 "Nobody's Perfect"
by Robert James Bidinotto
I'll stick my neck out, appear to march completely off the Objectivist reservation and give a totally honest, but Philosophically Incorrect answer: I mean that I've never yet met anyone who is immune to "errors of knowledge" or "errors of morality." In other words, I've never met any morally perfect person. (Read more...)
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 Getting Rights Right
by Robert James Bidinotto
[Editor's note—I have long held that there is confusion in Rand's writings as to whether "rights" are metaphysical properties of human beings or ethical concepts. It is true that by the time she got round to addressing the question specifically in Galt's Speech she defined them as concepts, yet elsewhere she appeared to be positing rights as ready-made "things" one is born with in the same way one is born with two thumbs & eight fingers. In this post on the SOLOHQ thread, Who's Better Off?, Robert Bidinotto both clears the confusion up & demonstrates its consequences. — Linz]
Should the concept of "rights" be interpreted within a moral context of rational self-interest? Or is it a kind of Kantian "categorical imperative"—a metaphysical commandment that shouts "thou shalt not impose force," without regard to any considerations of rational self-interest? (Read more...)
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Objectivism, Venus and Mars
by Robert James Bidinotto
Sexually-based (or -influenced) differences in cognitive and communications styles, and core personal values, have profound implications for those who wish to run Objectivist clubs and events. Communicating Objectivist ideas and values in a typical "male" fashion -- i.e., via "logical structure" discussions, and abstract, largely deductive analysis seeking the "one right answer" to a given question -- is a sure-fire way to guarantee that most women will never return to your events. (Read more...)
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 Sicking The Saddamites #7 - Miscellaneous Misconceptions
by Robert James Bidinotto
(Editor's note - a post on one of the 'Sicking The Saddamite' threads so outstanding that I have pulled it up as an article. - Linz)
If the debates raging on this forum prove anything, it is the complete incompatibility of the worldviews, strategies, institutions and policy recommendations between those holding anarchist views, and those advancing limited government views. Sadly, the anarchist position now reigns supreme on the staffs at virtually all the major self-defined "libertarian" organs. ... More fundamentally: leading libertarian thinkers are all but unanimous in equating "libertarianism" with philosophic agnosticism ... (Read more...)
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