"A Meeting of Minds", 1995 Conference

"A Meeting of Minds" was held on Saturday, November 11, 1995 in San Francisco, California. The day featured four lectures as well as an opportunity to meet with other participants over lunch, at breaks, and at a reception closing the day.

A post-conference report is available online.

Program for "A Meeting of Minds"

San Francisco
November 11, 1995
9:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Benevolence by David Kelley, Ph.D.

Objectivists have tended to view benevolence as a minor virtue at best. In this groundbreaking lecture, which electrified audiences at the Institute's recent Summer Seminar in Philosophy, Dr. Kelley will define benevolence as a major virtue, demonstrating why it is profoundly selfish rather than altruistic, and discuss its implications for a range of practical issues.

Dr. Kelley is the Institute's executive director.

Objectivism Down Under by Lindsay Perigo

Please Note: Excerpts from this talk are available online.

Lindsay Perigo is a radio and print journalist in New Zealand. Known throughout the country for his programs on Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand, he has recently started his own radio network, Radio Liberty, where he is the station manager and breakfast presenter. Mr. Perigo also publishes The Free Radical as another means of promoting Objectivist and libertarian ideas. His uncompromising defense of individual freedom and barbed critiques of state intervention have drawn attention to the principles of liberty, and earned him the enmity of the politically correct Establishment. He will discuss the strategies behind his success.

Numbers and Objectivity by David Ross, Ph.D.

The clarity of mathematical concepts and the unshakable certainty of mathematical conclusions have made mathematics the model of logical rigor since ancient Greece. Dr. Ross will contrast two views of numbers and arithmetic--those of Plato and Kant--with an Objectivist formulation. He will explain how and why Ayn Rand's concept of objectivity, and her theory of concept-formation, are precisely what is needed for the proper grounding of arithmetic.

Dr. Ross is a senior research scientist at Eastman Kodak Research Labs.

Hayek's Rejection of Reason by Larry Sechrest, Ph.D.

F.A. Hayek's model of a spontaneous social order based on evolutionary rules is a famous and influential model. Professor Sechrest will describe Hayek's theory and contrast it with Ayn Rand's vision of a moral social order based on reason and individual rights.

Professor Sechrest is director of the Free Enterprise Institute and Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Business Administration at Sul Ross State University. He is an Adjunct Scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.