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The Atlas Society
The Atlas Society (TAS) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand. It is part of the Objectivist movement that split off from the Ayn Rand Institute in 1990 due to disagreements over whether Objectivism was a "closed system" or an "open system". David Kelley is the founder of TAS, and Jennifer Grossman is its current CEO. History In the late 1980s, philosopher David Kelley was affiliated with the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), which was founded 1985 to advocate Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. After disputes with ARI founder Leonard Peikoff Leonard Sylvan Peikoff (; born October 15, 1933) is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and was a close associate of Ayn Rand, who designated him heir to her estate. He is a former professor of philosophy and host of a natio ... and board chairman Peter Schwartz, ARI cut ties with Kelley and warned others in the Objectivist movement not to associate with him. In response, Kell ...
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Objectivist Movement
The Objectivist movement is a movement of individuals who seek to study and advance Objectivism, the philosophy expounded by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand's novel, ''The Fountainhead''. The group, ironically named "the Collective" due to their actual advocacy of individualism, in part consisted of Leonard Peikoff, Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Allan Blumenthal. Nathaniel Branden, a young Canadian student who had been greatly inspired by ''The Fountainhead'', became a close confidant and encouraged Rand to expand her philosophy into a formal movement. From this informal beginning in Rand's living room, the movement expanded into a collection of think tanks, academic organizations, and periodicals. Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with ...
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Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, ''The Fountainhead''. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel ''Atlas Shrugged''. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge; she rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism and rejected altruism. In politics, she condemned the ...
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Leonard Peikoff
Leonard Sylvan Peikoff (; born October 15, 1933) is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and was a close associate of Ayn Rand, who designated him heir to her estate. He is a former professor of philosophy and host of a nationally syndicated radio talk show. He co-founded the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) in 1985 and is the author of several books on philosophy. Early life and career Leonard Peikoff was born on October 15, 1933,''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Leonard Peikoff." Accessed March 2, 2008. in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Samuel Peikoff, MD, a surgeon, and his wife Bessie, a band leader. He attended the University of Manitoba from 1950 to 1953 as a pre-med student, but following his early discussions with Rand, he transferred to New York University to study philosophy, where he received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees in philosophy in 1954, 1957, and 1964, respectively. His doctoral dissertation adviser was the noted American pragmatist philosopher ...
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Objectivist Organizations
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian Americans, Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute"."About the Author" in Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably ''The Fountainhead'' (1943) and ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered". Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct ...
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Non-profit Organizations Based In Texas
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in contrast with an entity that operates as a business aiming to generate a profit for its owners. A nonprofit is subject to the non-distribution constraint: any revenues that exceed expenses must be committed to the organization's purpose, not taken by private parties. An array of organizations are nonprofit, including some political organizations, schools, business associations, churches, social clubs, and consumer cooperatives. Nonprofit entities may seek approval from governments to be tax-exempt, and some may also qualify to receive tax-deductible contributions, but an entity may incorporate as a nonprofit entity without securing tax-exempt status. Key aspects of nonprofits are accountability, trustworthiness, honesty, and openness to ever ...
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Public Affairs Press
Public Affairs Press ( – mid-1980s) was a book publisher in Washington, D.C., owned and often edited by Morris Bartel Schnapper (1912–1999). History According to notional successor Peter Osnos of the 1997-founded PublicAffairs: For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner, Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors... His legacy will endure in the books to come. Supreme Court Case In 1961, '' Pub. Affairs Associates, Inc. v. Rickover'', 369 U.S. 111 (1962), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the circuit court's decision should be vacated because the facts of the case were too unclear. Remanded to district court to create an "adequate and full-bodied record.". The case concerned whether or not speeches written by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover in the course of his duties to the federal government of the United States were copyrightable. Generally, w ...
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Continuum International Publishing Group
Continuum International Publishing Group was an academic publisher of books with editorial offices in London and New York City. It was purchased by Nova Capital Management in 2005. In July 2011, it was taken over by Bloomsbury Publishing. , all new Continuum titles are published under the Bloomsbury name (under the imprint Bloomsbury Academic). History Continuum International was created in 1999 with the merger of the Cassell academic and religious lists and the Continuum Publishing Company, founded in New York in 1980. The academic publishing programme was focused on the humanities, especially the fields of philosophy, film and music, literature, education, linguistics, theology, and biblical studies. Continuum published Paulo Freire's seminal ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed''. Continuum acquired Athlone Press, which was founded in 1948 as the University of London publishing house and sold to the Bemrose Corporation in 1979. In 2003, Continuum acquired the London-based Hambled ...
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The Ayn Rand Cult
''The Ayn Rand Cult'' is a book by journalist Jeff Walker, published by Open Court Publishing Company in 1999. Walker discusses the history of the Objectivist movement started by novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, which he describes as a cult. Background The Objectivist movement began with a small group of Rand's confidants and students who supported her philosophy of Objectivism. This group was at first known informally as "The Collective", and later gained more structure in the form of the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), named after Rand's protege Nathaniel Branden, and a magazine that Rand and Branden co-edited. From its early days, Rand's following was sometimes criticized as a "cult" or "religion". Walker's book is another entry in this vein of criticism, and the first full-length book to focus entirely on the "cult" allegation. Walker worked on a two-hour radio program about Rand for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The program was called ''Ideas: The Legacy of Ayn ...
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Peter Schwartz (writer)
Peter Schwartz (born 1949) is an American journalist. He is an Objectivist and writes opinion pieces and books from that viewpoint. Career A former chairman of the board, and currently a distinguished fellow, of the Ayn Rand Institute, Schwartz writes and lectures on a variety of topics, including environmentalism, foreign policy, political philosophy and ethics. He received a Master of Arts in journalism from Syracuse University and has taught advanced writing classes at the Ayn Rand Institute's Objectivist Academic Center. He is the author of ''In Defense of Selfishness: Why the Code of Self-Sacrifice Is Unjust and Destructive''; ''The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America''; ''Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty''; and ''The Battle for Laissez-Faire Capitalism''. He also writes on current issues for his blog, PeterSchwartz.com. His articles have been published in ''The Washington Post'', the ''Chicago Tribune'', ''ForbesOnline'', ''Huffington Post' ...
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David Kelley
David Christopher Kelley (born June 23, 1949) is an American philosopher. He is a professed Objectivist, though his position that Objectivism can be revised and influenced by other schools of thought has prompted disagreements with other Objectivists. Kelley is also an author of several books on philosophy and the founder of The Atlas Society, an institution he established in 1990 after permanently dissociating with Leonard Peikoff and the Ayn Rand Institute. Education and career David Kelley was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in philosophy from Brown University, where he studied with the American rationalist, Roderick Chisholm. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1975 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "The evidence of the senses", under the supervision of Richard Rorty. He was an assistant professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Vassar College for seven years. He then taug ...
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Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian Americans, Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute"."About the Author" in Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably ''The Fountainhead'' (1943) and ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered". Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct ...
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Ayn Rand Institute
The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, commonly known as the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in Santa Ana, California, that promotes Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand. The organization was established in 1985, three years after Rand's death, by Ed Snider and Leonard Peikoff, Rand's legal heir. ARI has several educational and outreach programs, which include providing intellectuals for public appearances, supporting Objectivist campus clubs, supplying Rand's writings to schools and professors, assisting overseas Objectivist institutions, organizing annual conferences and running the Objectivist Academic Center. The institute's stated goal is to "spearhead a cultural renaissance that will reverse the anti-reason, anti-individualism, anti-freedom, anti-capitalist trends in today's culture". History During her lifetime, Rand helped establish The Foundation for the New Intellectual to promote Objectiv ...
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