It takes work for human beings to know reality and to form and achieve values within it. Understanding this work enables us to take greater control of our minds and our lives.
MAIN RESEARCHER
Human beings—many of us, at least—aspire to be objective in our thinking and our decision-making. We aspire to conform our thinking to the facts, rather than allowing our opinions to be determined accidental features of our psychologies and environments. We aspire to achieve things that are genuinely valuable, rather than things that merely seem appealing to some person or group. In our professional lives we aspire to profit by providing our customers (or clients or employers) with goods or services that are genuinely valuable to them. In our civic lives, we seek to preserve or create the sort of government that protects and makes possible all of the activities described above.
The Objectivity Program seeks to help us realize these aspirations by illuminating their philosophical foundations, and the ways in which different perspectives on these fundamental issues lead to different approaches to life, business, and governmental policy.
This program supports teaching, research and public events in philosophy and allied fields.
Research With Us
The competitive Salem Center Fellowship provides fellows the unique experience of assisting and conducting data-driven and policy relevant research with the center’s Senior Fellows.