Ayn Rand defined "psycho-epistemology" as "the study of man's cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious”. In this talk, Dr. Binswanger expands on his previous lectures on the subject, incorporating new ideas he has developed. Topics include: the facts of reality that give rise to the need for the concept "subconscious"; the relation of the subconscious to the brain; the subconscious as essentially reactive; the two basic functions of the subconscious; how concepts store knowledge in the subconscious--the mechanics of the relationship of concepts to concretes; the mechanics of the thinking process; reason and emotion; self-monitoring and self-ordering as the essence of free will.

Psycho-Epistemology: How the mind operates the subconscious

Harry Binswanger

Andrew Bernstein

Villainy: An Analysis of the Nature of Evil

Criminals victimize honest men. Religion coerces rational men to surrender their minds to faith. Collectivism enslaves an individual to the state. These are three primary forms that evil takes. What is the moral theory that makes possible the rise and continued existence of evil? What is the underlying philosophic theory that, if held by men, makes evil inevitable? Is one of these three forms of evil more virulent than the other two—and, if so, why? What must rational men do to protect themselves against evil in any of its hideous iterations? Finally, what must  good men do to protect an optimistic, value-laden benevolent universe premise in the face of evil’s ubiquity and destructive power in the modern world? 

These are the questions addressed and answered in this talk.

The financial crisis and the rapid growth of government that followed have alarmed many Americans. But past rebellions against interventionist government have not succeeded. Why not? Are we doomed to watch the state grow at the expense of American freedom and prosperity? In this talk, drawing on his forthcoming book (co-written with Don Watkins), Yaron Brook will argue that the growth of government is not inevitable--it is the product of certain key philosophic ideas. Those ideas can be challenged, but it will require a revolution in the way people think about free markets, a revolution provided by the ideas in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Ayn Rand's Free Market Revolution: How the ideas of Atlas Shrugged Can End Big Government

Yaron Brook

"The judicial branch of our government is a crucial component in the system that the Founders designed to uphold and protect our rights. Without judges who enforce the Constitution and limit the scope of government authority, our rights would not be secure. Yet today, judges frequently abdicate their responsibility to limit government and protect rights. Politicians from both sides of the spectrum chastise judges for engaging in 'judicial activism,' and judges have responded by curtailing the scope of their decisions to ever narrower grounds. As this has happened, our rights have become less secure and the power of the Constitution as a check on government power has diminished, and government itself has grown into leviathan like proportions. As the pending litigation over the Health Care Reform Bill illustrates, judges and their decisions will affect the lives and livelihood of millions of Americans.

The Virtue of Judicial Engagement

Eric Daniels

In the mid-1940s, after the success of her first best-selling novel, The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for Hal Wallis. One of her most intriguing projects was an original screenplay about the development of the atomic bomb.  She described it as “the most difficult writing task I have ever attempted.” Although her partially-completed screenplay was sold to another studio and never produced, the documentary evidence (research notes, screen treatments, and existing scenes) shows that the film would have been unusual, and excellent, in several significant respects.

Ayn Rand’s Top Secret: An Inspiring Original Screenplay about the Development of the Atomic Bomb

Shoshana Milgram

Emotions can disrupt and interfere with cognition. As a result, many thinkers believe it is logical to ignore and suppress their emotions. In fact, it is illogical. Emotions are links to indispensable information needed to hold the full context, catch mistaken premises, and stay grounded in facts.

In this lecture, we will discuss the proper way to manage emotions so that they aid and advance a logical thinking process, rather than sabotage it. We will discuss:

1. •    What emotions are, and why they lead you to important information

How Understanding Your Emotions Helps You Think Logically

Jean Moroney

The lecture will examine the idea of judicial engagement as a proper approach to the protection of individual rights. In today's political context, both sides of the political divide have failed to defend the proper approach. Democrats and Republicans trot out the 'judicial activism' charge whenever it suits them, meaning little more than 'a decision I don't like.' As the presidential campaign begins and politicians from both parties begin proposing ways to fix the broken courts, it is ever more important that judges adopt the proper approach and become engaged defenders of individual rights. By examining how the courts arrived at this passive, deferential approach, this lecture will also illustrate the work that remains to be done to recapture the courts as defenders of rights--the role originally envisioned by the Founders."

1. •    Three signals that indicate you need to introspect now, lest unidentified emotions sabotage your thinking process
   

1. •    An easy, six-step process for introspecting emotions
   

Those who do not understand their emotions are doomed to be ruled by them. Thanks to the legacy of Objectivism, every thinker can experience the cognitive and emotional benefits of reason-emotion harmony.

Ayn Rand’s Top Secret, as projected, would have been a suspenseful movie, historically accurate and dramatically colorful,  “starring” Fermi, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Marie Curie, and others in a heroic chain of scientific discovery. Her film, moreover, would have dramatized and concretized the link between science and freedom, within a broad context. This lecture, which draws on unpublished materials, makes clear the artistic and philosophical differences between Top Secret and The Beginning or the End (the MGM film on the same subject that was produced instead).