Enlightenment Philosophers in the City of Angels
What is so great about TOC's summer seminar?
For Joanne Shaw, it is the opportunity to learn: "The lectures," she says, "offer an efficient and informative means of acquiring knowledge not readily available elsewhere." Others, like Stephen Nahm, say that they have come to enjoy the seminar even more as an annual in-gathering of like-minded friends. And still others appreciate the seminar as a single intense package—a very intense package. In Joe Duarte's description: "Take a very good year out of your life and condense it into one week."
This year's seminar fulfilled all those expectations and more.
Held from June 28 to July 6 at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), this year's seminar again assembled some of the world's foremost Objectivist scholars for a full week of exposition and discussion. Joining them were more than 260 people from around the country and the world. Every day, students and teachers gathered together in lecture halls, dormitories, and a common room to discuss the power of reason, the pursuit of happiness, and the sanctity of individual rights.
For most participants, seminar week began on Saturday June 29 with registration and the opening-day barbeque. For the third of this year's participants who were first-timers, there was also a newcomers' reception, where they were greeted by faculty members and the TOC staff.
Following the barbeque, many attendees spent the remainder of the evening enjoying drinks and good conversation in the common room—and catching up with old friends. Everywhere one looked, people were making the rounds, with hugs and hellos.
In short, opening day at the TOC seminar had the feeling of a very extended family's reunion, but a family whose members genuinely like one another.
The State of the Culture
On Sunday morning, David Kelley delivered his annual State of the Culture lecture and this year spoke about the significance of the 9/11 attacks as seen from an Objectivist perspective. The psychological effects, he noted, have been obvious in continuing reports of depression, and many people have reported changing the meaning and focus of their lives. But the primary cultural impact, Kelley suggested, was a positive one: the rediscovery of modernity and the Enlightenment. Overall, he said, the country has witnessed a resurgent appreciation of the values of modernity, because Americans have realized that exactly these values were under attack by the Islamists. In evidence, he cited a number of liberals who have no love for capitalism and certainly have nothing to do with the Objectivist movement, but who have nonetheless been defending America on modernist grounds. For example, he quoted the editors of The New Republic as saying: "Anyone who hates modernity hates America. Anyone who hates freedom hates America. Anyone who hates privacy, anyone who hates ballots and bookshops and newspapers and televisions and computers and theaters, and bars, and the sight of a woman smiling at a man hates America."
Still, modernism is threatened today, Kelley said, and not only from without but even more seriously from within. In the first place, many ordinary people who are favorable to modernity simply have not identified it as the philosophy they favor. In such cases, Objectivists can foster modernity by helping these people form the concept of an Enlightenment outlook. In the second place, Kelley pointed out, many people of good-will fail to embrace modernity fully because they cling to one of three anti-modern philosophical beliefs that the Enlightenment failed to refute: altruism, moral subjectivism, and determinism. Here, Kelley said, the road to a new Enlightenment lies in refuting those doctrines and completing the philosophical system of modernity, which is to say, it lies in the success of the Objectivist movement.
Philosophy
Once again, TOC's summer seminar offered two week-long, six-session courses that allowed students at different levels to study Objectivism systematically. William Thomas's advanced series, "The Inductive Structure in Objectivism," was based on a work that he is co-authoring with David Kelley (The Logical Structure of Objectivism), which will set forth the evidence and arguments for the Objectivist philosophy. Running opposite Thomas's course was Diana Hsieh's introductory "Objectivism 101," which was intended for those less thoroughly familiar with Objectivism.
Although forays into the frontiers of Objectivism are usually reserved for TOC's Advanced Seminar, David Ross's talk at the regular summer seminar certainly qualified as such an exploration. After reviewing the Platonic and Kantian ideas on mathematics, Ross showed how Ayn Rand's theory of concept formation can be used to create objective concepts of numbers. Greg Perkins called it "great stuff."
Will Thomas supplemented his six-part course by giving a lecture on a key topic in Objectivism, the philosophy's three cardinal values of reason, purpose, and self-esteem. Thomas showed how these arise from the nature of valuing itself, which involves a means (reason), an end (purpose), and a beneficiary (self).
Also exploring ethical topics was Shawn Klein, who delivered a lecture called "Virtue Ethics." A virtue ethics, he explained, emphasizes an individual's character as central to morality. He contrasted such an approach with moralities of duty (exemplified by religious commandments) and moralities of consequentialism (exemplified by utilitarianism), and he showed how the idea of a virtue ethics fits in with Objectivist morality.
Hsieh supplemented her own week-long course with a popular lecture in applied ethics, "White Lies, Black Lies," which emphasized the costs of even minor dishonesty. To explain how one can deal with the many convoluted situations in which people typically resort to "white lies," Hsieh presented the concept of "contextually relevant truth" and helped audience members understand how they can find a contextually relevant truth in concrete situations. Felicia Enright said that the lecture "was really helpful to someone like me, who is constantly striving to be honest in the most polite way."
Another talk that addressed "ethics in action" was Nathaniel Branden's much-anticipated lecture on heroism and self-interest. Using the example of New York City's 9/11 firefighters, Branden said they were heroes in an Objectivist sense because "we can praise them for the integrity with which they honored their job." One audience member called Branden's talk "a major highlight of the seminar."
For those whose interests lay in political philosophy, Eric Mack offered a two-lecture series concerning the great Enlightenment thinker John Locke and his ideas regarding liberty. After explaining the "state of nature" hypothesis in the theories of Locke and his great predecessor Thomas Hobbes, Mack focused in on Locke's discussions of money in a society, justified resistance to tyranny, and religious toleration.
Stephen Hicks offered a two-part series on the history and philosophy of free speech and censorship. He discussed both traditional arguments between liberals and authoritarians—involving issues of paternalism, social harm, and the maintenance of power—as well as newer arguments between liberals and postmodernists. (An edited version of his second talk appears elsewhere in this issue of Navigator.)
The philosophy of art was taken up by Michelle Kamhi in her address "Ayn Rand's Concept of Art." She began by describing today's aesthetic wasteland, in which a person often cannot distinguish between alleged art and ordinary objects. Then, noting that conservative critics ascribe this deplorable state to moral failings, Kamhi argued for Ayn Rand's view, which attributed the art world's breakdown to a collapse of epistemology.
Kirsti Minsaas spoke on Ayn Rand's concept of literature as the projection of a moral ideal. Rand, she observed, seemed to be nearly alone in this approach to literature at the time that she enunciated it, but as Minsaas went on to show the approach has had a long tradition in the West, stretching from the Classical era to the Renaissance to the Romantic Age.
Psychology
What factors prompt people to believe things for which they have no evidence? This year, that psycho-epistemological question was examined by two lecturers. Michael Huemer presented a talk entitled "Why Political Beliefs Are Irrational." And Ken Livingston offered a biological and psychological view of what religious believers often call interactions with God; hyper-religiosity, he suggested, may in fact be nothing more than a predisposition to epilepsy.
A different perspective on belief and feeling was presented by Damian Moskovitz, a former teaching fellow at Harvard's psychology department and currently a Montessori educator. Moskovitz cited recent findings in contemporary psychology that tend to confirm Ayn Rand's view of emotions as the product of one's subconsciously held ideas. The consequence, he noted, is that a person who subscribes to a rational philosophy must make a distinct effort to internalize that philosophy—to make it his subconsciously held philosophy—if he is to experience its benefits emotionally.
Richard Warshak also dealt with the issue of ideals and emotions in his very timely talk "Heroes, Trauma, and Children," which was previewed in the April Navigator. Among the points he made at that time was: "Children need heroes. If we default on our job of teaching children what makes a genuine hero, we forgo the privilege of shaping their choices. Left to their own devices, children generally seek pop-culture icons as their heroes." Heather Demarest, echoing many people who heard Warshak, called it a "terrific lecture," adding: "Have him back next year!"
Politics
Ideas have consequences, as Richard Weaver famously said. But bad ideas have consequences no less than good ones, as Greg Peisert reminded his audience by sketching out the seven pillars of unwisdom that support a fundamentalist mindset. Among these foundational ideas are: "Humans are intrinsically evil," "The devil is real and must be fought," and "It is essential to pick the right tribe." Peisert went on to show how these beliefs manifest themselves in true believers and mass movements—and (what is no less important) even among those who would deny they are engaged in such thinking. John H. Kelly called the talk "brilliant and full of wisdom."
Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute (author of the widely hailed Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism) described the history of globalization, with an emphasis on the past century, and cited examples of recent positive developments in the global economy. He offered evidence to show that, increasingly, in economic crises, collectivism, central planning, and the "counter-Industrial Revolution" are yielding to the free market. Indeed, he stated optimistically: "Capitalism no longer has any formal enemies—only reactionaries." Katerina Malat thought that "a widely debated topic coupled with excellent presentation skills made for a great lecture."
Looking at war in today's world, rather than commerce, Aeon Skoble noted that the very opposition of these phenomena has often led libertarians to oppose war. He then discussed whether traditional "just war" theory could be put on an individualist basis and modified in ways that took adequate account of individualist principles. Turning to the current debate over liberty and security, Robert A. Levy analyzed the arguments for and against the use of ethnic profiling and national ID cards to prevent terrorism, and the use of military tribunals to try terrorists. (This article was reprinted in the July/August Navigator as "The Law in Wartime.") Robert Poole addressed a specific issue of national security, one much on the minds of those who had flown to the seminar: airport security. And David Mayer took the long view by turning to history and the debate over Lincoln's violations of liberty during the Civil War. (See the interview with Mayer in Navigator's March issue.)
The government's more usual role in protecting rights was the subject of William Perry's lecture, "The Role of the Prosecutor: What It Is and What It Should Be." Perry, who has himself been both prosecutor and defense attorney, provided a detailed look at the methods by which a district attorney strives to ensure that he is serving the cause of justice and liberty for all parties involved in a criminal case, including the victim, the defendant, and the citizenry.
Madeleine Cosman reminded participants that even amid the grand sweep of globalization and the war on terrorism, the regulatory state grinds on. A large audience listened appreciatively to her fiery talk "Medicalizing Too Much," which presented a powerful case in defense of America's medical industry and against its manipulation by political agencies.
The Ideal Made Real
A TOC summer seminar would not be complete without a large element of inspiration, and the 2002 seminar was no exception. Some lecturers achieved this by reaching back to a better day, as Linda Abrams did with her performance of Rudyard Kipling's verse. After providing some historical information about this much-maligned poet, Abrams offered a passionate interpretation of her own favorite selections from his work, and many who witnessed the performance hurried over to the TOC bookstore to buy a tape-recorded version of it.
John Kerns's lecture, "How to Enjoy Opera," also pointed participants to sources of aesthetic enjoyment bequeathed to us by the past. His main objective, however, was to persuade non-opera-goers to give opera a chance, not on CD but in performance. To that end, he offered a number of tips that might convince a non-buff he could safely intrude into opera's intimidating venue. James Henderson called it "an excellent introduction to the joy of opera…. Very stimulating!" (For a brief interview with John Kerns on this subject, see Navigator's February issue.)
Finding inspiration in the present and the future was Michael Newberry's slide presentation "The Enlightenment Hero and Heroine: A New Form of Heroism in the Arts." Traditionally, Newberry argued, the best of heroic sculpture has represented physical perfection; by contrast, some of today's artists are advancing the idea of the heroic by depicting individuality, self-awareness, and fulfillment. Kate Herrick called Newberry's talk "a very sensitive and valuable tour through an amazing history of the human being portrayed in art."
Lastly, Ed Hudgins, TOC's Washington director, demonstrated that not all the embodiments of human idealism are in the arts. His lecture "Space: The Human Frontier" explained how natural and honorable it is for humans to explore this frontier of human glory. "My favorite overall lecture was Ed Hudgins's talk on space exploration," raved conference assistant Marc McClure. "It was such an inspiring discussion of man's spectacular achievements and quest for future discovery that it instilled in me a sense of pride and excitement in just being human."
Skills
Providing seminar attendees with practical tools is a conference feature that has been increasing in recent years. This year, Susan McCloskey offered an outstanding two-session lecture called "Writing to Persuade." In another lecture calculated to arm Objectivist warriors, Ed Hudgins, presented "How You Can Make a Difference," illustrating what individuals can do in the smaller battlegrounds available to them, from county governments to boards of education. Chandler Kalden called Hudgins's talk "fascinating and entertaining: Training on how to fight for what we believe." Bert Ely, drawing on twenty years of experience as a consultant, spoke about how to work with the media and to establish oneself as a credible source for journalists. And Robert Bidinotto, director of TOC's Atlas Society, showed how Ayn Rand used the techniques of concretization and personalization to communicate her philosophy of individualism.
Then for something completely different: On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, Brian and Wendy Johnston delivered the lectures "Individualism and Exercise" and "Individualism and Nutrition," respectively. In these talks, they discussed the sciences that underlie exercise and nutrition, the general elements that comprise them, and the factors that determine the principles' application to a single person.
Recreation
Most of the socializing that goes on at a TOC summer seminar is a spontaneous order, but the highlights are planned. The Wednesday pause, when the only scheduled lectures were the morning courses on Objectivism, was widely hailed as a necessary breather from the week's intellectual rigor. Accordingly, some chose to spend the rest of the day at the beach or lounging around campus. But many hardy souls participated in either a day-long architecture tour or a trip to the Getty Museum. The first, comprising about thirty participants, was led by Peter Reidy, a longtime guide at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock and Ennis Houses. Meanwhile, Lindsay Wilcox led two tours to the Getty Museum.
The most elegant event of the week was surely the TOC Sponsors Dinner, held on the Fourth of July at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Given annually to honor those who contribute $1,000 or more to TOC, this dinner has in recent years been held in conjunction with the summer seminar. In addition to thanking sponsors for their generous support, David Kelley took the opportunity to report on TOC's impact. Madeleine Cosman, to much applause, led the crowd in an enthusiastic rendition of "God Bless America."
Finally, on Friday evening, it was time to party. Participants made their way to Covel Commons, which had been expanded and transformed into a banquet setting. There were cocktails, dinner, and dancing into the wee hours. Lilting melodies alternated with driving beats; romantic tangos made way for high-spirited, rock-like "twist and shout." Those desiring respite could step outside onto the patio where men and women engaged in personal and philosophical conversations while enjoying the cool and starry evening.
On Saturday it was over. Morning meant packing and shopping at the TOC bookstore. Cameras clicked for final group shots, and vows were exchanged to meet again next year.
Many people commented on the variety of offerings they had found available at the seminar. "Whatever one's level of familiarity with Objectivism," said Jason Walker, "there are courses and presentations tailored to one's interests and level of proficiency, with talks ranging from metaphysics to jazz. Anyone even remotely interested in the ideas of Ayn Rand will find enormous value from TOC's summer seminar." In fact, there were more than three dozen scheduled courses, plus numerous participant-sponsored sessions.
But, as Bert Ely noted, "the summer seminar is much more than the faculty and the individual courses; it is the entire week and everyone who attends. Every year, I have met new people, while renewing friendships with like-minded folks who live too far away to see during the year. It is wonderful to spend a week discussing, from morning until late at night—in a calm, rational, and intelligent manner—ideas and beliefs that most people view as heresy. What a wonderful, refreshing, and reinvigorating experience."
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