Category Archives: Resources

UPDATES – Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship

- Filed under: Culture, News, Resources

I’ve been working for several months now with Stephen Hicks of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship to create their new web site, which we just launched recently.

They’re doing some terrific work to promote an Objectivist-inspired vision of entrepreneurship, and I highly recommend signing up for their beautiful Kaizen newsletter (instructions below).

Below is an announcement Dr. Hicks recently sent out to members of his mailing list. We’ll also be publishing some of their interviews soon at the Atlasphere, so stay tuned for those as well.

My new Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford College is now one year old, and I am writing to let you know of our accomplishments to date, highlighting especially the Objectivist connections.

This month we launched our website: www.EthicsAndEntrepreneurship.org. The website was designed by Joshua Zader, whom you may know as the founder of the Atlasphere. The CEE website has information about our programs and publications — and a web log that will track developments in business ethics and entrepreneurship. I invite you to check it out and to subscribe to its RSS feed to follow our activities over the coming years.

The second issue of Kaizen, our glossy newsletter, was also published this past week. In our first issue we featured an interview with architect John Gillis. In our second we interview painter Michael Newberry. The interviews focus on the excitement and challenges of entrepreneurship in the worlds of architecture and painting and include full-color images of Gillis’s and Newberry’s major works.

I invite you to check them out on our website. Each future issue of Kaizen will feature an interview with a successful, entrepreneurial achiever, along with news of CEE’s activities.

I am happy also to announce that CEE has hired four talented people with Objectivist connections.

Shawn Klein as full-time instructor in Philosophy. Shawn is a Ph.D. candidate and has been a frequent and popular lecturer at TAS conferences. He is teaching courses for us in Business Ethics, Ethical Theory, and is developing a new course in Sports Ethics.

John Reis is adjunct professor of Philosophy. John is a long-time Objectivist with twenty-five years of business experience in Chicago, and he has been an adjunct professor at Elmhurst College for many years. John is putting that experience to good use for us at Rockford College by teaching our course on Business and Economic Ethics.

Anja Hartleb-Parson, our research and publications manager, is a Ph.D. student in political philosophy who has participated in both TAS- and ARI-sponsored conferences. We are pleased that while she is pursuing her doctorate Anja has been helping us with our publications projects and has lectured for us on Objectivism and issues in political philosophy, including the Kelo case, free speech, and Ayn Rand’s We the Living.

We also hired he very talented Christopher Vaughan, who directed and edited my video documentary on Nietzsche and the Nazis. Chris also directed and edited the twelve-minute promotional video about the Center which appears on our website, and he developed the design for our Kaizen newsletter. Chris is working with me on a number of new, creative projects, which you will hear more about over the coming year.

In its first year CEE has reprinted and made available at Amazon.com four important essays by Objectivist scholars. The essays are on topics directly relevant to CEE’s mission in business ethics and entrepreneurship. The essays’ primary audience is students in the various courses CEE sponsors at Rockford College. But we are also making them available through other outlets, as we would like them to have as wide a reading audience as possible.

Tara Smith’s “Money Can Buy Happiness” is republished from the journal Reason Papers.

David Kelley’s “The Entrepreneurial Life” and “Is It Nobler to Give than to Create?” are re-published together from Navigator magazine.

David Mayer’s “Thomas Jefferson: Man versus Myth” is republished from MayerBlog.

And my own “Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics” is republished from the Journal of Accounting, Ethics, and Public Policy.

These four essays are the beginning of what CEE plans will be a continuing series of essays by professionals on key issues in business ethics, entrepreneurship and related fields. I hope you find the series to be of interest.

We have had a busy and productive first year and are working hard on our next projects.

Let me close inviting you to receive a complimentary print copy of our newsletter, Kaizen. If you are interested, please send your postal address to us at CEE [at] Rockford.edu. And please spread the word. Your support is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Stephen

Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Executive Director, The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship

Ayn Rand Lexicon Now Available Online!

- Filed under: News, Resources

The Ayn Rand Lexicon is an indispensible tool for any serious student of Ayn Rand’s ideas. And now it’s available online.

From the Ayn Rand Institute’s announcement:

Through a special arrangement with the publisher, the editor and the Estate of Ayn Rand, ARI has received exclusive permission to present The Ayn Rand Lexicon — now available in its entirety, free of charge, to Web visitors. Edited by Harry Binswanger, and with an introduction by Leonard Peikoff, this important book presents all of the key ideas of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, in an encyclopedic reference of stunning breadth and depth.

Visit AynRandLexicon.com for full access.

Invitation to the Objectivism Seminar

- Filed under: Events, Resources

Atlasphere member Greg Perkins, a regular blogger at NoodleFood, has begun organizing some new telephone seminars on Objectivism.

The seminars will be book-based, starting with Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics before proceeding to OPAR and other Objectivist classics.

From the announcement:

Truly living well calls for engaging fundamental philosophical ideas and integrating their use into our everyday lives, our everyday actions, our way of beingâ??into our souls. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to get busy with all the urgent things around us, and we can drift, distracted and disintegrated. For those of us who want an ongoing practice in such engagement (and those who want to explore the need for that in the first place), I have created The Objectivism Seminar.

The Objectivism Seminar is a weekly online conference call to systematically work through the philosophy of Ayn Rand via the books of prominent Rand scholars. These moderated, one-hour sessions will be recorded and podcast to allow review, catch-up, and even disconnected participation. The idea is to give peopleâ??new and experienced alikeâ??a forum to chew through key Objectivist works and tour the complete system, further clarifying, integrating, and grounding their grasp of the ideas.

Because it is an ongoing seminar, we will have incentive to keep up with the steady schedule of study and stay equipped to consider fresh angles, concretizations, challenges, and applications from other participants. And because life is so full for many of us, I am purposefully keeping the reading load light and the method of participation unobtrusive. The plan is that we will spend almost as much time discussing the ideas as reading about them. Study like this is productive for both experienced students of Objectivism and those new to Rand’s ideas: I’ve read all of these books, some several times, and I would expect to get at least as much out of this as someone going through them for the first time.

If you are interested, please look over the FAQ below and head over to www.ObjectivismSeminar.com to sign up!

For more information see Greg’s full announcement, which includes answers to some frequently asked questions about the seminar.

‘Objectivity’ Journal Archive

- Filed under: Resources

From Atlasphere member Stephen Boydston: 

I am happy to announce Objectivity Archive at www.objectivity-archive.com. This site is an archive and library of Objectivity, now freely open to all readers and researchers.

Objectivity is a journal of metaphysics, epistemology, and theory of value informed by modern science. It consists of two volumes, each with six issues. It was a hardcopy journal, for subscribers, published from 1990 to 1998. Its authors were both professional academics and independent scholars.

In addition to the complete, exactly replicated text of Objectivity, the Archive site offers additional helpful features such as ABSTRACTS for all the main essays and a SUBJECT INDEX and NAME INDEX for the entire 1770 pages of the journal.

Management Job Opening (Monsey, New York)

- Filed under: Resources, Site Announcements

Long-time Atlasphere member (and Objectivist Singles founder) Dan Edge sends the following job announcement for his company:

Growing medical transcription company seeks full-time production manager.

Dan’s company is a small, growing company which provides transcription and other services to the medical communications market. We are currently seeking a production manager to coordinate subcontractors, manage projects, and ensure that deadlines and quality standards are met. We need a detail-oriented individual with exceptional organization and time-management skills. You need to know how to make lists for yourself, manage priorities, and operate under pressure.

Responsibilities Include:

  • Convert audio / video to a format usable by transcription software (i.e., MP3).
  • Contract, coordinate, and supervise subcontractors (transcribers, editors, proofreaders) on assigned projects to ensure that deadlines are met.
  • Complete administrative tasks including order status tracking, Purchase Order creation and approval, etc.
  • Proofread final product at various stages of process to ensure quality and accuracy

Requirements:

  • 0-2+ Years Experience in Project Trafficking or Production Management
  • Good familiarity with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point), and very computer-savvy in general
  • 2- or 4-Year Degree greatly preferred
  • Good written and verbal communication skills
  • Willing to learn new things, work creatively, and grow with the business
  • Willing to commute to Monsey, NY

I’m willing to train the right candidate.

Salary – $36k +, commensurate with experience

Call 845-558-9328 or email resume and cover letter to dedge (at) edgetranscription.com

Dan Edge
845-425-5495w
845-558-9328c
dedge (at) edgetranscription.com
25 Robert Pitt Dr
Suite 218
Monsey, NY 10952

Peikoff’s DIM Course Free from ARI

- Filed under: Resources

The Ayn Rand Institute is offering, for a limited time, free online access to Leonard Peikoff’s “The DIM Hypothesis” course. The 15-lecture series discusses Dr. Peikoff’s theory of “the epistemological mechanics of society” and how it evolves.

The course covers the hypothesis’ impact on Metaphysics, Law, Science, Art, Politics, and much more.

Details are available at the Ayn Rand Institute website. (Registration required, but free.)

Spring 2006 Journal of Ayn Rand Studies

- Filed under: News, Resources

The Spring 2006 issues of the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has been published. From the announcement on Chris Sciabarra’s site:

It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of the Spring 2006 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. The issue features a dialogue on Ayn Rand’s ethics, with contributions from Tibor R. Machan, Frank Bubb, Eric Mack, Douglas B. Rasmussen, Robert H. Bass, Chris Cathcart, and Robert L. Campbell. In addition, there are articles covering topics in epistemology (Merlin Jetton) and literature (Kurt Keefner and Peter Saint-Andre). Other contributors include Sheldon Richman on Thomas Szasz and Ayn Rand; Max Hocutt on postmodernism; Steven Yates on capitalism and commerce; and David M. Brown on the new Ayn Rand Q&A book.

The issue opens with my own tribute to R. W. Bradford, without whom The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies would never have been founded. This Spring 2006 issue is dedicated to the memory of Bradford, Joan Kennedy Taylor, and Chris Tame. A PDF of my tribute piece is available here.

For subscription information, see here.

Randex Online Database on Rand and Objectivism

- Filed under: Media Citings, Resources

Launched in February 2005, Randex is an online database of media references to Rand and Objectivism. The entire database of articles may be searched by text, date, and amount of relevant content. The purpose of Randex is:

To provide an indication of the impact of Ayn Rand’s ideas in today’s culture. This impact can be measured by the frequency with which the ideas are discussed or mentioned, the level of understanding shown, and also by the attitude taken by writers to Rand’s ideasâ??be it positive, negative, or neutral. As the database of references grows, it becomes a source for analyzing longer-term trends in these areas.

To be listed on Randex an item must appear online as a dated article at a news, information, or opinion website. Interestingly, the three new items listed today are repsectively negative, positive and neutral.

 

Search the Atlasphere from FireFox

- Filed under: Resources, Site Announcements

If you’re a Firefox user, you have no doubt noticed and enjoyed the feature that allows you to search your favorite sites (Google, Amazon, etc.) directly from the browser itself, saving you the extra step of first going to the site you want to search.

Now you can add the Atlasphere to your Firefox search bar! Any search you conduct using this feature will return the relevant results (utilizing a search by “All Fields”) from the Atlasphere’s member directory.

The search feature will only work, of course, if you are an Atlasphere member. Atlasphere profiles are never accessible to non-members.

If you encounter problems or have questions, feel free to contact us for help.

Objective Standard: Deadline Extended

- Filed under: News, Resources

The subscription deadline to receive the inaugural issue of Objective Standard has been extended to February 24th.

From Editor Craig Biddle:

A quick update as our 130 page premier issue goes to press.

We were able to extend the subscription deadline. If you have not yet
subscribed and wish to do so (or if you want to give someone the gift of
objectivity), please subscribe by *February 24th* to ensure that your first
issue of TOS is included in our initial mailing, scheduled for early-March.

My essay “Introducing The Objective Standard” will be posted to the website
this week and will be accessible to subscribers and non-subscribers alike.

Check out their site for more information about this new publication for Objectivists.