Dear ROC members,
A warm welcome to the freshman joining us this year and returning students. We will start off the semester with a meeting to introduce Objectivism and motivate those of you unfamiliar with it to participate in our club meetings and discussions on
Wednesday, Sept 2nd
7:30 pm Duncan Hall 1042
We will listen to a 30 minute lecture that Ayn Rand gave to the class of 1974 at West Point titled “Philosophy: Who Needs It”. In her talk Ayn Rand shows why, in order to deal with concrete, real-life problems, an individual needs some implicit or explicit view of the world, of man’s place in it, and of what goals and values he ought to pursue. The abstract premises an individual holds may be true and consistent, reached by conscientious thought—and the purpose of the science of philosophy is to teach one how to achieve this—or his premises may be a heap of clashing ideas unwittingly absorbed from the culture around him. But either way, she argues, the power of philosophy is inescapable.
(An excerpt from a description of one of her books with the same title. The audio lecture is also available online.)
At the meeting, I will also be giving away 20 copies of either the Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged for those who won the book drawing. If some of you have an idea about what you would like to discuss and learn this semester, Wednesday’s meeting would be a good opportunity to make suggestions for the Fall calendar.
Hope to see you there,
Rice Objectivism Club