The Culture of Reason Center is offering lectures 1-20 of Nathaniel Branden’s The Basic Principles of Objectivism Course for sale as individual MP3 downloads. These are the original lectures that Branden gave during the operation of the Nathaniel Branden Institute in the 60’s. Enjoy!

Lecture 01: The Role of Philosophy
Lecture 02: What is Reason?
Lecture 03: Logic and Mysticism
Lecture 04: The Concept of God
Lecture 05: Free Will
Lecture 06: Efficient Thinking
Lecture 07: Self-Esteem
Lecture 08: The Psychology of Dependence
Lecture 09: The Psychology of Sex
Lecture 10: The Objectivist Ethics
Lecture 11: Reason and Virtue
Lecture 12: Justice vs. Mercy
Lecture 13: The Evil of Self-Sacrifice
Lecture 14: Government and The Individual
Lecture 15: The Economics of A Free Society
Lecture 16: Common Fallacies About Capitalism
Lecture 17: Romanticism, Naturalism and The Novels of Ayn Rand, Part 1
Lecture 18: Romanticism, Naturalism and The Novels of Ayn Rand, Part 2
Lecture 19: The Nature of Evil
Lecture 20: The Benevolent Sense of Life

I recently had the opportunity to interview the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s Fall 2009 guest speaker Joshua Hall about his views on school finance reform. Professor Hall explains why, despite an increase in spending on public education, we are not getting more out of it. Via CEE.

In her book Where We Stand: Class Matters, bell hooks claims to show how class intertwines with race and gender to exacerbate the economic and psychological plight of the poor. Yet, it’s riddled with worn-out clichés, myths, unsubstantiated claims, and downright falsehoods.

Before I launch into my criticisms, I want to point out that I know poverty from personal experience. I know what it feels like not to have the clothes, the amenities, the toys, the gadgets, the material symbols deemed important by others. I felt that way throughout most of middle- and high school. I have seen the suffering and inhumanity of true poverty, and it has always touched me deeply and personally. By no means do I take for granted what I have. A lot of hard work went into my being were I am today, work on the part of my parents, me and my husband.

Nevertheless, not only from the total sum of my own experience, but also as scholar of philosophy, politics and economics, I disagree with hooks on several grounds. In the following I will respond to three themes in hooks’ book: the state of poverty; wealth as a zero-sum game; and wasting resources.

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Reason Foundation will have a special series in November celebrating Ayn Rand.

John Mackey speaks with reason.tv about his proposal for healthcare reform, the history of Whole Foods, and dealing with government interference.

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship just published its full interview with Steve Mariotti, founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an organization dedicated to providing entrepreneurship education to low-income youths.