Suggested Links

Relevant to all Parts of this book, but especially Part I: Objectivism

Aynrand.org

Website of The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Irvine, California, works to introduce young people to Ayn Rand’s novels, to support scholarship and research based on her ideas, and to promote the principles of reason, rational self-interest, individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism to the widest possible audience.

Objectivismonline.net

A website that serves as a marketplace for ideas and opinions related to Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Objectivistcenter.org

A website of The Atlas Society dedicated to the promotion of the philosophy of objectivism.

Objectivism101.com

A website created by Joseph Rowlands that is "designed to explain to you the system of ideas known as Objectivism. You'll find descriptions of many of the key ideas as well as details on how those ideas come together to create a better understanding of the world we live in. You'll find explanations of why Objectivism supports these ideas so you can make up your own mind on whether they're true or not."

NobleSoul.com

A website serving as the Objectivist Reference Center and a source for information about Ayn Rand, her philosophy of objectivism, her novels and essays, and criticisms of the objectivist philosophy.

Relevant to Part II: Rationalism and Evolution

plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/

This website is operated by the Stanford University Metaphysics Research Lab and is their Encyclopedia of Philosophy. This particular page provides a nice discussion of rationalism as a philosophy (using reason) and contrasts it with empiricism which argues that all knowledge derives from sensory experiences.  A related page discusses the philosophy of rationalism as articulated by Karl Popper (plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/)

cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/Evolution.html

A website operated by the Communication Studies program at the University of California at Los Angeles that provides an introduction to the theory of biological evolution.

evolution.berkeley.edu/

A website operated by the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley.  A veritable one-stop shopping site for information on Darwin’s theory of biological evolution.

ncse.com

The official website for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a not-for-profit, membership organization providing information and resources for schools, parents and concerned citizens working to keep evolution in public school science education. We educate the press and public about the scientific, educational, and legal aspects of the creation and evolution controversy, and supply needed information and advice to defend good science education at local, state, and national levels.

SecularHumanism.org: Official website of the Council for Secular Humanism

What is secular Humanism? A comprehensive, nonreligious lifestance.

Secular humanism is comprehensive, touching every aspect of life including issues of values, meaning, and identity. Thus it is broader than atheism, which concerns only the nonexistence of god or the supernatural. Important as that may be, there’s a lot more to life … and secular humanism addresses it.

Secular humanism is nonreligious, espousing no belief in a realm or beings imagined to transcend ordinary experience.

Secular humanism is a lifestance, or what Council for Secular Humanism founder Paul Kurtz has termed a eupraxsophy: a body of principles suitable for orienting a complete human life.

A naturalistic philosophy.

Secular humanism is philosophically naturalistic. It holds that nature (the world of everyday physical experience) is all there is, and that reliable knowledge is best obtained when we query nature using the scientific method. Naturalism asserts that supernatural entities like God do not exist, and warns us that knowledge gained without appeal to the natural world and without impartial review by multiple observers is unreliable.

A cosmic outlook rooted in science.

Secular humanism provides a cosmic outlook—a world-view in the broadest sense, grounding our lives in the context of our universe and relying on methods demonstrated by science. Secular humanists see themselves as undesigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution, possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency.

A consequentialist ethical system.

Secular humanists hold that ethics is consequential, to be judged by results. This is in contrast to so-called command ethics, in which right and wrong are defined in advance and attributed to divine authority. "No god will save us," wrote Paul Kurtz in Humanist Manifesto II (1973), "we must save ourselves." Secular humanists seek to develop and improve their ethical principles by examining the results they yield in the lives of real men and women.

Relevant to Parts III and IV:  Ethics, Politics, Government and Economics

Reason.org

Website of the Reason Foundation (and its magazine, Reason at reason.com), that promotes libertarian ideas (i.e. free markets and free minds).

Progressiveliving.org

A website dedicated to the promotion of rational humanism and progressive ideas related to philosophy, politics, economics, ethics, education, and government among other topics posted to this website.

Libertarianism.com

A website operated by Advocates for Self-Government that explains the nature of libertarian ideas, how they extend into politics, economics, and ethics, and provides links to other resources on the topic.

Cato.org

The official website of the Cato Institute, a libertarian "think tank" that was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane. It is a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute is named for Cato's Letters, a series of libertarian pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. "The Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Cato's work has increasingly come to be called "libertarianism" or "market liberalism." It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism."  Some of the key ideas of libertarianism can be found at their website page - cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5758.

Fairtax.org

A website promoting the understanding and adoption of the Fairtax legislation that would replace the income tax with a flat national sales tax in the U.S.  "The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.  The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities."

Mises.org

This website is the official site of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, the world center of the Austrian School of economics and libertarian political and social theory. This site offers many thousands of hours of audio and video, thousands of free books in the literature section along with the full run of rare and wonderful journals, biographies and bibliographies of great economists, an active bookstore with outstanding titles as well as ties and shirts, and a full community with forums, chat, user blogs, and more. It is a city unto itself, and it is growing every day. The Ludwig von Mises Institute was founded in 1982 as the research and educational center of classical liberalism, libertarian political theory, and the Austrian School of economics. It serves as the world's leading provider of educational materials, conferences, media, and literature in support of the tradition of thought represented by Ludwig von Mises and the school of thought he enlivened and carried forward during the 20th century, which has now blossomed into a massive international movement of students, professors, professionals, and people in all walks of life. It seeks a radical shift in the intellectual climate as the foundation for a renewal of the free and prosperous commonwealth.

Ffrf.org: Official Website of the Freedom From Religion Foundation

"The nonprofit Freedom From Religion Foundation works to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism, and to promote the constitutional principle of separation between church and state. Since 1978, the Foundation has acted on countless violations of the separation of state and church, and has taken and won many significant complaints and important lawsuits to end state/church entanglements and challenge the 'faith-based initiative'."