Showing results by author "Russell Hasan" in All Categories

This book is a survey of the most important ideas in the history of Western philosophy. The idea is stated, along with the name of the philosopher who first or most famously articulated it, a brief explanation and analysis of the idea is provided, and then the book moves on to the next idea. By the end of this book, you should have a sense of all the most important ideas in philosophy, as well as a scheme for how those ideas all fit together and relate to each other, forming a comprehensive, simple, elegant, and powerful, vision of philosophy. The book is divided into the following sections...

Everyone has heard dark whispers about the philosophy of Objectivism. People read Ayn Rand’s novels and fall in love with her ideas, only to collapse into one of two inevitable fates: (1) eventually give up on the ideas as childish and selfish, often complaining that the philosophy is a cult, or (2) develop a religious, zealous fanaticism, obeying the tenets of the philosophy in an obsessive, robotic, mindless manner. But what is the truth about Objectivism? What is it in Rand’s novels that makes a light turn on in the minds of her readers, and why does that light always flare and then ...

This book was previously published as part of the omnibus anthology The Meaning of Life by Russell Hasan. Contents The Meaning of Life: My Answer to Jordan B. Peterson Ludwig Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations" The Problems of Philosophy What is Philosophy? From the Objectivist Point of View, Can People Rightfully Believe Immanuel Kant? On Immanuel Kant Philosophical Wisdom My Methodology, as a Philosopher, for Philosophy What is a Philosopher? Aristotle and the Seven Deadly Sins

An insightful mixture of political philosophy and policy advocacy, this book justifies libertarian politics using the Golden Rule of ethics to achieve a provocative new political theory called GOLD. GOLD defends the libertarian position on antiwar, drugs, prostitution, civil liberties, abortion rights, and gay marriage, GOLD explains why free market capitalism is necessary for freedom, and GOLD proves that capitalism helps the poor and racial minorities. A sophisticated theory of GOLD economics is explained, which sheds light on the nature of money, prices, trade, supply and demand, ...

This short audio on logic argues that logic and science can go hand in hand, and that, by taking observations of perceptions and sensations, and applying logical analysis to them, you have the power to build conceptual models and frameworks that you can use in order to predict what you should do in the future and to reason how to solve the problems in your life.

This short paper contests and disputes the foundations of Objectivist epistemology, challenging Ayn Rand's position that axioms are the basis of all Objectivist logic, and instead asserts that perception and perceived things, not axioms, are the starting point for the set of inferences which build up and culminate in the blooming flower of human epistemology and the reasoning mind. A perfect introduction to the discussion of what it means for something to be objective or subjective for the philosophy novice, but still with enough meat on the bone for the seasoned philosophy veteran to find ...

The premise of this collection of essays is one idea which is simple and obvious and accurate, yet which, due to the dishonesty and cowardice that pervades today’s political climate, no one before me (to my knowledge) has had the courage and the confidence to say. The idea can be summarized thusly: The term “the Right” means the Christian statist movement, the movement which seeks the creation of a Christian state in which Christianity is an official state religion, and obedience to Christian theology is imposed by law and mandated by law. The term “the Left” means the Communist ...

Six heroes are hired to go on an epic fantasy quest adventure. But they aren't hired by the good wizard fighting to protect the kingdom—instead, they are hired by the evil wizard trying to conquer it. And their quest? It's a heist, to break into a sacred temple and steal the magic crystal that defends the realm from harm. A fantasy heist novel that’s also a character-driven comedy/drama with romance. Mistborn and Game of Thrones meets the sitcom Friends and Fourth Wing. One night, six strangers meet each other at an inn and tavern in a fantasy realm. They are: Sylis, a young, innocent ...

The year is 3891. Humanity has spread out and left Planet Earth, moving not just to other planets in the Solar System or to other stars within the Milky Way, but to entirely new galaxies. One thousand years ago, during an era known as the Progress, faster-than-light space travel was achieved, and humankind set a goal of colonizing the entire Universe, and then moving on towards other Universes, too. With modern technology and modern medicine, humans now commonly live for 400 to 500 years, and a person is considered young until they reach age 100, and they are not old until they reach 400. ...

This book is an essay about Objectivism, the philosophy created by philosopher Ayn Rand in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Many people have heard about Objectivism (although many others have not), and they are curious to learn more about it. The book argues that Objectivism, as a philosophy, can be reduced to an ethics, and that this ethics can be reduced to ten virtues: (1) Life, (2) Intelligence, (3) Greed, (4) Selfishness, (5) Rationality, (6) Individuality, (7) Integrity, (8) Capitalism, (9) Desire, and (10) Freedom. This essay shows how Objectivism arrives at those virtues, why Objectivism ...

This is an essay on forgiveness, not in the religious sense, but in a purely secular meaning, as in, when one person forgives another person for something they did wrong. The primary focus is on self-forgiveness, where a person forgives themselves, a concept which this essay explains as "moral bankruptcy," using debts and credits and bankruptcy and economics and finance as a metaphor for the moral debts and moral credits that you owe to yourself and to others, that you owe it to yourself to be a good person.