The
Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism (ARI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
think tankA think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
in
Irvine, CaliforniaIrvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
that promotes
Ayn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's philosophy, called
ObjectivismObjectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...
. It was established in 1985, three years after Rand's death, by
Leonard PeikoffLeonard S. Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an author, a leading advocate of Objectivism and the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former professor of philosophy, he was designated by the novelist Ayn Rand as heir to her estate...
, Rand's legal heir. Its executive director is
Yaron BrookYaron Brook is an intellectual and political activist, and is the current president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, a non-profit organization in Irvine, California, whose mission is to promote the novels of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism.-Early life in Israel:Brook...
.
ARI's stated goal is:
ARI is mainly an educational organization, but also has "outreach programs". Its various programs include classes on Objectivism and related subjects offered through its Objectivist Academic Center, public lectures,
op-edAn op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
articles, letters to the editor, competitions for essays about Rand's novels, materials for Objectivist campus clubs, supplying Rand's writings to schools and professors, and providing intellectuals for radio and TV interviews.
History
During her lifetime, Ayn Rand helped establish The Foundation for the New Intellectual, to promote Objectivist ideas. The Foundation was dissolved some 15 years after her death, as having been made redundant by the Ayn Rand Institute. Although Rand never intended for Objectivism to become an organized movement, she heartily approved of rational individuals with the same ideas working toward a common goal. Peikoff, her legal heir, was initially skeptical of creating the Ayn Rand Institute, but was impressed with the plans presented at the organizational meeting held in New York in fall of 1983, and agreed to go ahead with the project, and to serve as the first chairman of ARI's Board of Directors.
The Ayn Rand Institute began operations on February 1, 1985, three years after Rand's death. The ARI's first board of directors included psychologist Edith Packer and businessman
Ed SniderEdward M. Snider is the American Chairman of Comcast Spectacor, a Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company that owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, the Wells Fargo Center, the Spectrum, the regional sports network Comcast SportsNet and Global Spectrum, an international facilities...
. Snider was also one of the founding donors for the organization. Its first executive director was Michael Berliner, who was previously the chairman of the Department of Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education at
California State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, Northridge is a public university in Northridge, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, United States....
. ARI also established a board of governors, which initially included
Harry BinswangerHarry Binswanger is an American philosopher and writer. He is an Objectivist and was a long-time associate of Ayn Rand, working with her on The Ayn Rand Lexicon. His doctoral dissertation, in the philosophy of biology, presented a new theory of the goal-directedness of living action, in opposition...
,
Robert HessenRobert Hessen, Ph.D., is an American economic and business historian, a widely published author, a professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, and a senior research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Among the books he has written or edited are Steel Titan: The Life...
,
Edwin A. LockeProfessor Edwin A Locke is an American psychologist and a pioneer in goal-setting theory. He is a retired Dean’s Professor of Motivation and Leadership at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was also affiliated with the Department of Psychology...
, Arthur Mode,
George ReismanGeorge Gerald Reisman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University and author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics . He is also the author of an earlier book, The Government Against the Economy , which was praised by F.A...
, Jay Snider, and Mary Ann Sures, with
Peter SchwartzPeter Schwartz is a writer and journalist who follows the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. He was the original editor for The Intellectual Activist and has contributed to books that reprint articles by Rand and other Objectivist writers, such as The Voice of Reason and Return of the Primitive:...
as its chairman. M. Northrup Buechner and George Walsh joined the board of advisors shortly thereafter.
ARI's first two projects were aimed at students. One was developing a network of college clubs to study Objectivism. The other was a college scholarship contest for high-school students based on writing an essay about Rand's novel
The FountainheadThe Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and brought her fame and financial success. More than 6.5 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide....
. Later, additional essay contests were added based on
AnthemAnthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism, and socialistic thinking and economics...
,
We the LivingWe the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she...
and
Atlas ShruggedAtlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
. In 1988 the institute began publishing a newsletter for contributors, called
Impact.
In 1989, a philosophical dispute resulted in ARI ending its association with philosopher
David KelleyDavid Kelley is an American philosopher, author, and advocate of Objectivism. He is founder and senior fellow of The Atlas Society. He lives in Washington, D.C..-Education and career:...
. Board of advisors member George Walsh, who agreed with Kelley, also left. Kelley subsequently founded his own competing institute now known as
The Atlas SocietyThe Atlas Society — of which The Objectivist Center is a part — is a research and advocacy organization promoting "a culture that affirms the core Objectivist values of reason, individualism, freedom, and achievement." It is part of the Objectivist movement that split off from the Ayn Rand...
, and each organization has been critical of the other.
In January 2000, Berliner retired as Executive Director, replaced by
Yaron BrookYaron Brook is an intellectual and political activist, and is the current president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, a non-profit organization in Irvine, California, whose mission is to promote the novels of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism.-Early life in Israel:Brook...
, then an assistant professor of finance at Santa Clara University. The institute was originally headquartered in
Marina del Rey, California-Demographics:-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Marina del Rey had a population of 8,866. The population density was 6,094.6 people per square mile...
, but in 2002, it moved to larger offices in
Irvine, CaliforniaIrvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
.
Charity NavigatorCharity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
, which rates charitable and educational organizations to inform potential donors, gives ARI three out of four stars. According to the latest data from Charity Navigator, ARI spends 81.4% of its expenses on programs, 11.1% on fundraising, and 7.4% on administration. the institute's board of directors consists of Brook, Berliner (as board co-chair), Arline Mann (board co-chair), Carl Barney, Harry Binswanger, Peter LePort, John McCaskey, and
John RidpathJohn B. Ridpath, Ph.D. is a Canadian Objectivist intellectual historian and retired associate professor of economics and intellectual history at York University in Toronto. He also taught courses at Duke University...
.
Leonard Peikoff retains a cooperative and influential relationship with ARI. In 2006, he remarked that he approved of the work ARI has done and in November 2010 that the executive director "has done a splendid job." Peikoff was a featured speaker at ARI summer conferences in 2007 and 2010. In August, 2010, he demanded and received a change to ARI's board of directors.
Programs
ARI runs a variety of programs:
- Free books to schools. ARI offers to give to high schools classroom sets of Ayn Rand's novels Anthem
Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism, and socialistic thinking and economics...
, The FountainheadThe Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and brought her fame and financial success. More than 6.5 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide....
, and Atlas ShruggedAtlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
. ARI also continues this program at the university level by offering professors free review copies of Rand's writings.
- Student essay contests. ARI sponsors essay contests on Anthem, The Fountainhead, We the Living and Atlas Shrugged. Students worldwide submit essays based on questions about Rand's novels which stress her ideas and their importance in today's world. The Anthem essay contest is for 8th, 9th, and 10th graders, with a top prize of US$2,000; the essay contest on The Fountainhead is for 11th and 12th graders, with a top prize of US$10,000; the essay contest of "We the Living" is for 10th, 11th and 12th graders, with a top prize of US$3000; and the Atlas Shrugged essay contest is for 12th graders, college undergraduates, and graduate students, with a top prize of US$10,000. The institute has offered 521 prizes for the 2009 contests, totaling US$81,250.
- Campus clubs. ARI offers copies of essays, pamphlets, and recorded lectures, and provides live speakers to Objectivist clubs at universities and high schools.
- The Objectivist Academic Center. ARI runs an educational program called the Objectivist Academic Center (OAC), which conducts classes on Objectivism and related fields.
- Student assistance. ARI offers financial assistance to students applying to graduate school, and provides mentors for OAC students.
- Academic outreach. ARI offers free copies and classroom sets of Rand's books to professors, as well as class syllabi which include Ayn Rand.
- Media appearances. Intellectuals from ARI often appear on radio and television, and their Op-Ed articles and letters to the editor have appeared in many major newspapers.
- Public lectures. ARI fellows frequently give public lectures in Orange County, California. They also lecture elsewhere, including college campuses across the U.S.
- Ayn Rand Bookstore. ARI operates the Ayn Rand Bookstore, which sells lectures and other materials from Objectivists.
- Objectivist conferences. ARI organizes a conference each summer which features lectures and dance classes from Objectivists.
- Internship. ARI offers a three week summer internship each year to promote Rand's ideas, philosophy and novels. The program consists of both education and work portions. Interns are introduced to different philosophies, different approaches to economics, Rand's philosophical ideas and Rand's fiction. The internship stresses the idea of rights and how they are understood in an Objectivist framework. Interns are encouraged to ask questions to develop a better understanding of the ideas Rand promoted, rights, economics and politics. Mini work seminars are held to help establish basic skills that will be useful in a professional work setting. Current events are discussed and debated. At the completion of the internship, each person receives a verbal and written evaluation of their performance. Besides the personal development and education interns acquire, each intern receives a travel stipend and scholarship. (Based on 2011 information, for more information please check www.aynrand.org directly).
Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights
In 2008, The Ayn Rand Institute opened the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights ("ARC") in Washington, D.C. to specialize in issues of public policy.
During the current economic crisis, the ARC has been a vocal proponent of the position that government intervention is responsible for the crisis, and that the solution lies not in further government regulation but in moving toward full laissez-faire capitalism.
On foreign policy, the ARC advocates American national self-interest, including ending the regimes that sponsor terrorism, rather than the Bush Administration's policies which they see as timid, halfway measures that only weaken America's position in the world.
Ideas promoted
ARI sponsored writers and speakers have promoted a number of specific positions in contemporary political and social controversies.
Opposition to religion in politics
Since
ObjectivismObjectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...
advocates
atheismAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, ARI promotes the
separation of church and stateThe concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, and its writers argue that the
Religious RightChristian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
poses a threat to individual rights. They have argued against displaying religious symbols (such as the
Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
) in government facilities and against faith-based initiatives. The institute argues that religion is incompatible with American ideals and opposes the teaching of "
intelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
" in public schools.
Islam and the War on Terror
ARI has taken many controversial positions with respect to the
MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
world. They hold that the motivation for Islamic terrorism comes from
MuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
's teachings, not poverty or a reaction to Western policies. They have urged that the US use overwhelming, retaliatory force to "end states who sponsor terrorism", using whatever means are necessary to end the threat.
In his article "Ends States Who Sponsor Terrorism", which was published as a full page ad in the New York Times,
Leonard PeikoffLeonard S. Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an author, a leading advocate of Objectivism and the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former professor of philosophy, he was designated by the novelist Ayn Rand as heir to her estate...
wrote:
The choice today is mass death in the United States or mass death in the terrorist nations. Our Commander-In-Chief must decide whether it is his duty to save Americans or the governments who conspire to kill them.
Although some at ARI initially supported the invasion of Iraq, it opposes how the Iraq War has been handled. Since October 2, 2001, the institute has held that
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
should be the primary target in the war against "Islamic totalitarianism".
ARI is generally supportive of
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Of
ZionismZionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, executive director of the institute
Yaron BrookYaron Brook is an intellectual and political activist, and is the current president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, a non-profit organization in Irvine, California, whose mission is to promote the novels of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism.-Early life in Israel:Brook...
writes: "Zionism fused a valid concern - self-preservation amid a storm of hostility - with a toxic premise - ethnically based collectivism and religion."
Other issues
In response to the
Muhammad cartoons controversyThe Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
, ARI started a Free Speech Campaign.
ARI is highly critical of
environmentalismEnvironmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
and
animal rightsAnimal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
, arguing that they are destructive of human well-being.
The institute is also highly critical of
diversityMulticulturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
and
affirmative actionAffirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
programs, as well as
multiculturalismMulticulturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, arguing that they are based on
racistRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
premises.
ARI supports women's right to choose abortion, voluntary
euthanasiaEuthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
, and
assisted suicideAssisted suicide is the common term for actions by which an individual helps another person voluntarily bring about his or her own death. "Assistance" may mean providing one with the means to end one's own life, but may extend to other actions. It differs to euthanasia where another person ends...
.
ARI denounces neoconservatism in general. For example, C. Bradley Thompson wrote an article entitled "The Decline and Fall of American Conservatism", which was later turned into the book (with Yaron Brook)
Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea.
External links