7 - Shea Levy on Objectivism

Feb 14, 2023

In this episode I speak with Shea Levy about Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, and what it has to say about ethics and epistemology. Topics we talk about include:

• What is Objectivism?
• Can you be an Objectivist and disagree with Ayn Rand?
• What's the Objectivist theory of aesthetics?
• Why isn't there a biography of Ayn Rand approved of by orthodox Objectivists?
• What's so bad about altruism, or views like utilitarianism?
• What even is selfishness?
• Can we be mistaken about what we perceive? If so, how?
• What is consciousness? Could it just be computation?

Note that the episode contains discussion of the ethics of suicide and vivid descriptions of painful deaths between minutes 36 and 47, followed by more discussion of the ethics of suicide up to minute 52. These sections could be skipped without making it too hard to understand the rest of the episode.

Shea on Twitter

Shea's personal website

Objectivism links:

• Philosophy: Who Needs It
• Atlas Shrugged
• The Fountainhead
• The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI, for short)
• Ayn Rand University
• ARI on YouTube
• Yaron Brook on YouTube