Return to Reason:
Galt’s Gulch 2.0

A look at the state of our culture across multiple fronts, including our national economy, new developments in ‘right’ & ‘left’ politics, the threat of world war, and the impending sense of doom felt by many Americans today.

Race, Class, and Sex debates dominate our public discussion: Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, Black Lives Matter, Privilege, Victim versions of Feminism, Non-binary, Trans, etc. All are applied issues, but a common intellectual framework informs them all. How are abstract themes from Postmodernism and Critical Theory, developed in the last generation, being mobilized (and even weaponized) in this generation?

Breakout # 1:  Who Is Ayn Rand? - Rob Tracinski
‍This introductory session will explore Ayn Rand’s historical and cultural background and her life experiences—such as escaping from Soviet Russia only to come to America during the Red Decade—and how they are addressed in her novels and philosophy.

Breakout #2:  The Need For Selfish Philanthropy - Richard M. Salsman, Ph.D.
‍Philanthropy means love of humanity, which warrants not charity and duty but generosity and gratitude. Humans, at their best, are rationally selfish. That ethic should guide gift-giving as much as wealth-making.

Breakout #3: What Is Objectivism? - David Kelley, Ph.D., & Jennifer Grossman

Breakout #4:  20th Century Moral Philosophers vs Ayn Rand - Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.
‍Rand is famous (or notorious) for rejecting mainstream philosophy, and mainstream philosophers often returned the favor by dismissing Rand. But what was the state of moral philosophy in the 1950s and 1960s, the decades in which Rand published Atlas Shrugged and “The Objectivist Ethics”? Was the antagonism only political and/or academic insiders versus outsiders sniping at each other–or was the gulf in moral philosophy real and unbridgeable?

What is capitalism, precisely—and why do so many people lie or apologize about it? Here, Professor Salsman addresses and refutes five common notions: that capitalism is 1) unjust because it breeds inequality, 2) prone to “cronyism” and replacing democracy with plutocracy, 3) in its “late stage” phase of frequent financial crises, 4) bent on perpetual imperialism and war, and 5) unsustainable because ruinous to the planet. Professor Salsman also fields and refutes critiques presented by the audience.

Eligible for All-Access Pass & Student/Young Adult Ticket Holders. Please contact Ana Freund at ana@atlassoceity.org for more details about the dinner program.

A look at Today’s so-called “culture war” seems to focus on everything except actually creating culture—which is the only way to win it. This talk will present Ayn Rand’s view of art, its role in human life, and how it precedes and supersedes politics.

Javier Milei, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, etc.—political figures from across the globe have been praised and criticized as “populists” despite representing vastly different political platforms. So, what is Populism? And how do we evaluate world leaders based on objective principles, separating the “popular” from the “populist”?

Breakout Session #1: Date The Atlas, Not The Shrug:  - Jennifer Grossman

Breakout Session #2: 7 Habits Of Highly Objective People - David Kelley, Ph.D., & Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.
‍Objectivity is both a virtue and a skill. It’s a virtue because it is a chosen commitment to both truth and reason, and a skill because the methods of thinking must be learned. We learn the basics of reasoning in school, but learning is life-long as we enter careers, form relationships, deal with obstacles, etc. And we remain vulnerable to cognitive biases that we must choose to overcome.