Location: Robert Rowling Hall RRH 4.408
Thursday, October 24th, 4pm – 5.30pm
Join four leading Objectivist Intellectuals as they explore the widely misunderstood concept of “Free Speech” and how it applies to some of today’s most pressing controversies: Are attempts to stifle disinformation a threat to free speech? Does it matter if these attempts are made by governments or by social media companies? What about when governments encourage or pressure companies to adopt specific policies? Are social media companies, schools, and other institutions standing up for free speech when they adopt policies of ideological neutrality? Is there a right to protest? And if so, in what ways and in what forms? What are we to make of the idea of a culture of Free Speech? What of the concept of “academic freedom”? How should we assess the various companies, philosophers, and leaders who are touted (in different quarters) as champions of free speech?
Dr Onkar Ghate is a Senior Fellow and Chief Philosophy Officer of the Ayn Rand Institute. He specializes in Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, and is ARI’s senior instructor and editor. He publishes and lectures on Rand’s philosophy and fiction, including application of Objectivism to cultural issues, and has been a guest on national radio and television programs.
Elan Journo is a Senior Fellow and Vice President at the Ayn Rand Institute and has been published in various outlets, ranging from The Hill to Foreign Policy. His most recent books are What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (2018) and, co-authored with Onkar Ghate, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11 (2021).
Dr Gregory Salmieri is a senior scholar of philosophy in the Salem Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds the Brigham Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism and is director of the Center’s Program for Objectivity in Thought, Action, and Enterprise. Dr. Salmieri is the co-editor of A Companion to Ayn Rand (2016), Foundations of a Free Society (2019), and Aristotle and Ayn Rand (forthcoming).
Dr Tara Smith is Professor of Philosophy at UT Austin. Her several books concern different aspects of Ayn Rand’s ethics, individual rights, and objectivity in judicial review, and her current research focuses on privacy as both a personal value and legal right. Dr Smith’s most recent books are Egoism Without Permission: The Moral Psychology of Ayn Rand’s Ethics (2024) and The First Amendment: Essays on the Imperative of Intellectual Freedom (2024), the latter of which includes contributions by all four panelists.