Notablog

My essay, "A Crisis of Political Economy," which made its debut here on Notablog, appears in a slightly edited form in the May 2009 issue of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty. Check it out here.

Posted by chris at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Posted to Austrian Economics | Dialectics | Fiscal Policy | Periodicals | Politics (Theory, History, Now)

I am pleased to see that The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism has finally been published!

SAGE says the following about the volume, whose editor-in-chief is Ronald Hamowy:

As a continuation of the older tradition of classical liberalism, libertarian thinking draws on a rich body of thought and scholarship. Contemporary libertarian scholars are continuing that tradition by making substantial contributions to such fields as philosophy, jurisprudence, economics, evolutionary psychology, political theory, and history, in both academia and politics. With more than 300 A-to-Z signed entries written by top scholars, The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism is purposed to be a useful compilation of and introduction to libertarian scholarship. The Encyclopedia starts with an introductory essay offering an extensive historical and thematic overview of key thinkers, events, and publications in the development of libertarian thought. The Reader's Guide groups content for researchers and students alike, allowing them to study libertarianism topically, biographically, and by public policy issues.

I authored two pieces for the book, which was a project for the Cato Institute: one on Nathaniel Branden, and the other on Ayn Rand.

Posted by chris at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Politics (Theory, History, Now)

"But I thought this was summer, Sciabarra!" Yeah, well. Welcome to the New Spring! That is, the new Spring 2008 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies! This issue completes the ninth volume of JARS, a precursor to our Tenth Anniversary Year!

The Table of Contents is as follows:

Completing the American Revolution: The Significance of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged at its Fiftieth Anniversary - David N. Mayer

Rand and MacIntyre on Moral Agency - Ron Beadle

Rand on Hume's Moral Skepticism - Tibor R. Machan

Toward the Development of a Paradigm of Human Flourishing in a Free Society - Edward W. Younkins

Missing the Mark: Salsman's Review of the Great Depression - Larry Sechrest

Reviews and Discussions

Defending Advertising (review of Jerry Kirkpatrick's book, In Defense of Advertising) - Juliusz Jablecki

Reply to Juliusz Jablecki: The Connection between Advertising and Objectivist Epistemology - Jerry Kirkpatrick

Rejoinder to Jerry Kirkpatrick: Advertising, Capitalism, and Christianity - Juliusz Jablecki

Reply to Stephen E. Parrish, "God and Objectivism: A Critique of Objectivist Philosophy of Religion" (Spring 2007) and Patrick Toner, "Objectivist Atheology" (Spring 2007):
Not Even False: A Commentary on Parrish and Toner - Adam Reed

Rejoinder to Adam Reed: What's Good for the Goose and Related Matters - Stephen E. Parrish

Rejoinder to Adam Reed: God-Talk and the Arbitrary - Patrick Toner

You can read abstracts of the above articles here, and mini-biographies of our contributors here. And don't forget that in due course, EBSCO will offer our newest issue through their databases! Check out your institutional and local libraries!

Noted at L&P.

Posted by chris at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

The new issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has been published (see here). It marks the beginning of our ninth year.

This means, of course, that next year, JARS will be celebrating its Tenth Anniversary. As part of our Tenth Anniversary year, we are already scheduled to publish a major symposium on "Ayn Rand and Friedrich Nietzsche."

We are also issuing another Call for Papers on the topic of "Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and War." The deadline for proposals is July 1, 2008; the deadline for papers is October 15, 2008.

We are interested in papers that cover any aspect of this very broad topic: Rand's view of war; defenses or critiques of Rand-influenced views of "just war," the current war or past wars, terrorism, "collateral damage," torture, the relationship between domestic and foreign policy, etc.

We are less interested in discussions of "current events"—except insofar as they illustrate broader principles. Remember that we are a semi-annual and that the state of "current events" will change considerably before these essays are brought to print.

Submissions should adhere to our style guidelines; proposals should be submitted via email to me: chris DOT sciabarra AT nyu DOT edu

Cross-posted at L&P.

Posted by chris at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Posted to Foreign Policy | Periodicals | Politics (Theory, History, Now) | Rand Studies

I am delighted to announce the publication of the Fall 2007 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. Yes, it's a little late, but, I think, well worth the wait.

The Table of Contents is as follows:

To Think or Not: A Structural Resolution to the Mind-Body and Free Will-Determinism Problem - Neil K. Goodell
Ayn Rand and "The Objective": A Closer Look at the Intrinsic-Objective-Subjective Trichotomy - Roger E. Bissell
Self-as-Organism and Sense of Self: Toward a Differential Conception - Andrew Schwartz
Society: Toward an Objective View - Susan Love Brown
A Critique of Ayn Rand’s Theory of Intellectual Property Rights - Timothy Sandefur

Reviews
Self-Directedness and the Human Good - Peter E. Vedder
Ayn Rand, Novelist - Peter Saint-Andre

Discussion
Reply to Fred Seddon, "Recent Writings on Ethics": On Behalf of Ethical Intuitionism - Michael Huemer
Rejoinder to Michael Huemer: Neglecting Rand's Metaethics - Fred Seddon

Abstracts of the above articles can be found here; contributor biographies are available here.

Cross-posted at L&P.

Posted by chris at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

By an arrangement with the publisher, my "homonograph," Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation, is finally available at Amazon.com at a price that is considerably lower than those $46.95 or $59.95 collectible copies being sold on that site by used booksellers.

For those who are interested in learning more about the homonograph, check out the homo home page here, along with a listing of its table of contents and various reviews.

Point your browser to the book cover below and click yourself over to Amazon.com:

Posted by chris at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies | Sexuality

I'm delighted to announce that The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies Foundation has entered into an electronic licensing relationship with EBSCO Publishing, the world's most prolific aggregator of full-text journals, magazines, and other sources. Starting with our next issue, in addition to our regular print version, the full text of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies will be found on EBSCO Publishing's databases. And, in time, we look forward to seeing all of the articles from our past issues available in this format as well.

In the meanwhile, a crazy Spring and an even crazier Summer (did somebody say a Tornado in BROOKLYN!!!???) could not prevent the publication of the new issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.

Volume 8, Number 2 features the following essays and contributors:

God and Objectivism: A Critique of Objectivist Philosophy of Religion - Stephen E. Parrish

Objectivist Atheology - Patrick Toner

Merely Metaphorical? Ayn Rand, Isabel Paterson, and the Language of Theory - Stephen Cox

Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America - David T. Beito

Recent Writings on Ethics - Fred Seddon

Unilateral Transfers and a Reinterpretation of Objectivist Ethics - Eren Ozgen

Reply to Tibor R. Machan, "Rand and Choice" (Spring 2006), Eric Mack, "More Problematic Arguments in Randian Ethics" (Spring 2006), and Douglas B. Rasmussen, "Regarding Choice and the Foundation of Morality: Reflections on Rand's Ethics" (Spring 2006):
Objectivity and the Proof of Egoism - Robert Hartford

Rejoinder to Robert Hartford:
A Brief Comment on Hartford - Tibor R. Machan

Rejoinder to Robert Hartford:
Rand's Metaethics - Douglas B. Rasmussen

Reply to David Graham and Nathan Nobis, "Putting Humans First?" (Fall 2006):
Putting Humans First? YES! - John Altick

Rejoinder to John Altick:
Animals and Rights - David Graham and Nathan Nobis

Check out the abstracts for the above articles here and the contributor biographies here.

Cross-posted to L&P.

Posted by chris at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

I have finally received my own copy of a new book edited by Edward W. Younkins entitled Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion, published by Ashgate. I understand the book is already going into a second printing. It includes contributions from writers such as Douglas B. Rasmussen, Fred Seddon, Lester H. Hunt, Tibor R. Machan, Roderick T. Long, Mimi Reisel Gladstein, Jeff Riggenbach, Kirsti Minsaas, Roger E. Bissell, Peter J. Boettke, Larry J. Sechrest, Steven Horwitz, Karen Michalson, Peter Saint-Andre, Susan Love Brown, Robert L. Campbell, Stephen Cox, Douglas J. Den Uyl, Walter Block, and, of course, Ed Younkins too. Oh, and I have a contribution in the book, published as Chapter 2, entitled "Atlas Shrugged: Manifesto for a New Radicalism," which expands upon dialectical themes I've explored in previous works, especially my reconstruction of Rand's social analysis as a "tri-level model."

I noticed that all of the contributors mentioned above have something in common... they have all been published in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies! And some of them are either editors or advisors to the journal. (The Spring 2007 issue will be out a little late; I will post its contents and the cover design on my blog before too long.)

In any event, I have not read the new Younkins anthology yet, but the range of topics, from the philosophical, political, and aesthetic to the literary, economic, and historical, is quite impressive. The book's appearance coincides with the 50th anniversary year of the publication of Rand's magnum opus.

Cross-posted at L&P.

Posted by chris at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | Posted to Dialectics | Periodicals | Rand Studies

Late last year, Mattias Svensson, a friend and former student, proposed to translate one of my articles on Ayn Rand for Voltaire, a magazine with 30,000 subscribers published in Sweden. The magazine is put out by Power and Culture; the director of the organization, Boris Benulic, decided to do a Rand-themed issue, with Mattias as the guest editor.

Mattias translated a revised version of my essay, "Atlas Shrugged: Manifesto for a New Radicalism." The full English version of that essay appears in a forthcoming anthology, edited by Edward W. Younkins, entitled Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Literary Companion (Ashgate, 2007) (and a shortened, edited version of this essay also appears in The Freeman and in Tibor Machan's edited collection, Ayn Rand at 100).

In any event, if you are inclined to read the Swedish essay, which looks even prettier in the glossy magazine's March/April 2007 issue, it now appears online, starting here.

My thanks to Mattias and to Voltaire for a job well done.

Also noted at Liberty and Power Group Blog. (And a shout out "welcome" to Lester Hunt, who joins L&P.)

Posted by chris at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

The new Fall 2006 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has been published. The issue includes essays from contributors such as Steven H. Shmurak, Marc Champagne, Fred Seddon (two from Fred!), Algirdas Degutis, Susan Love Brown, David Graham & Nathan Nobis, Kirsti Minsaas, Greg Nyquist, Gregory M. Browne and Roderick T. Long. And I'm delighted to report that with this issue, Roderick joins the Editorial Board of JARS!

Here is the Fall line-up:

Demystifying Emotion: Introducing the Affect Theory of Silvan Tomkins to Objectivists - Steven H. Shmurak
(Shmurak's article is accompanied by a special CD-ROM presentation)

Some Convergences and Divergences in the Realism of Charles Peirce and Ayn Rand - Marc Champagne

Rand and Rescher on Truth - Fred Seddon

Deconstructing Postmodern Xenophilia - Algirdas Degutis

Reviews
Essays on Ayn Rand’s Fiction - Susan Love Brown

Putting Humans First? - David Graham and Nathan Nobis

Ayn Rand as Literary Mentor - Kirsti Minsaas

Discussion
Reply to Fred Seddon, “Nyquist Contra Rand”
Rand and Empirical Responsibility - Greg Nyquist

Rejoinder to Greg Nyquist
Nyquist Contra Rand, Part II - Fred Seddon

Reply to Roderick T. Long, “Reference and Necessity: A Rand-Kripke Synthesis”
The ‘Grotesque’ Dichotomies Still Unbeautified - Gregory M. Browne

Rejoinder to Gregory M. Browne
A Beauty Contest for Dichotomies: Browne’s Terminological Revolutions - Roderick T. Long

Check out the abstracts for the new issue here, and the contributor biographies here.

Cross-posted to L&P.

Posted by chris at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

I'm in the process of writing several encyclopedia articles as well as a few journal and magazine pieces (more information on these essays to follow in the coming weeks). And I've got brand new peer reader assignments too! And fuhgedabout the editing! Oy!

But I've found the time to write a brief contribution to a new Liberty magazine feature called "The Books of Summer." Among the books I recommend for summer reading are those authored by the Holzers, Rasmussen and Den Uyl, and Rozsa. Read all about it in the July 2006 issue of the magazine! (Subscribe here.)

Posted by chris at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | Posted to Periodicals

It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of the Spring 2006 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. The issue features a dialogue on Ayn Rand's ethics, with contributions from Tibor R. Machan, Frank Bubb, Eric Mack, Douglas B. Rasmussen, Robert H. Bass, Chris Cathcart, and Robert L. Campbell. In addition, there are articles covering topics in epistemology (Merlin Jetton) and literature (Kurt Keefner and Peter Saint-Andre). Other contributors include Sheldon Richman on Thomas Szasz and Ayn Rand; Max Hocutt on postmodernism; Steven Yates on capitalism and commerce; and David M. Brown on the new Ayn Rand Q&A book.

The issue opens with my own tribute to R. W. Bradford, without whom The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies would never have been founded. This Spring 2006 issue is dedicated to the memory of Bradford, Joan Kennedy Taylor, and Chris Tame. A PDF of my tribute piece is available here.

For subscription information, see here.

Cross-posted to L&P. See also the Ayn Rand Meta-Blog.

Posted by chris at 07:15 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies | Remembrance

Not to be sacrilegious or anything, but HALLELUAH and HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST (the Western Palm Sunday has arrived, hasn't it?). I finished preparing the Spring 2006 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, and I am delighted that it's now going into production. Readers should expect it sometime in the late Spring.

It's going to be a really nice issue for those who are especially interested in Ayn Rand's ethics. JARS had published two critical essays on Rand's ethics some time ago, one written by Eric Mack and the other by Douglas Rasmussen. The essays elicited replies in the forthcoming issue from Tibor Machan and Frank Bubb, and both Mack and Rasmussen have written rejoinders. In addition, we have a very interesting exchange on the issue of egoism and individual rights, which features a contribution from Robert Bass, replies from Chris Cathcart and Robert Campbell, and a rejoinder from Bass.

The second half of the issue features essays on epistemology (Jetton), Rand's descriptive style (Saint-Andre), Atlas Shrugged and Quo Vadis (Keefner), Thomas Szasz and Ayn Rand (Sheldon Richman), and reviews of Stephen Hicks's book on postmodernism (Hocutt), Ed Younkins's book Capitalism and Commerce (Yates), and Robert Mayhew's edited volume on Rand's Q&A's (Brown).

Abstracts and contributor biographies will be made available online when the issue is published and ready for shipment.

Meanwhile, I was just alerted to an ongoing debate at SOLO-Passion, which, apparently, has given rise to some familiar criticism of JARS, a journal that remains near and dear to my heart.

As readers of Notablog are well aware, I resolved at the beginning of December 2005 that I would not be posting to forums anymore. Aside from the occasional cross-post to Liberty and Power Group Blog or the Mises Economics Blog, I have stopped posting to the nearly two dozen forums on which I was once an avid participant. My reputation for spreading myself around led SOLO founder Lindsay Perigo to once dub me "Her Royal Whoreness." Well, this whore has retired to the quiet life of research, writing, and editing. There are just so many hours in the day, and I have chosen to focus my efforts on the things that are most important: My work done my way on my time. Naturally, therefore, Notablog has become the primary place for my regular musings on everything from music to foreign policy.

On a personal note, I should add, however, that my absence from the various forums on which I used to participate has also been necessitated by ongoing serious health problems, which have compelled me to be extremely selective about the kind of time I devote to various activities. Since making these various adjustments in my time, my schedule, and my priorities, I have been feeling more invigorated, both emotionally and intellectually, and ever more productive.

Nevertheless, since JARS has been one of the activities on which I've focused, and since JARS is also the target of much criticism on that particular SOLO-Passion forum noted above, I'd like to make a few general comments in response to the various participants on that thread. I do not intend to engage in any discussion at SOLO-Passion or any other forums for the reasons I have just outlined.

First, Lindsay Perigo and I have had a very long dispute about the character of my work, and I don't expect it will ever be resolved to our mutual satisfaction. That said, however, I don't believe that he has read more than an issue or two of JARS (and, quite frankly, too many JARS critics don't seem to be on our subscription list, so it leaves me wondering how they are able to make such sweeping generalizations about the quality of the scholarship therein). In any event, to dismiss JARS as a haven of "pomo-wankers" is, I think, a slap in the face to so many writers who have graced our pages, including such people as Erika Holzer, George Reisman, Larry Sechrest, Kirsti Minsaas, Mimi Gladstein, Tibor Machan, Douglas Rasmussen, Eric Mack, Marsha Enright, John Enright, John Hospers, Adam Reed, Stephen Hicks, Fred Seddon, Lester Hunt, Ari Armstrong, Edward Younkins, Robert White, and so many others. Dare I say it, but many of these writers have appeared in the pages of The Free Radical, and have been published on SOLO. And last I saw, there was no explosion of "pomo-wanking" going on at SOLO.

Second, with regard to Diana Hsieh's criticisms of JARS: Over time, it has become very clear to readers that I have had some very serious disagreements with Diana, someone to whom I once acted as a mentor of sorts. Diana is now participating regularly at SOLO-Passion; she also runs the Noodlefood blog. Diana remarked at SOLO that she had promised not to comment "on The Russian Radical or the scholarship in the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies ... steer[ing] clear of such criticisms out of consideration for [her] past friendship [with me]." But I think anybody with half a brain could see the fundamental differences that have emerged between Diana and me on many, many significant questions. As my mother used to say: You'd have to be deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid not to know where those differences lie. Diana and I do not have to spend hours upon hours doing a point-counterpoint in order to articulate those differences.

Because I am so focused on my own work at this time, I have taken a very laissez-faire attitude toward all this. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time engaging my interlocutors. But I've learned that there is only so much that one can say in any given context. Ultimately, my work speaks for itself. It is published in books, articles, encyclopedias, and journals. Much of it is accessible on the web as well. Form your own conclusions, go your own way, do your own thing. If I spent my time answering every criticism or every comment on my work, I'd not have enough time to breathe, let alone research, write, and edit.

Finally, for those who wonder, like Phil Coates, whether JARS articles are generally available: We do hope to get many of these articles online over the course of time, but some are already linked from the JARS site. Just go to any particular indexed issue and click into any hyperlinked title. (I should add that all of JARS' contributors have the right to make their articles available on any website or as a reprint in any anthology.)

Our institutional subscriptions are climbing, as are our individual subscriptions, both domestically and globally. And we are now indexed by over a dozen abstracting services in the humanities and social sciences, including three new additions, which had been very resistant to placing JARS in their indices. See here for more information.

Well, that's all for now.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (49) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

When The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies was first published in the Fall of 1999, its Founding Editors (Bill Bradford, Stephen Cox, and some guy named Chris Matthew Sciabarra) and its Board of Advisors knew that we had our work cut out for us. We were the first interdisciplinary scholarly periodical ever established as a forum for the critical discussion of Ayn Rand's ideas. As we state in our credo, JARS is ...

A nonpartisan journal devoted to the study of Ayn Rand and her times. The journal is not aligned with any advocacy group, institute, or person. It welcomes papers from every discipline and from a variety of interpretive and critical perspectives. It aims to foster scholarly dialogue through a respectful exchange of ideas. The journal is published semi-annually, in the fall and the spring.

One of the most important achievements of any academic journal is its ability to be added to the indices of established abstracting services. This is a way of bolstering a journal's reputation as a serious organ of scholarly discussion, while contributing to the acceptance of that journal's subject matter as worthy of such discussion.

In its first few years of operation, JARS was able to add over a dozen of these services, including: CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, IBR (International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences), IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, International Political Science Abstracts, The Left Index, The Philosopher's Index, MLA International Bibliography, MLA Directory of Periodicals, Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and Women's Studies International.

Coverage in such indices facilitates the expansion of JARS citations, and, by consequence, Ayn Rand references, within the global marketplace of academic scholarship.

This has a two-fold benefit: First, it means that the works of those who write for JARS are being made readily available as resources for future Rand scholarship. As citations to JARS articles expand in the scholarly literature, more and more scholars will find these references for use in their own work.

Second, it means that JARS will continue to attract established scholars who seek to write about Rand in journals that are reputable, and, thus, fully indexed and abstracted by services used by their fellow academics in various fields of concentration.

Though we have had success in expanding our reach in scholarly indices, it has been an uphill battle to get JARS added to three of the most prestigious of indices: the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents/Arts & Humanities, and the Social Sciences Citation Index.

In fact, some years ago, we approached those organizations of Thomson Scientific with the requisite three consecutive issues in the hopes that they would add JARS to their lists of the world's leading journals. The first three-issue review failed; JARS was still too young to join the global ranks.

As time passed, we decided to submit JARS for a second hearing at Thomson Scientific. The review process is a profoundly rigorous one. Yet, having failed to achieve our goals the first time around, we were confident that the journal's timely publication and improved quality would facilitate its acceptance in a second evaluation.

Today, I am proud to announce that the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has been selected as a new addition to three of the most prestigious indices in the international community of scholars.

o The journal will be fully abstracted and indexed by the Arts & Humanities Citation Index:

The Arts & Humanities Citation Index� (A&HCI �) and Arts & Humanities Search� provide access to current and retrospective bibliographic information and cited references found in nearly 1,130 of the world's leading arts & humanities journals. They also cover individually selected, relevant items from approximately 7,000 of the world's leading science and social sciences journals.

o The journal will be fully abstracted and indexed by Current Contents/Arts & Humanities:

Current Contents / Arts & Humanities provides access to complete bibliographic information from articles, editorials, meeting abstracts, commentaries, and all other significant items in recently published editions of over 1,120 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals and books from a broad range of categories.

o And, finally, abstracts of relevant journal articles centered on the social sciences (economics, political science, psychology, etc.) will be selectively included in the Social Sciences Citation Index:

The Social Sciences Citation Index� (SSCI�) and Social SciSearch� provide access to current and retrospective bibliographic information, author abstracts, and cited references found in over 1,700 of the world's leading scholarly social sciences journals covering more than 50 disciplines. They also cover individually selected, relevant items from approximately 3,300 of the world's leading science and technology journals.

It will take a few months for the journal's contents to begin appearing in these high quality indices, but JARS will soon be included in their databases. The journal coverage begins with Volume 6, No. 2, the Spring 2005 issue.

I am utterly delighted by this wonderful news.

FYI: Our forthcoming issue, which will include a symposium on Ayn Rand's ethics, will be published in the late Spring.

Comments welcome. Also cited by The Atlasphere.

Posted by chris at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

Continuing with new announcements, I received the newest issue of The New Individualist, a publication of The Objectivist Center, which recently debuted a newly designed website. Lots of news in that sentence!

In any event, I enjoyed the magazine quite a bit and was impressed with the fact that it seeks to broaden its audience, publishing provocative essays by Objectivists and non-Objectivists alike.

I like the fact that there are many different publications in the growing Randian universe, each with its own character, and I read many of these periodicals regularly: The Intellectual Activist, Impact, Free Radical, etc. I don't agree with everything I read, but that's not the point. The more important point is that Rand's work has inspired not a static intellectual monolith, but a dynamic, ever-differentiating marketplace of ideas.

Speaking of periodicals, I'm currently working on the Spring 2006 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, which will include a multilayered discussion of Ayn Rand's ethics. It will be published in the late Spring. I'll have more to say about that issue soon enough.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

I've been a bit behind in my reading and my work in general, so I'm finally getting to a few new points of information. I was pleased to see Roderick Long's announcement at L&P of the new periodical, "The Industrial Radical," and not just because he states: "'Industrial' in Herbert Spencer�s sense, 'Radical' in Chris Sciabarra�s sense."

There is a very real need to reclaim the "radical" label in defense of liberty. As Hayek once said, "we are bound all the time to question fundamentals ... it must be our privilege to be radical."

Read up on this new magazine here.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | Posted to Periodicals

The September 2005 issue of The Freeman includes my essay, "Dialectics and Liberty," which offers an introduction to dialectical method and its role in the works of such writers as F. A. Hayek and Ayn Rand. That essay finally makes its cyber-debut today! Another in a series of essays and interviews on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the publication of my books Marx, Hayek, and Utopia and Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical, the article is available as a PDF here:

"Dialectics and Liberty"

Comments welcome. Cross-posted to L&P, with comments here. Also noted at Rational Review.

Posted by chris at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Posted to Austrian Economics | Culture | Dialectics | Foreign Policy | Periodicals | Politics (Theory, History, Now) | Rand Studies

The temperatures are going to hit 90 degrees again in New York City on this late summer day. But Autumn is arriving a little early.

Today, the Fall 2005 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has been published. It begins our seventh volume, our seventh year.

Here is the Table of Contents:

The Rand Transcript, Revisited - Chris Matthew Sciabarra

Mimesis and Expression in Ayn Rand�s Theory of Art - Kirsti Minsaas

Langer and Camus: Unexpected Post-Kantian Affinities with Rand�s Aesthetics - Roger E. Bissell

The Facts of Reality: Logic and History in Objectivist Debates about Government - Nicholas Dykes

Ayn Rand versus Adam Smith - Robert White

Feser on Nozick - Peter Jaworski

Kant on Faith - Fred Seddon

Seddon on Rand - Kevin Hill

Reference and Necessity: A Rand-Kripke Synthesis - Roderick T. Long

Reply to Ari Armstrong: How to Be a Perceptual Realist - Michael Huemer

Rejoinder to Michael Huemer: Direct Realism and Causation - Ari Armstrong

Abstracts for this issue are available here; contributor biographies can be found here.

Print-out and mail-in your subscription form today!

Comments welcome. Also noted at L&P, SOLO HQ, Humanities.Philosophy.Objectivism Usenet Group, and the Ayn Rand Meta-Blog.

Posted by chris at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

The new Aristos has been posted here. As readers know, it is now an online journal of the arts, edited by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi, both of whom have been contributors to The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.

Of course, I noticed immediately that Lou and Michelle had some very kind words of praise on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of my book, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. Those reflections are posted on their "Notes and Comments" page.

All in all, a good read.

Posted by chris at 08:10 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals

The tenth anniversary celebrations continue this afternoon with the publication of my interview at Sunni's Salon. I have known Sunni Maravillosa for a long time, and she's a total sweetheart. Her interview of me is comprehensive, wide-ranging, sometimes intimate, and always entertaining.

The 8-page interview starts here.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | Posted to Austrian Economics | Culture | Dialectics | Foreign Policy | Music | Pedagogy | Periodicals | Politics (Theory, History, Now) | Rand Studies | Sexuality

Speaking of feminism, women, and women philosophers, I note that the Ifeminist Newsletter has been suspended from distribution for a variety of regulatory reasons. Read Wendy McElroy's comments here (and follow-up posts here).

To keep up with the Ifeminist news, point your browser here.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals

Aeon Skoble has announced at L&P that Reason Papers is now online with a new website. Check it out here.

Fine job! It's still one of my favorite publications. I look forward especially to dipping into its rich archives.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Posted to Periodicals

For those who don't know about the Miklos Rozsa Society or its wonderful periodical, Pro Musica Sana, there is a real treat in the new issue (#61): A superb and detailed analysis of Miklos Rozsa's film score to "Ben-Hur." I left a brief comment at The Rozsa Forum singing the praises of the new issue.

Comments welcome.

Posted by chris at 07:20 AM | Permalink | Posted to Music | Periodicals

My reference entry on "Rand, Ayn" has been published in The Encyclopedia of New York State, just out from Syracuse University Press. I have posted a background summary and an image of the cover and the article here.

I have several other encyclopedia articles on the way on Rand, Marx, and libertarianism; keep abreast of all things "Forthcoming."

Comments welcome. Noted also at SOLO HQ.

Update: See discussion at SOLO HQ here, where I state here, here, and here, among other things, my displeasure over the lack of capitalization of "Objectivism":

... when I submitted the piece to Syracuse University Press, I did, in fact, capitalize "O" in Objectivist. It is capitalized in all of my published work, and it is a matter of stylistic policy in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies to capitalize the "O"--so that we don't confuse it with the more generic "classical objectivism" in philosophical discourse, which Rand actually renamed "intrinsicism." Alas, I never saw proofs on this article---so that stylistic change was made without my knowledge, or approval. Small price to pay, I think.

Posted by chris at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

The Review of Austrian Economics has published a review, written by Steven Horwitz, of my book Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism. Excerpts from this rather good review are posted to my site here. RAE is published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. (See also Roderick Long's L&P post on the new RAE issue here.)

Posted by chris at 07:01 AM | Permalink | Posted to FYI | Periodicals | Politics (Theory, History, Now)

As announced at SOLO HQ, L&P, the Ayn Rand Meta-Blog and a host of other lists, Volume 6, Number 1 of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has just been published. This issue is the first of two symposia celebrating the Ayn Rand Centenary (which is marked, officially, on 2 February 2005). It is entitled "Ayn Rand: Literary and Cultural Impact," and it features articles from such contributors as Erika Holzer, Stephen Cox, Jeff Riggenbach, Matthew Stoloff, Kirsti Minsaas, Cathy Young, Bernice Rosenthal, Alexandra York, and yours truly.

My own introductory essay to the current issue is entitled "The Illustrated Rand." It is a much expanded discussion of an earlier Atlasphere essay entitled "The Cultural Ascendancy of Ayn Rand."

Keep your eyes open for JARS's second Rand Centenary issue, which will be published in early 2005. It is entitled "Ayn Rand Among the Austrians," and will include contributions from Walter Block, Peter J. Boettke, Steven Horwitz, Roderick T. Long, George Reisman, Larry J. Sechrest, Leland Yeager, Ed Younkins, and others.

For information on JARS subscriptions, click here.

Posted by chris at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

In a few weeks, the new Journal of Ayn Rand Studies will be published. It will be the first of two special issues devoted to the Ayn Rand Centenary (officially celebrated on February 2, 2005). This first issue is entitled "Ayn Rand: Literary and Cultural Impact." The second Centenary issue will be published in Spring 2005; it is entitled "Ayn Rand Among the Austrians." Fully detailed announcements, with information on contributors and tables of contents, will be published soon.

Meanwhile, a very happy and healthy birthday to one of my esteemed colleagues, a member of the JARS Board of Advisors from the beginning, and a great pal: Larry Sechrest.

Posted by chris at 06:41 AM | Permalink | Posted to Periodicals | Rand Studies

In addition to my pick for song of the day, and its accompanying essay, SOLO HQ has published today an essay of mine that appears in the current issue of The Free Radical. That essay, "Like a Man Possessed," is a review of an extraordinary book by Armando Cesari: Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy. (A PDF version is available here.) It dramatizes the effects on one man's life of the lethal dichotomy between "serious" art and "popular" entertainment. Take a look at the follow-up comments as well. (My essay is also noted at L&P here, with regard to the effects of government actions on Lanza's life.)

This material is all published on the 45th anniversary of Lanza's death, which is marked by James Kilbourne at SOLO HQ, and in follow-up discussion here. See also this item on the Mario Lanza mural in Philadelphia.

Update #1 (October 7th): A couple of more thoughts on my broad musical tastes here, here, here, and here.

Update #2 (October 8th): A few more follow-ups... see Peter Cresswell's essay and discussions here, here, here, here and here

Posted by chris at 06:33 AM | Permalink | Posted to Music | Periodicals