On the evening of December 2, last week, I took the 45 minute drive to the UNC Chapel Hill campus in pouring, blinding rain. Dr Andrew Bernstein's lecture on "Religion versus Morality" was well worth venturing out in that nasty weather. The friend I dragged along, who had never heard an Objectivist speaker before, hopefully thinks it was worthwhile as well, and of course I got her introduced to the only rational philosophy for living on earth!
I had the honor of giving Dr Bernstein a ride back to his hotel after the lecture. In the conversation (that incidentally covered "biblical rains"{it was literally pouring that hard!}), Dr Bernstein said that he was visiting two local public schools and talking to high school kids there. If I had known earlier I might have tried to get permission to attend one of those events to see first hand the bright, curious, interested, eyes & faces of local high school kids hungry for ideas!
The campus Objectivist club organizer was kind enough to get me permission from ARI to upload the videos online. So far I have attempted to only upload the Q & A session at the end of the talk, divided in four videos to comply with youtube requirements.
I am posting Part 1 today that has two questions from the audience. I have transcribed the question as summarized by Dr Bernstein and highlighted what I thought to be illuminating from Dr Bernstein's reply. Any errors in transcription are strictly mine.
Q.1. Is the purpose of Objectivist ethics to increase the number of human beings and maximize their number?
Dr Bernstein: No, definitely not. The purpose of the Objectivist ethics is for any human being, alive at any given time, to maximize his fulfillment and happiness -is the ultimate goal.
Q.2. How does egoism reconcile with the fact that we live in a universe of finite resources?
Dr Bernstein: The ultimate resource is the human mind, operating in a capitalist system, operating on the conditions of individual rights, political and economic freedom.
Dr Andrew Bernstein, UNC, Dec. 2 Q & A Part 1
Monday, December 7, 2009
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2 comments:
Thanks for uploading and sending me the link to this! Ashley said it was a fantastic lecture and from the last Bernstein lecture I saw, I believe it! :-)
Thank you very much for uploading this video. I am a big Andie fan.
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