Select Essays
Here are links to some of my essays and articles, most of which were published in The Objective Standard. (See my author page at TOS and my personal Substack, Thinking in Principles, for more.)
Philosophy and Objectivism
- God’s Garage Sale
- Free Will: Who Has It
- The Objective Standard of Morality Is Hiding in Plain Sight
- Moral Realism and Anti-Realism vs. the Metaethics of Life
- Navigating Today’s Seductive and Destructive Language (A Study of Package-Deals and Anti-Concepts)
- Reason vs. Mysticism: Truth and Consequences
- Ayn Rand’s American Morality
- What Is Objectivism?
- Independent Thinking, Morality, and Liberty
- Religion vs. Subjectivism: Why Neither Will Do
- Religion Is Super Subjectivism
- The Is–Ought Gap: Subjectivism’s Technical Retreat
- How Morality Is Grounded in Reality
- Objective Moral Values: Basic Human Needs
- Making Life Meaningful: Living Purposefully
- Objective Moral Virtues: Principled Actions
- Here’s What’s Wrong with Ayn Rand’s Philosophy
- Ben Shapiro Denies and Affirms the Law of Identity
- The Argument from Intimidation: A Confession of Intellectual Impotence
- “Ayn Rand Said” Is Not an Argument
- The Beauty of Ayn Rand’s Ethics
- Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand’s Morality of Egoism
- Secular, Objective Morality: Look and See
- Basic Moral Theories Essentialized
- Why “Sacrifice” Means Loss, Not Gain
- Purpose, Value Hierarchies, and Happiness
- Reclaiming Spirituality for Lovers of Life
- Egoism, Benevolence, and Generosity
- Individual Rights and Principles of Egoism
- The Is-Altruism Dichotomy
- Purpose Comes from Reason, Not Religion
- Altruism: The Morality of Logical Fallacies
- Alex O’Connor’s Red-Herring Thought Experiment vs. Facts that Support Morality
- On the Relationship of Logical and Conceptual Fallacies
- Conceptual Fallacies and How to Avoid Them
- On Choosing to Be a Younger Son
- Jesus and Violence
- Don’t Say Grace, Say Justice
- Scientific Morality and the Streetlight Effect
- Steve Jobs’ Philosophy of Life
- The Virtue of Honesty
- Independence vs. Second-Handedness
- Why the Prager-Shermer Debate Will Go Essentially Nowhere
- Rand’s Ethics and Say’s Law
- A Step Toward Rational Secularism Is Better than None
- Happy Thanksgiving from The Objective Standard
- Helen Keller’s Five Keys to Being Happy
Individual Rights and Capitalism
- Rights Come from Reason—not “God” or Government
- Reason and Rights: Pillars of Civilized Society
- Defend Israel and Civilization or Keep the Faith—You Can’t Do Both
- Navigating Today’s Seductive and Destructive Language (A Study of Package-Deals and Anti-Concepts)
- Abortion and the Questions We Must Answer
- Ayn Rand’s Theory of Rights: The Moral Foundation of a Free Society
- Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
- Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice
- The Creed of Sacrifice vs. The Land of Liberty
- Liberty: What Is It? Why Is It Good? On What Does It Depend?
- Moral Diversity: Asset or Liability for Liberty?
- Independent Thinking, Morality, and Liberty
- Libertarianism vs. Radical Capitalism
- Ayn Rand: America’s Comeback Philosopher
- Religion vs. Free Speech
- Immigration and Individual Rights
- The Right to Immigrate and the Legitimacy of an Objective Screening Process
- Why Religious Conservatives Should Embrace Secular Rights
- Freedom of Speech Is Freedom to Think
- Tommy Robinson’s Right to Free Speech Morally Trumps All Laws That Violate It (Even That One)
- Capitalism Because Science
- The Poor, Disabled, and Helpless Under Capitalism
- A Civilized Society: The Necessary Conditions
- Reason and Capitalism, or Unreason and Environmentalism: Choose Wisely
- Libertarians Fiddle While Rome Burns
- How Would Government Be Funded in a Free Society?
- The Equality Equivocation
- The Passion of Socialists
- America’s Declining Economic Liberty, and Its Cause
- The American Right, the Purpose of Government, and the Future of Liberty
- Open Letter to Paul Krugman re Intellectual Impotence, Inflation, and Ayn Rand
- The Shapiro Principle: A Godsend for Lovers of Liberty
- An Open Letter to Advocates of Identity Politics
- Identity Politics vs. the Law of Identity
- Bad Parenting, Bad Education, and the State of America
- America’s Next Leftist President: Donald Trump
- Liberal Right vs. Regressive Left and Religious “Right”
- When Ayn Rand Meets Patrick Henry
- A Vital Truth for Valentine’s Day: Say’s Law and Romantic Love
- Scrutinizing Scruton’s Scrutinizing
- Auberon Herbert: Advocate of Reason, Individual Rights, and Limited Government
The Political Spectrum
- Political “Left” and “Right” Properly Defined
- The Vital Function of the Left-Right Political Spectrum
- Liberal Right vs. Regressive Left and Religious “Right”
- Principles of the Liberal Right
- The Muddy Waters of the Nolan Chart
- A Note to the Right Regarding the “Alt-Right”
- Four Fallacies Regarding the Political Spectrum
Foreign Policy, War, and Peace
- U.S. Foreign Policy: What’s the Purpose?
- The Causes of War and Those of Peace
- Ten Steps to End Jihad Against the West
- The Jihad Against America and How to End It
- Islamic Jihad and Western Faith
- Relativism and Religion vs. the Lives of Americans
- Israel: To Be, or Not To Be
- What President Trump Should Say to the People of Iran
- The Road to Iranian Exceptionalism
- Thank You, Israel—and Please Keep Going
- Hamas and the Left’s Pretense about the Deaths of Innocents in Gaza
- A “Teal Movement” in Iran Could Be the End of the Regime: The U.S. Should Encourage It
- Reply to a Question about Targeting Non-Combatants in War
- The Taliban Can… Because We Let Them
- The Evil of Whitewashing Islam
Environmentalism
Art
Parenting
Conservatism
- Dennis Prager’s False Alternative and Ayn Rand’s Philosophy of Life
- Contra Ben Shapiro, Rational Self-Interest Is Not Hedonism
- Ben Shapiro and the Garbage Smear
- National Review’s MO Regarding Ayn Rand
- How Conservatives Begat Trump, and What to Do About It
- William F. Buckley: Cowardly, Dishonest, Unjust, Racist, and Loved by Conservatives