Upcoming Events of Interest at UNC Chapel Hill

If you live in the area or will be visiting on these dates, mark your calendars to attend these exciting events on the UNC, Chapel Hill campus.

Ask an Expert on Objectivism
Hosted by Carolina Objectivist Forum
When: Tuesday, Tuesday, November 3, 6:00PM - 7:00PM
Where: Bingham Hall, Room 306 - Chapel Hill
The Carolina Objectivist Forum is an organization dedicated to the continuing study of Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand. This organization will seek to provide for the students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill access to literature, activities, and information concerning the philosophy of Objectivism. It will serve as an information bureau and a center for educational activities, such as discussion groups, and guest speakers. The club meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m at Bingham Hall, room 306.
A Q&A session with special guests Dr.'s Harry Binswanger and Gregory Salmieri, experts on Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism.
Harry Binswanger, a longtime associate of Ayn Rand, received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. He taught philosophy at Hunter College (City University of New York) from 1972 to 1979, and at the University of Texas, Austin, Spring 2002.
During the 1980s, he was editor of The Objectivist Forum, a bimonthly journal devoted to Ayn Rand's philosophy. Since 1994, he has been professor of philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center of the Ayn Rand Institute.
He is the author of The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts and editor of The Ayn Rand Lexicon and of the second edition of Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. A regular speaker at universities, he has given more than 70 talks at some 40 universities on a wide variety of topics in philosophy and politics. Dr. Binswanger is currently writing a book on the causal nature of consciousness.
Gregory Salmieri is a lecturer in the UNC philosophy department, where he holds a Fellowship in Objectivity and Values. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008.
His research focuses on ancient philosophy and on the role played by theories of concepts or universals in epistemology, philosophical methodology, and the foundations of ethics. Much of his current work addresses this nexus of issues as it arises in the works of Aristotle and (to a lesser extent) Plato. He is also interested in these same topics as they arise in the contemporary literature, in the work of Ayn Rand, and in the main lines of the history of philosophy.

Debate: 'Is Government Intervention in the Free Market Moral?'
This Wednesday, November 4, Dr John David Lewis will debate UNC Adjunct Professor of Economics Ralph Byrns on the question: "Is Government Intervention in the Free Market Moral?"
When: Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 PM
Where: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Murphy 116

Religion vs. Morality
Presented by philosopher, novelist Andrew Bernstein; http://andrewbernstein.net/
When: Wednesday, December 2, 2009,  7:00PM - 9:00PM
Where: Murphy Hall, 116
Conventionally, most people believe that morality can only be based in religious faith, that in a world without God no principles of right and wrong could exist. Related to this, philosophers have long held that no objective, fact-based, rational code of values is possible.
Regarding both points, this talk shows that the exact opposite is true. The purpose of morality is to guide human life on earth and religion is utterly incapable of it. Flourishing life requires a code of secularism, rationality, egoism and freedom. Religious faith clashes with every principle of a proper moral code, and, as such, has led, and can only lead to, hell on earth.

Separation of Education and State

A new website “PRINCIPLES OF A FREE SOCIETY” has been launched by the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.
The website states:

A free society requires a limited government that enacts and enforces objective laws for the sole purpose of protecting individual rights.

This, according to me, is the fundamental principle for a peaceful social co-existence among men.

If one were to follow, understand, apply and uphold this principle of individual rights with consistency to get an answer to what the role of the government should be in any given issue or policy matter, it would lead one to the formation of a free, just, peaceful, prosperous society based on rational principles of civilized society.

Based on a derivation from the fundamental principle of individual rights, the website further defines,

A free society is one where the government does not interfere (by penalty or reward) in thought, production or trade.

While most people have heard of separation of church and state achieved by western civilization as one of the great achievements that has enabled mankind’s progress to a more peaceful co-existence in society, few have grasped the underlying principle that is the exact same in a separation of science and state, economics and state and importantly to readers here to understand is the separation of education and state in every respect.

The Separation of Education and State section of the website has a lot of material –audio, video and writings –from Ayn Rand and several Obectivists, that can help you get familiar with the issues that need to be addressed in a free society pertaining to education.

Check out the website and avail the treasure trove of material to get yourself educated on the subject of education.

Exposing the SubText of Obama's Speech to Kids

I PROTEST

And WHY I chose to register my protest…

Dedicated To A Teacher

L.B. at 3 Ring Binder has written this beautiful poetry dedicated to Prof. John Lewis.

Dr John Lewis Speaks At The 4th of July Boston Tea Party