By Lanita Withers Goins, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-3890
Posted 1-30-09
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Dr. Tara Smith, an expert on the works and philosophies of author Ayn Rand, will speak at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Thursday, Feb. 5.
The 4 p.m. lecture, which is open to the public at no charge, is part of the Bryan School of Business and Economics’ BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series in Capitalism. The event will be held in Bryan Building, Room 160.
Smith’s presentation, “The Virtuous Egoist,” will explain Rand’s ethics of “rational egoism” and trace some of its implications in the realm of politics and economics. Rand, the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead,” advocated that the achievement of a person’s self-interest required adherence to a code of objective values and virtues, and that freedom from others’ initiation of physical force was crucial to success. She believed that individual rights protected people against such coercion; those beliefs lead to her support for a strictly limited government and laissez-faire capitalism.
Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin where she holds the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism and is the Anthem Foundation Fellow. She has authored “Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics – The Virtuous Egoist,” “Viable Values – A Study of Life as the Root & Reward of Morality” and “Moral Rights and Political Freedom,” as well as articles on such topics as rights conflicts, justice in everyday life, forgiveness, friendship, pride, moral perfection and objectivity.
For more information, email Marianne Ley Hayek, director of the BB&T Program on Capitalism, Markets and Morality, or call (336) 334-5635.
