Oslo Objectivist Conference 2012 May 19-20, Oslo, Norway

Andrew Bernstein, “Capitalist Solutions to Contemporary Moral Problems”

The United States, and the semi-free world, face grave moral problems. For example, the dangers of terrorism spawned by Islamic Totalitarianism are manifest. The environmentalist charges of man-made global warming must be rationally addressed. The cost, quality, and availability of medical care is a serious concern. How is Western Civilization to resolve these—and other—dilemmas?

Ayn Rand showed that the moral is the practical. This talk, based on Andrew Bernstein’s book, Capitalist Solutions, demonstrates, on issue after issue, that only the principles of individual rights and free markets, consistently applied, resolve—both morally and practically—all the major moral problems currently confronting mankind.

Andrew Bernstein, “Villainy—An Analysis of the Nature of Evil”

Criminals victimize honest men. Religion coerces rational men to surrender their minds to faith. Collectivism enslaves an individual to the state. These are three primary forms that evil takes. What is the moral theory that makes possible the rise and continued existence of evil? What is the underlying philosophic theory that, if held by men, makes evil inevitable? Is one of these three forms of evil more virulent than the other two – and, if so, why? What must rational men do to protect themselves against evil in any of its hideous iterations? Finally, what must good men do to protect an optimistic, value-laden benevolent universe premise in the face of evil’s ubiquity and destructive power in the modern world?

Tore Boeckmann, “Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Ibsen’s Peer Gynt: Two Psychological Fantasies”

The protagonists of Anthem and Peer Gynt both experience a profound mental change; yet while Equality 7-2521 starts without a concept of the ego, and eventually forms one, Peer starts by professing pride in his ego, but in the end discovers that a definite ego is precisely what he lacks. Despite this difference, the method of the two works is the same; and they both belong to the (rare) genre of psychological fantasy. The comparison will illuminate from a new angle the true meaning of egoism, values, and personal identity.

Some questions answered in this lecture: Why can a psychological fantasy not have a plot? In what sense do the two works have consonant themes? What is the similarity between Solveig and the Golden One? What philosophical premise lands Peer in the madhouse in Cairo? What premise leads Equality to rediscover the Light. Why must both works have a mental climax? How is the climax of Peer Gynt an action in Solveig’s, not Peer’s, mind? What aspects of each work makes it correct to classify it as a “poem”?

Dag Inge Fjeld, “Steve Jobs was an Atlas. What can Objectivists learn from the way he chose to move the world?”

The Atlas, Steve Jobs

Throughout his short life, Steve Jobs in the role as a CEO and visionary invented several industries and revolutionized to a lot more. Jobs also laid out the path for companies like IBM, Microsoft, Disney, Google, Samsung etc. to follow. His greatest achievement was perhaps in bringing Apple back from the absolute brink of bankruptcy in his 1997-comeback to become the most valuable and cherished company in the world before he died. Steve Jobs was unquestionably an Atlas. How could he achieve all of this in a world of conformist, copy-cats and tough competitors? Is his bio in accordance with the heroes of Ayn Rands novels.

Martin Johansen, “Charles Babbage and the Invention of the Computer”

The process of discovery that led to the invention of the computer is relatively unknown given the prevalence of the computer. Charles Babbage (1791–1871) worked his entire life with constructing and experimenting on novel, complex computing machinery to invent the core design of the modern computer. A particularly interesting, but seldom covered aspect of this process is its inductive nature. In this presentation, Martin Johansen will present the key experiments and discoveries that led Charles Babbage to invent the computer.

Gregory Salmieri, “The Human Form of Life in the ethics of Ayn Rand and Aristotle”

For both Aristotle and Ayn Rand living a certain type of distinctively human form of life—one characterized by rationality—serves as the ultimate standard of value. And both thinkers hold that one’s highest purpose is one’s own life—that each of us should try to achieve for himself a life that satisfies this standard. However, their conceptions of the human form of life differ considerably. My topic will be these differences and how they flow from and lead to other important differences between Aristotelianism and Objectivism. More particularly, I will discuss how Objectivism solves a number of problems faced by Aristotelians.

John Tamny, “Government Barriers to Economic Growth”

My talk will cover why the Great Depression occurred, what underlay the financial crisis (a weak dollar) along with what caused it (the bailout of Bear Stearns), and then it will cover the government barriers today that are restraining growth.

Harald Waage, “The World we have lost: John Locke’s theory of rights”

John Locke’s theory of rights enabled the political changes that gave man, for the first time in history, freedom. He was the main inspiration for the Founding Fathers of the American revolution, and all the classical liberal revolutions that swept over Europe thereafter. Locke was what made the industrial revolution and ensuing material progress and success possible.

Locke was the Great Liberator, but his thoughts are now lost and buried under the scrapheap of history. His defence of freedom and rights is today poorly understood, even by the few defenders of individual rights that remain.

This lecture will explain Locke’s forgotten theory of rights. Now, more than ever is it important to understand the foundations that made the West great, and to restore and get reacquainted with this classic in Western political thought.