Mrs. Sures will begin with a review of the essence of the Objectivist philosophy of art (the definition of art, and the relation of art to man's conceptual faculty). Then, using examples from painting and sculpture, she will demonstrate what Objectivist esthetics makes possible in the understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of art, and in the understanding of one's deepest philosophical convictions.
Monday, July 3, 2006; 10:15 AM–12:15 PM
The "Diversity" Delusion
Peter Schwartz
Across a limitless range of human attributes—from race to literacy, from gender to intelligence, from age to physical handicap—it is now an uncontroversial tenet that the attainment of "diversity" is a value.
What does this doctrine mean, and how has it gained such cultural acceptance? This lecture examines the "diversity" movement and shows how it is the culmination of egalitarianism. That is, even though the egalitarian rejects differentiations while the proponent of "diversity" wallows in them, the two ideologies are essentially the same. "Diversity," Mr. Schwartz argues, is the expression of an anti-conceptual mentality whose hostility is directed primarily toward not political, but cognitive discrimination. He explains how "diversity" rests on, and spawns, a slew of egalitarian-based package-deals, which are utilized to smear anyone who makes rational discriminations—i.e., who upholds epistemological and moral standards.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006; 10:15–11:45 AM
Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea
C. Bradley Thompson
During the 1930s a group of young Trotskyists at Brooklyn College advocated Marxism and worldwide communist revolution. Today, those same men dominate conservative political thought and politics. Known as the neoconservatives, they control the leading conservative think-tanks and magazines, they hold prestigious university positions and they are credited with defining Republican domestic and foreign policy, from Reagan to Bush.
But just who are the neoconservatives and what do they really stand for? At first blush, the "neocons" are impressive: they take ideas seriously, they're pro-American, they're critics of the New Left and they support capitalism. In this lecture, Dr. Thompson will examine the ideological origins of neoconservatism, the neocons' intellectual method and their plan for governing America. He will demonstrate that the neoconservatives are altruists in ethics and pragmatists in politics and are, therefore, a threat to a free society.
Thursday, July 6, 2006; 10:15 AM–11:45 AM
Ayn Rand, Public Speaker: A Philosopher Who Lived on Earth
Shoshana Milgram
As a public speaker, Ayn Rand demonstrated the application of philosophy to human life—whatever the topic, the time period or the audience. From her first lecture (New York, 1936) to her last (New Orleans, 1981), her procedure was consistent: she offered new, true and important insights about her chosen subject—in the light of principles unlimited by any particular subject.
This lecture will examine her public speaking—the reasons for her choice of topics and venues—including her lectures on Soviet Russia, her campaign speeches for Wendell Willkie, her talks about The Fountainhead, her lectures at colleges and universities—and her seventeen appearances at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston. It will also consider how she prepared her talks and how her public speaking was related to the overall goal of her writing.
Friday, July 7, 2006; 10:15–11:45 AM
Unborrowed Vision: The Virtue of Independence
Tara Smith
Howard Roark's independence has inspired millions. Inspiration without understanding is of limited value, however. The more fully we appreciate the precise meaning and value of independence, the more fully we can practice it—and reap its rewards. This lecture seeks to clarify several dimensions of the virtue of independence.
Dr. Leonard Peikoff has described independence as a primary orientation to reality rather than to other men. Among the questions we will probe: What does this fundamental orientation consist of? What sorts of actions or policies does the exercise of this virtue demand in everyday practice? And why is it important? What elevates independence to the ranks of the moral virtues? In the course of answering, we will also clarify what independence is not by distinguishing it from subjectivist pseudo-independence, by explaining the independent person's proper relationships with others and by dissecting modern man's widely alleged "interdependence," identifying the ways in which man is and is not a "social animal."
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Note: This lecture is based on a chapter of Dr. Smith's forthcoming book, Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist.
Saturday, July 8, 2006; 10:15–11:45 AM
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