Ayn Rand on Human Perfection

"Discard that unlimited license to evil which consists of claiming that man is imperfect. By what standard do you damn him when you claim it? Accept the fact that in the realm of morality nothing less than perfection will do. But perfection is not to be gauged by mystic commandments to practice the impossible, and your moral stature is not to be gauged by matters not open to your choice. Man has a single basic choice: to think or not, and that is the gauge of his virtue. Moral perfection is an unbreached rationality - not the degree of your intelligence, but the full and relentless use of your mind, not the extent of your knowledge, but the acceptance of reason as an absolute."
- John Galt's radio address, from Atlas Shrugged, p. 1059

Audiophilia

So, a favorite music list has been created on my part, over at Rate Your Music. It includes stuff listened to during this month. This is merely the beginning. Hopefully, it grows.

List Here.

Ralph Vaughn Williams

The Lark Ascending is easily one of my favorite pieces of all time. Despite being classically trained in piano, my appreciation for Vaughn Williams has just begun. 

Reflections: Voltaire's Letters on England

In a previous posting, I quoted Voltaire's account of market based allocation of goods, which is said to overcome barriers of prejudice. Now, Hayek used an expression "the extended order" to designate the way markets were oriented towards bringing strangers, as it were, together for mutual benefit, where each party doesn't have any other incentive to "get to know" the other. The common denominator here is the right to property, or property rights. Each party is inclined to create desirable goods and services in context of the preferences of the other party involved in a given trade. In other words, private property creates incentives, which also have far ranging implications for the preservation of resources which are often described as having "intrinsic value," but actually pan out to be highly dependent on property owner preferred value acquired by means of market allocation.

The normative recommendation for such "values" are found in context of said party's use of the value as consisting in a broader end goal, i.e., efficacious living, or living well, which entails a recognition of the property rights of other parties, whereas human flourishing is dependent on exclusive use of those values in accordance with rational decision making. Thus, property rights are rendered as not only beneficial to social interaction and aggregate benefits, but more fundamentally required for individual success. 

Spiritual Fuel: Sergey Marshennikov

Russian painter, Sergey Marshennikov captures the female form with awe-inspiring detail and grace. 

Tasteful ;-)