Attn, NY Reasonoids: "Is Selfishness a Virtue?" Reason Debate, Jan. 16

Ayn Rand Institute's Yaron Brook and Soho Forum's Gene Epstein will slug it out in livestreamed Oxford-style debate.

Signet

Is selfishness a virtue? Ayn Rand famously thought so and one of her most-influential contemporary champions, Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute, will debate the former chief economist of the New York Stock Exchange, Gene Epstein, at the next Reason-sponsored Soho Forum debate at the East Village's Subculture Theater.

If that main event isn't enough, best-selling author and Fox News legal expert Judge Andrew Napolitano will moderate the Oxford-style debate. This is the libertarian event of the month and tickets are selling fast at $18 per seat and just $10 for students. Admission includes a great light buffet and a cash bar will be open before, during, and after.

The event will also be livestreamed at Reason.com and at Reason's Facebook page. But if you live in or around the Big Apple, you'll want a front-row seat to what promises to be an intellectual version of the Thrilla in Manila.

Note: You must buy tickets ahead of time. Go here now.

Details:

Is Selfishness a Virtue?
Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute vs. Gene Epstein of the Soho Forum
Moderated by Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News

January 16, 2018

Cash bar opens at 5:45pm
Event starts at 6:30pm
Subculture Theater,45 Bleecker St,NY, 10012
Tickets must be purchased in advance. Purchase them here.

For past Reason/Soho Forum debates, go here for an archive.

Comments

[Bubba Jones]

The real world challenge is that most people seem unable to reconcile selfishness with the NAP.

[chozi]

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[Hank Phillips]

The real world challenge is that most victims of government school brainwashing cannot handle fractions, to say nothing of long division.

[BestUsedCarSales]

What is long division distinguishing itself from? We always called it long division, but I don't rememberer learning another type of division.

[Tony]

I haven't attended a public school in a very long time, so perhaps you're right. Mine were exemplary in my day, so clearly the concept can be put into practice well.

Is your contention not then that we should increase public funding and support of public schools?

Or is it that we should eliminate the concept and leave the nonrich to regress into being urchins and subsistence farmers while excellent private schools educate only those who can afford them?

[Tom Bombadil]

All the selfless creatures went extinct a long time ago. In fact, it was so long ago, they never existed.

[I'm Not Sure]

It seems that the people who complain most about selfishness tend to be the same ones who want to take the money other people earn to spend on things the complainers want.

[Sevo]

"It seems that the people who complain most about selfishness tend to be the same ones who want to take the money other people earn to spend on things the complainers want."
Correct.
Tony, the lefty imbecile who often posts here is quite clear that those who oppose higher taxes, hoping to keep more of the money they have earned are more selfish than Tony who hopes to stick his hand in your and my pocket to support his fave projects: Free shit!
Tony never offers any suggestion that his fave projects achieve anything at all, but he likes them, and therefore it YOU are not willing to allow your earnings to be taken at gun-point, YOU are selfish.
Not Tony! Nope! Grabbing other people's wealth can't possibly be selfish!
It's simply lefty imbecility...

[Sevo]

You would expect more of MIT (or, at least I do), but instead you get this sort of 'playing to the audience':
"The Year Climate Change Began to Spin Out of Control"
[...]
"For decades, scientists have warned that climate change would make extreme events like droughts, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires more frequent, more devastating, or both. In 2017, we got an up-close look at the raw ferocity of such an altered world as high-category hurricanes battered the East and Gulf coasts, and wind-whipped fires scorched the West (see "Did Climate Change Fuel California's Devastating Fires? Probably").
https://www.technologyreview.com/s
/609642/the-year-climate-change
-began-to-spin-out-of-control/

Yes, "For decades, [some] scientists have warned that climate change would make extreme events like droughts, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires more frequent, more devastating, or both."
And those same scientists have warned that "climate change" could well be the cause of fewer hurricanes, or more mild droughts or maybe your halitosis.
I have a couple of friends who are MIT alums, and one who is a current prof. We have never discussed political issues such as the appropriate government response to what is obviously climate variability.
I'm not going to raise the issue with any of them. I'd hope they have the sense not to support such BS and get it tossed back in their faces.

[Doug Heffernan]

I live in Westchester County, NY. I would attend, but I'm virtuously selfish about my time. Accordingly, I'm keeping my time for myself and won't attend. I'm also virtuously selfish about my money, or which the promoters of this event want some. I'd be willing to reconsider my attendance if I'm able to secure an appearance fee from the promoters. I'm a big fan of selfishness but my support doesn't come free, sorry.

I did give up a few seconds to write this post (you're welcome for the gift).

[Hank Phillips]

I'll bet money the corporate collectivist ringer wants to eliminate the corporate income tax but keep the individual income tax. The crucial necessity of corporate-government partnership in altruism is a steady supply of victims to sacrifice for the Common Good. Like Germany's Jesus Christ wrote in 1920, "Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz."

[PaulTheBeav]

Reasonoids? Uh, no.

Reasonables.

[buybuydandavis]

Oh boy! A debate over definition of terms!

Sounds so emlightening

[Calidissident]

[Calidissident]

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