Cato on Campus - Philosophy: Ethics

McCloskey on Capitalism and the Bourgeois Virtues

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:05:00 EDT

"Deirdre McCloskey of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of The Bourgeois Virtues talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about capitalism and whether markets make people more ethical or less. They also discuss Adam Smith's world view, whether people were nicer in the Middle Ages, and the role of prudence and love."

Government, Bound or Unbound?

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:55:00 EST

By Anthony de Jasay: "Collective choice starts where unanimity ends, and involves some deciding for all, where the �some� control the apparatus of government. It is the potential for some to benefit morally and materially at the expense of others that creates the bone of contention and that limits on government are meant to move out of reach."

Atlas Shrugged and Public Choice: The Obvious Parallels

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:13:00 EST

By Bryan Caplan: "Though there is little evidence of mutual influence, Ayn Rand and public choice converge on a strikingly similar vision of the political process. Both emphasize the contradiction between the propaganda of government intervention and the reality. Government supposedly intervenes to advance the interests of the majority. In reality, however, its goal to advance the interests of political insiders at the expense of everyone else."

A Bill of Rights Europe Did Not Need

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:00:00 EST

By Anthony de Jasay: "Even if it were less woolly and silly, the Charter of Fundamental Rights could hardly become a force for good."

The Legacy of Ayn Rand

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:11:00 EST

Reason Magazine Senior Editor and "Radicals for Capitalism" author Brian Doherty takes the modernist measure of novelist, philosopher, and cult figure Ayn Rand.

Rand and the Right: Reflections on the 50th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:49:00 EDT

By Brian Doherty: "Because of her opposition to New Deal government controls, novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand started off thinking of herself as a conservative. By the time her blockbuster novel, "Atlas Shrugged," was published 50 years ago this week, she'd changed her mind. She decided she was a radical -- a "radical for capitalism," that is."

The Humanitarian with the Guillotine

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:58:00 EDT

By Isabel Paterson: "Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends."

The Rise of Government and The Decline of Morality

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:23:00 EDT

By James Dorn: "One cannot blame government for all of society�s ills, but there is no doubt that economic and social legislation over the past 50 years has had a negative impact on virtue. Individuals lose their moral bearing when they become dependent on welfare, when they are rewarded for having children out of wedlock, and when they are not held accountable for their actions. The internal moral compass that normally guides individual behavior will no longer function when the state undermines incentives for moral conduct and blurs the distinction between right and wrong."

Mike Wallace's Ayn Rand Interview (1959)

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Ayn Rand - Mike Wallace Interview 1959 (2 parts)