I just returned from a four-day, sixty-student conference on “Liberty, Free Markets, and Moral Character,” co-sponsored by the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism (CISC) and the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), and I want to report on the immense value of this event. . . . This conference . . . was particularly enlightening in that the principles of radical capitalism and Objectivism were presented along with the ideas of libertarianism, “polycentric law” (i.e., competing governments in the same locale), subjectivism, and Christianity. Although I profoundly disagree with these other views, in each case, the speakers were some of the best I’ve heard argue from their respective positions. The value of these contrasting perspectives being presented at the same conference is that it enabled the students to differentiate and integrate (or segregate) the various ideas with a clarity and depth that otherwise would not have been possible. After an introductory social event on Thursday night, the lectures began Friday morning with Aeon Skoble’s excellent presentation of the similarities and differences between objective value—as in the things human beings must attain in order to live and prosper—and what economists sometimes call “subjective” value—by which they mean (essentially) that which people act to gain or keep regardless of whether it truly sustains or furthers their lives. I then spoke on “the source and nature of rights” . . . . Read Craig Biddles full report here: theobjectivestandard/2014/05/report-the-liberty-free-markets-moral-character-conference/
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 20:59:32 +0000