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Next Webinar:

Is There a Rational Morality?

Wednesday, March 11, at 11 a.m. Pacific

When most people think of morality, they think of commandments that are handed down by a god. Now some disagree and they say: “If we don’t look to divine commandments we can still get moral guidance by consulting our own feelings of sympathy for the needs and desires of other people.”

Are these the only two options? Does morality have to be based on faith in a higher dimension or feelings for others on Earth?

When you say that morality has to be based on either faith or feelings you are assuming that morality can have no rational basis, but why can’t it? Don’t scientists make rational judgments about what’s right or wrong all the time, whether it’s about which theories are true or false or about the most effective means to achieving certain ends? Are there no observable facts that we can appeal to to decide what’s the right and wrong way to live?

Join Ben Bayer to explore the question: Is there a rational morality?

Live Q & A Discussion

This one-hour webinar will consist of a 20-minute talk followed by a 40-minute live Q & A.

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Upcoming Webinars

  • Wednesday, March 11 Is There a Rational Morality? Ben Bayer
  • Wednesday, March 18 Why Capitalism? Harry Binswanger
  • Wednesday, March 4 To be announced Keith Lockitch

Meet The Speaker

Ben Bayer is an instructor and fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He teaches in the Objectivist Academic Center, lectures and gives interviews for ARI. He also writes and edits for ARI’s online publication, New Ideal. Dr. Bayer holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and his writing focuses primarily on the application of philosophy to contemporary cultural and political controversies.

In his time as a professor, Dr. Bayer’s research focused on epistemology and metaphysics (especially, free will and determinism). He has published scholarly articles in American Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, Philosophia, and Acta Analytica, among others. He has also contributed essays to Concepts and Their Role in Knowledge: Reflections on Objectivist Epistemology and Essays on Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.”