Objectivist Round Up #170

Welcome to the October 14, 2010 edition of The Objectivist Round Up, a blog carnival of posts written by individuals who are advocates of Objectivism, the philosophy developed and defined by Ayn Rand.

For anyone new to Ayn Rand and Objectivism, here is my favorite quote summing up her views:

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

Ayn Rand, “About the Author,” Atlas Shrugged

Sense of life, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, all in one sentence.  You might notice that politics is not mentioned explicitly in this passage.  If you only know about Ayn Rand because of her political views, you owe it to yourself to read her fiction, especially The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, where you will find heroic men, pursuing their happiness through the use of reason in inspiring tales of productive achievement.

And now, on to the Round Up:

Burgess Laughlin presents Best approach to disputes in a movement? posted at Making Progress, saying, "Every movement faces disputes among its members. Having a reasoned approach to such internal disputes reduces the stress of continuing to work for one's activist goals under those conditions. This article asks questions as a first step in a reasoned approach."

Roberto Sarrionandia presents The Cognitive Function of Art posted at Roberto Sarrionandia, saying, "The important cognitive function that is served by art"

John McVey presents Historical data in the fractional reserve banking debate posted at John J McVey, saying, "This is a response to Publius from Objectivist Answers, plus partially remedies some of the defects of Part Two."

Roderick Fitts presents Bacon's Theory of Induction as Presented in the Novum Organum Part 1 of 2 posted at Inductive Quest, saying, "it's my technical summary of Bacon's magnum opus, the Novum Organum. This part covers what we need to consider before we can understand his theory of induction. So exciting!"

Roderick Fitts presents Bacon's Theory of Induction as Presented in his Novum Organum, Part 2 of 2 posted at Inductive Quest, saying, "The final part of my summary of Bacon's Novum Organum, detailing his theory of forms and his theory of the inductive method. Long live induction!"

Kelly Valenzuela presents The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010: A Disgrace! posted at Mother of Exiles, saying, "Santiago Valenzuela weighs in on proposed immigration legislation."

Kelly Valenzuela presents How Should the US Reform its Immigration Policy? posted at Mother of Exiles, saying, "Guest blogger, Santiago Valenzuela, proposes solutions to our country's immigration problems."

Kelly Valenzuela presents Oh Life – A Super Easy Online Journal Tool posted at Rant from the Rock, saying, "For those of you who forget to journal, this website could be a big help."

Ari Armstrong presents Colorado Ballot: Free Colorado News posted at Free Colorado, saying, "I interview Mike Krause about CO Am. 63, "Health Care Choice," and discuss my CO ballot."

Joshua John M. Lipana presents An Interview with Dr. Paul Hsieh posted at This is Joshua Speaking.

Joshua John M. Lipana presents Free Enterprise Vol. 1 Issue. 2 2010 posted at This is Joshua Speaking, saying, "A philippine-based Pro-Objectivist Pro-Free Market periodical produced by Joshua Lipana"

Rational Jenn presents It's Johnny's Birthday. . . posted at Rational Jenn, saying, "This post about my love of The Beatles was written in honor of John Lennon's 70th birthday."

Danielle Morrill presents Who’s Actually Getting Read in Objectivism (Online) posted at Danielle Morrill.

Diana Hsieh presents The Resignation of John McCaskey: The Facts posted at NoodleFood, saying, "Paul's and my survey of the facts surrounding John McCaskey's resignation from the boards of the Anthem Foundation and the Ayn Rand Institute."

Kelly Elmore presents What I Have Read, What I'm Reading, and What's on Deck posted at Reepicheep's Coracle, saying, "A list of and comments about the books I read in September, books I'm reading right now, and books that I have waiting on my shelf. List is filled with adult and young adult fiction, non-fiction of many varieties, Middle English, and a parenting or homeschooling resource or two. Something for everyone, just like the Sears Catalog."

Jeff Montgomery presents Buchanan/Pawnee Pass Loop Run posted at Fun With Gravity, saying, "A long post about a long, hard run in the Indian Peaks, with photos."

Michael Labeit presents Don't Call Them Progressives posted at Michael Labeit at EconomicPolicyJournal.com.

Rachel Miner presents Birthday Gems posted at The Playful Spirit, saying, "I share some key thoughts on making a birthday party successful. I'm still putting away the new toys, doing laundry, and all the other post party/visitor things, but I wanted to share these thoughts on what made this party the smoothest one for us so far."

Mike Zemack presents Extremists vs. the Moderates: Why the Left Keeps Winning, and the Right has been Powerless to Stop It posted at Principled Perspectives, saying, "The Republicans need ideological backbone to give meaning to their coming electoral rout of the Democrats."

Amy Mossoff presents Don't Be a Plastic Bashing Luddite! posted at The Little Things, saying, "Plastic is a good thing. Why did I let the Luddites infect my thinking for so long? (Warning: this post is a rant, and only a rant.)"

Trey Givens presents A Tutorial for Outlook Users Who Wish to Avoid Annoying Me posted at Trey Givens, saying, "OMG! What is UP with these people who send emails marked "urgent" that contain stupid, mundane, very-not-urgent content!?!? Well, in the spirit of assuming people are more stupid than they are malicious, I created this tutorial."

Jason Stotts presents On Polysexuality Overview posted at Erosophia, saying, "Is polysexuality (non-monogamy) natural? Can it be moral? Find out in my new series of essays on the subject."

A. Chambers presents Prohibition Déjà vu posted at The Undercurrent Blog, saying, "How does drug prohibition affect current violence in the U.S. and Mexico?"

Edward Cline presents Of Federaphobia and Islamophobia posted at The Rule of Reason, saying, "Dark propinquity governs the attacks on freedom of speech coming from two principal quarters: The Democrats, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Their ideological hostility to freedom of speech is mutual and certainly proximate."

That concludes this edition.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Objectivist Round Up using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.