TM Volume 12, Number 10, October 2006 ARI Organizes a Special Conference at Clemson Leonard Peikoff to Speak University on Teaching Atlas Shrugged at Objectivist Summer Conference 2007 ecently ARI organized a weekend confer- Most of the twenty attendees were not Objec- e are pleased to report that Dr. Leonard Rence for participants in the BB&T Charitable tivists and came from backgrounds as diverse as WPeikoff will present a lecture course at Foundation-sponsored programs for the study of philosophy, religion and business. Several lengthy Objectivist Summer Conference 2007 based on capitalism. At the event professors, college deans question periods were devoted to questions about his forthcoming book, The DIM Hypothesis. The and ARI staff discussed Ayn Rand’s masterpiece, the novel and about Objectivism in general, conference will take place in Telluride, Colorado. Atlas Shrugged, its ideas and including: How should one Here is the description of his course: strategies for teaching it in a teach Atlas Shrugged to reli- classroom setting. gious students? “The conference served Feedback on the confer- three purposes,” said Debi ence was universally positive, Ghate, vice president of and all the participants are academic programs for ARI. eager to do another confer- “It gave us a chance to meet the BB&T-funded ence next year, to deepen their understanding of professors and develop a relationship with them, it the ideas in Atlas Shrugged. enabled the professors to network with each other This conference was hosted by the Clem- and it helped them with content for the courses son Institute for the Study of Capitalism. The they are teaching this year using Atlas Shrugged.” Institute, founded in 2005 with a grant from John Allison, chairman and CEO of BB&T, the BB&T Charitable Foundation, is devoted to kicked off the weekend by talking about BB&T’s exploring the moral foundations of a free society, corporate values: Reality, Reason, Independent and sponsors a variety of conferences, lectures, Thinking, Productivity, Honesty, Integrity, Justice, seminars and colloquia, a junior fellows program Dr. Leonard Peikoff Pride, Self-Esteem and Teamwork. that provides Clemson undergraduates with an Dr. Yaron Brook, ARI’s executive direc- opportunity to interact with some of the country’s “Dr. Peikoff’s book identifies three different tor, and Dr. Onkar Ghate, ARI senior fellow leading scholars on capitalism, and two one-week modes of integration, i.e., of interrelating and dean of the Objectivist Academic Center, seminars for high school students on the moral concretes, such as individual percepts, facts, then addressed the question: Why teach Atlas foundations of capitalism. The Clemson Institute choices, etc. The book then demonstrates the Shrugged? Dr. Edwin Locke, professor emeritus plans to sponsor a visiting scholars program, power of these three modes in shaping Western at the University of Maryland, and Dr. C. Bradley summer seminars for college students and an culture and history. Thompson, executive director of the Clemson undergraduate program that focuses on the moral, “In his lectures, Dr. Peikoff presents and Institute for the Study of Capitalism, discussed legal, constitutional, political and economic foun- explains six of the chapters in his twelve- how to teach Atlas Shrugged based on their expe- dations of a free society. chapter book. The first three, dealing with riences in the college classroom. epistemology, explain why there are only three possible interpretations of integration (symbolized by the acronym DIM), and which “The Jihad Against the West: philosopher is the source of each. The second three illustrate the power of the DIM hypothesis The Real Threat and to reveal the anatomy of Western culture, by considering the trends prevalent in literature, the Right Response” education and politics since the Renaissance. “Students will receive well in advance Conference in Boston a highly detailed outline of the material. arlier this month ARI held a weekend Islamic totalitarianism, and the right response Each lecture will be followed by a question- Econference event in Boston, “The Jihad necessitates engaging in a principled, ideologi- and-answer period.” [“DIM” is short for Against the West: The Real Threat and the cal battle to defend the West from the jihad Disintegration, Integration and Misintegration.] Right Response,” October 20–22. declared against it. Dr. Peikoff worked closely with Ayn Rand ARI assembled a distinguished panel of The conference featured a series of speak- for many years and was designated by her as Middle East experts to answer some of the ing events and panel discussions with Dr. heir to her estate. He has taught philosophy most important questions of our time: What is Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes (a scholar of the at Hunter College, Long Island University the nature of today’s terrorist threat? Is there Middle East), Flemming Rose (the Danish and New York University. He is the author of a common goal among the assorted terrorist editor who commissioned the “Mohammad” The Ominous Parallels and of Objectivism: groups? Who are they and what do they actu- cartoons), Robert Spencer (a writer on Islam), The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, the definitive ally want? What accounts for the seemingly Peter Schwartz and Dr. John Lewis. presentation of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. renewed sense of purpose amongst so many Events took place at Tufts University, Mark your calendars: the conference will of them? What can and must the West do to Boston’s World Trade Center and Faneuil Hall, take place July 6 to July 15, 2007. A catalog ensure victory? Is peace possible? concluding with a public lecture by Dr. Brook describing the lectures and courses will be mailed While the experts answered these com- at Ford Hall Forum. to readers of Impact in the coming months. plex questions from different points of view, Impact will bring readers further details in they all agreed on one thing: the real threat is our December issue. Reaching Out to Academia RI has embarked on a range of new outreach Aactivities for college professors and for aca- demia in general. The purpose of these programs is to reach college students with—and help make academia more hospitable to—Ayn Rand’s ideas. Impact is pleased to highlight some the program’s recent activities: We have put together a Web site (www Explaining Altruism’s two inhuman tenets: (a) that any concern .aynrand.org/profresources) that informs profes- with one’s own interests is evil, regardless sors interested in studying or teaching Ayn Rand’s Dominance of what these interests might be, and (b) corpus the many ways in which ARI can help that the brute’s activities are in fact to one’s them. A number of professors have already used Each month Impact suggests readings and other own interest (which altruism enjoins man the site to order free review copies of Ayn Rand’s resources for fans of Ayn Rand’s fiction who wish to renounce for the sake of his neighbors).” books or to obtain sample syllabi to help design to learn more about her philosophy, Objectivism. (Introduction to The Virtue of Selfishness) their courses. And so people are left with the choice ARI is responsible for acting as a liaison yn Rand held that altruism—the moral (with the former option seeming the more with the BB&T Charitable Foundation-sponsored Acode that demands one sacrifice oneself palatable): sacrifice oneself to others or programs for the study of capitalism. At Clemson to others—is senseless and destructive. Yet sacrifice others to oneself. University, for instance, we recently organized a she also observed that altruism has been the Ayn Rand rejected this as a false alterna- conference for professors where we discussed the dominant ethical theory for over two thousand tive. “The Objectivist ethics holds that human reasons for teaching Atlas Shrugged and strategies years. What explains this paradox? If altruism good does not require human sacrifices and for doing so effectively (see page 1). We assist is so destructive, why is it so widespread? A cannot be achieved by the sacrifice of anyone the professors in ordering Ayn Rand’s books, and key to altruism’s dominance, according to Ayn to anyone. It holds that the rational interests send ARI speakers to visit their campuses. We Rand, is its corruption of moral concepts. of men do not clash—that there is no conflict facilitate a dialogue among the various schools, Altruism, Ayn Rand writes, “has indoctri- of interests among men who do not desire and we expect that many of their students will nated men with the idea that to value another the unearned, who do not make sacrifices nor enter the Atlas Shrugged essay contest, with some human being is an act of selflessness, thus accept them, who deal with one another as going on to join the Objectivist Academic Center. implying that a man can have no personal traders, giving value for value.” (“The Objec- interest in others—that to value another tivist Ethics,” in The Virtue of Selfishness) Continued on page 4 means to sacrifice oneself.” (“The Ethics of For further reading on this topic (in addi- Emergencies,” in The Virtue of Selfishness) tion to the essays already cited), see “Faith Similarly, altruism has perverted the and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World,” concept “selfishness.” “In popular usage,” in Philosophy: Who Needs It, and “The Soul Special Events at EXhibit Miss Rand writes, “the word ‘selfishness’ is of an Individualist” and “This is John Galt Stand and Think: Readings from a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of Speaking,” in For the New Intellectual. All the Unpublished Ayn Rand a murderous brute” who cares about noth- of the items cited in this column can be A series of readings from the unpublished works of Ayn Rand, ing but satisfying his whims.