This pamphlet offers advice to prospective and current PhD students on how to cope with and overcome the many pitfalls of the graduate school process, especially in an age of political correctness. It is aimed at students interested in the ideas of Ayn Rand, though anyone of independent mind may find it helpful. If you are one of these people, the pamphlet is addressed to you and has three goals: to convince you of the challenges and difficulties of getting through a doctoral program when ...

How can a valid theory of universals provide a defense of the free society?By defending our ability to know reality-to guide our choices and actions to grow, thrive, and prosper.Such a theory allows us to validate all the essential concepts required to explain and fight for the free society, the social system of laissez-faire capitalism, because every word we use, excluding proper nouns, is universal."Human," "dog," and "rocket" in the Engl...

Synthesizing ideas from such disparate thinkers as educator Maria Montessori, philosophers John Dewey and Ayn Rand, and Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism presents a philosophy of education-the theory of concentrated attention and independent judgment-that requires laissez-faire capitalism for its full realization. It is not an argument, except indirectly, for the separation of education and state nor is it a critique of present and past state-run school...

In Defense of Advertising is a theoretical defense based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand and the economics of Ludwig von Mises. It argues that the proper foundations of advertising are reason, ethical egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism. Its theme is that the social and economic criticisms of advertising are false because they are based on a false philosophic and economic world view. Only an alternative world view can refute the charges and put forth a positive moral evaluation of advertisi...

Applying Principles is a collection of short essays published between January 2007 and December 2016 as monthly blogposts at jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com. The author's aim was to write interdisciplinary, serious posts to inspire critical thinking. Topics, grouped as chapters, range from capitalism and politics to epistemology, academia, education, psychology, youth sports, and the arts.The title derives from the author's thirty-six years as educator in the applied science of busin...

Why don't the adults in the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" support the boy who commented on the emperor's decidedly missing wardrobe? Why don't more people practice the independent judgment of that boy?The answer is fear, real or imagined, of what might happen to them.More often than not, our fears of expressing independent judgment stem from what others might think of us. Disapproval, maybe rejection, is the worst that might happen, yet the anxiety caused by self-dou...

Ayn Rand wrote and lectured on economic concepts and topics. This volume addresses the economic and business aspects of her writings. The authors of this anthology are from a variety of fields and all of them are enthusiastic supporters of her ideas.

This book builds on two current developments in psychology scholarship and practice. The first centers on broad discontent with the individualist tradition in which the rational agent, or autonomous self, is considered the fundamental atom of social life. Critique of individualism spring not only from psychologists working in the academy, but also from communities of therapy and counseling. The second, and related development from which this work builds, is the search for alternatives to i...

Developed from the author’s long teaching career, How to Rethink Human Behavior aims to cultivate practical skills in human observation and analysis, rather than offer a catalogue of immutable ‘facts’. It synthesizes key psychological concepts with insights from other disciplines, including sociology, social anthropology, economics, and history.The skills detailed in the book will help readers to observe people in their contexts and to analyze what they observe, in order t...

One of the main aims of modern mental health care is to understand a person's explicit and implicit ways of thinking and acting. So, it may seem like the ultimate paradox that mental health care services are currently overflowing with brain concepts belonging to the external, visible brain-world and that neuroscientists are poised to become new experts on human conduct. An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Human Mind shows that to create care that is truly innovative, mental healt...

US psychologist Abraham H. Maslow’s A Theory of Human Motivation is a classic of psychological research that helped change the field for good. Like many field-changing thinkers, Maslow was not just a talented researcher, he was also a creative thinker – able to see things from a new perspective and show them in a different light.At a time when psychology was dominated by two major schools of thought, Maslow was able to forge a new, third paradigm, that remains influential ...

Bridging the gap between psychology and politics, Lichtenberg presents a powerful argument for applying the methods and insights of the Gestalt perspective to social and political problems. Focusing on the inner dynamics of power and abuse relationships, this thoughtful treatment of victim/oppressor fusion has stimulated new thinking about abuse, exploitation, and the processes and methods essential to personal and political change.