Ben's responses were information-packed and articulate. It was a real pleasure to hear him cut to essentials as he presented Ayn Rand's ideas, as well as those of other thinkers (e.g., Stoics, Effective Altruists, Plato). He was clear and eloquent throughout.
This is a terrific interview performance by Ben. The interviewer was honest and open-minded, and asked some excellent questions (though, sometimes his language was a little clumsy, but that is a small nit). Ben's responses were appropriately direct to these questions, occasionally, briefly, pulling at closely tangential threads. I am sure Ben's intellectual progression, which he presented so beautifully and concisely, will resonate with many young people. And, the same is true of Ben's explanation of why so many creative business owners are reaching to stoicism. I think there is a large audience of smart, accomplished individuals who will have a light-bulb moment if they hear that.
>Today’s confused oscillation between Judeo-Christian altruism and pragmatism.
What oscillation?! It's a working partnership. Altruism needs a pretense of practicality in a semi-rational culture. Pragmatism needs an ideal about which it can pretend to be practical. I used Peikoff on this in an early 1970s university course on Nazism. I'll be glad to provide my term paper.
Awesome job, Ben! You got me excited about the philosophy again, and I've been following her for 30 years.
Ben's responses were information-packed and articulate. It was a real pleasure to hear him cut to essentials as he presented Ayn Rand's ideas, as well as those of other thinkers (e.g., Stoics, Effective Altruists, Plato). He was clear and eloquent throughout.
This is a terrific interview performance by Ben. The interviewer was honest and open-minded, and asked some excellent questions (though, sometimes his language was a little clumsy, but that is a small nit). Ben's responses were appropriately direct to these questions, occasionally, briefly, pulling at closely tangential threads. I am sure Ben's intellectual progression, which he presented so beautifully and concisely, will resonate with many young people. And, the same is true of Ben's explanation of why so many creative business owners are reaching to stoicism. I think there is a large audience of smart, accomplished individuals who will have a light-bulb moment if they hear that.
I hope this gets very wide distribution.
>Today’s confused oscillation between Judeo-Christian altruism and pragmatism.
What oscillation?! It's a working partnership. Altruism needs a pretense of practicality in a semi-rational culture. Pragmatism needs an ideal about which it can pretend to be practical. I used Peikoff on this in an early 1970s university course on Nazism. I'll be glad to provide my term paper.