Objectivist Round-up, March 2025

1.      Ayn Rand Institute philosopher Ben Bayer attacks Christianity.  While there are things to disagree with, Bayer actually has read some primary sources and doesn’t repeat any of the usual Objectivist urban legends about religion.

2.     Harry Binswanger just posted some Objectivist trivia questions.  Bonus points if you can name the four U. S. states that Ayn Rand didn’t mention in Atlas Shrugged.

3.     The ARI has released Raymond Newman’s interview with Ayn Rand.  The interview took place during the end of 1980 (Rand died in March 1982).  Rand is a little slow but still sharp.

4.      According to the ARI, there are “thousands” of handwritten pages in Rand’s papers that are now being transcribed (later in the article it looks as if the material is roughly 3,000 pages).  These include some of her early notes on philosophy.  While the Archives have never (best I can tell)  provided a complete list of all Rand’s papers, I wouldn’t have gotten the impression from reading the introductions to the posthumously published works that this much material remains to be published.

Objectivist Round-up, February 2025

1. Shoshana Milgram, who has been working on a biography of Ayn Rand for at least twenty years, gave an interesting talk at OCON 2024 – “Behind the Scenes: Ayn Rand’s West Point Lecture (1974–2024).”  Rand gave her Philosophy: Who Needs It? lecture there.  I listened to almost all of it and no mention of any biography.

2.  Multi-millionaire Objectivist supporter Carl Barney will be creating a “Great University” in March 2025 to “foster reason, objectivity, and the pursuit of truth into the American culture and, indeed, worldwide.”

3.  The Ayn Rand Institute just published The Art of Thinking, transcripts of lectures by Leonard Peikoff given in 1992.