The Objective Standard: Fall 2019, Vol. 14, No. 3

by Craig Biddle, Stewart Margolis, Jon Hersey

The Fall 2019 issue (Vol. 14, No. 3) features the following articles, shorts, and reviews:

• How I Avoided the Struggles of Most Young Gay People by Stewart Margolis
• John Locke: The Father of Liberalism by Jon Hersey
• The Green New Deal: A Plan to Sink America by Tim White
• Washington Crossing the Delaware: A Beacon of the American Spirit by Joseph Kellard
• The Man Who Electrified Music by Jon Hersey
• How John H. Patterson Modernized Industry by Jonathan Townley
• The Enigma Code Breakers Who Saved the World by Tim White
• Joan of Arc: Heroine of France, Exemplar of Courage by Tim White
• Seven Great Poems on the Glory of Man by Various Authors
• Dr. Ruth: Preaching the Goodness of Sex by Timothy Sandefur
• Deriving More Joy from One of Life’s Richest Sources by Jon Hersey
• McCartan Delighted in the Sensual World by Timothy Sandefur
• John Milton’s Lovers in Paradise by Timothy Sandefur
• Suffused with Sunlight: The Paintings of John White Alexander by Timothy Sandefur
• Jerry Goldsmith’s Voice of Idealism by Timothy Sandefur
• René Marie: A Voice of Independence by Timothy Sandefur
• Scientific Morality and the Streetlight Effect by Craig Biddle
• The Argument from Intimidation: A Confession of Intellectual Impotence by Craig Biddle
• The Battle for Values in American Westerns by Timothy Sandefur
• Alt-Education Is Filling a Void that Colleges Can’t by Lolita Allgyer
• Entrepreneurs in Space by Timothy Sandefur
• Thanks to Science, Allergies Don’t Have to Keep You Down by Timothy Sandefur
• Socrates: Dramatizing the History of Western Thought, reviewed by Robert Begley
• Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less by Michael Hyatt, reviewed by Jonathan Townley
• “Pimpernel” Smith (1941), reviewed by Arie Vilner

The Objective Standard is a quarterly journal of culture and politics written from an Objectivist perspective (Objectivism being Ayn Rand’s philosophy of reason, egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism). The journal is based on the idea that for every human concern—from personal matters to foreign policy, from the sciences to the arts, from education to legislation—there are demonstrably objective standards by reference to which we can assess what is true or false, good or bad, right or wrong. The purpose of the journal is to analyze and evaluate ideas, trends, events, and policies accordingly.

We maintain that the standards of both knowledge and value derive from the facts of reality; that truth is discovered only by means of reason (i.e., through observation and logic); that the factual requirements of man’s life on earth determine his moral values; that the selfish pursuit of one’s own life-serving goals is virtuous; and that individual rights are moral principles defining the fundamental requirements of a civilized society.

We stand opposed to the notion that the standards of knowledge and value are not factual but subjective (feeling-based) or other-worldly (faith-based); that truth is ultimately dictated by majority opinion or a “supernatural” being’s will; that democratic consensus or “God’s word” determines what is moral; that sacrifice for “the common good” or in obedience to “God’s commands” is virtuous; and that rights are social conventions or “divine decrees.”

In stark contrast to these philosophic approaches, ours is a philosophy of reality, reason, egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism.

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2019

About the author

Craig Biddle writes and lectures on philosophical and political issues from an Objectivist perspective, Objectivism being the philosophy created by Ayn Rand. Craig also edits The Objective Standard, a quarterly journal of culture and politics. His first book, Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It, is a highly concretized, systematic introduction to Ayn Rand's ethics.

The book in progress is an introduction to the principles of good thinking and the fallacies that are violations of those principles. He has lectured and taught seminars at universities across the country, including Stanford, Duke, Tufts, UVA, UCLA, UM–Wisconsin, and NYU. Also lecture regularly at Objectivist conferences.

For a brief elaboration on the nature of Objectivism, see my essay “Introducing The Objective Standard” or Leonard Peikoff’s essay “The Philosophy of Objectivism: A Brief Summary.” To learn more about the philosophy, I suggest beginning with Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged.