Sightings, November 2004

Center sponsor Michael Shaw appeared in Albany, New York, in October at the Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., presentation on "Private Property Rights for the Future of Freedom and Prosperity." Shaw was part of a panel on preserving property rights and spoke about the Liberty Garden.

Former Center Web master and current Arizona State University graduate student Shawn Klein was co-editor of the recent book Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. He also wrote a chapter, entitled "The Mirror of Erised: Why We Should Heed Dumbledore's Warning." The book is the latest in the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series, which has included books on The Sopranos, The Simpsons, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

David Kelley Completes Articles; Is Translated into Bulgarian

The December issue of the Fraser Institute's monthly journal will feature an article by TOC Executive Director David Kelley. A Canadian policy think tank, Fraser is well- known for its annual rankings of economic freedom (see "The Freedom Olympics," Navigator, October 2004). The topic for the December issue of Fraser Forum is voluntary philanthropy. Kelley was invited to contribute an article on "the selfish basis of benevolence," based on his book Unrugged Individualism.

Kelley also completed an article on Ayn Rand for The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, a reference work on atheism, humanism, and related social and intellectual movements, to be published by Prometheus Books. "Ayn Rand was of course an atheist," Kelley observes, "but as she often said, that only describes what she didn't believe. The challenge in this assignment was to indicate the positive content of Objectivism in a brief summary. It was also interesting to think about her relationship with humanism." No publication date has been announced for the encyclopedia.

Dr. Ognyan Minchev has recently translated Kelley's paper "The Party of Modernity" into Bulgarian. Versions of the paper can now be found on the World Wide Web in English and Bulgarian.