#138 – Yaron Brook: Ayn Rand and the Philosophy of Objectivism
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2020
⏱️ 174 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yaron Brook is a objectivist philosopher, podcaster, and author. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Yaron’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/yaronbrook
Yaron Brook Show (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/user/ybrook
Free Market Revolution (book): https://amzn.to/32H0oLb
Equal is Unfair (book): https://amzn.to/32K3NsC
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:28) – Principles of a life well lived
(14:35) – Free will
(20:50) – Nature of reality
(29:28) – Ayn Rand
(1:01:11) – Objectivism
(1:26:29) – Godel Incompleteness Theorem
(1:31:36) – Capitalism
(2:01:22) – Virtue of selfishness
(2:11:27) – Win-win
(2:17:31) – Anarchy
(2:36:24) – Tribalism and division
(2:40:42) – Objectivism and Jordan Peterson on personal responsibility
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Iran Brooke, one of the best known objectives, philosophers |
| 0:05.5 | and thinkers in the world. |
| 0:07.7 | Objectivism is the philosophical system developed by Ayn Rand, that she first expressed in her |
| 0:13.2 | fiction books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and later in Nonfiction Essays and Books. |
| 0:19.8 | Yaran is the current chairman of the board at the Ayn Rand Institute, host of the Yaran |
| 0:25.6 | Brooke Show and the co-author of Free Market Revolution, Equal Is Unfair and several other |
| 0:32.6 | books where he analyses the systems of government, human behavior, and the human condition from |
| 0:39.1 | the perspective of Objectivism. |
| 0:42.0 | Quick mention of each sponsor, followed by some thoughts related to the episode. |
| 0:46.4 | Blinkist, an app I use for reading through summaries of books, ExpressVPN. |
| 0:52.1 | The VPN I've used for many years to protect my privacy on the internet and cash app. |
| 0:58.9 | The app I use to send money to friends. |
| 1:01.5 | Please check out these sponsors in the description to get a discount and support this podcast. |
| 1:07.4 | As a side note, let me say that I first read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, early |
| 1:12.6 | in college, along with many other literary and philosophical works from Nietzsche, Heidegger, |
| 1:19.0 | Kant, Locke, Foucault, Wiggenstein, and of course all the great existentialists from |
| 1:25.3 | Kiergegaard to Kamu. |
| 1:27.6 | I always had an open mind, curious to learn and explore the ideas of thinkers throughout |
| 1:32.1 | history, no matter how mundane or radical or even dangerous they were considered to be. |
| 1:40.4 | Yaran Rand was, and I think still is a divisive figure. |
| 1:44.6 | Some people lover, some people dislike or even dismisser. |
| 1:49.2 | I prefer to look past what some may consider to be the flaws of the person and consider |
... |
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