1 - Founder’s MessageDear ACO Members, The more perceptive among you may have noticed the absence of a May newsletter. My apologies. May was a challenging, exhausting, and ultimately triumphant month for me. After months of work on my first thesis paper, the refinement of research questions, and many long conversations on philosophy with my supervisor, I passed my Confirmation of Candidature for my PhD at ANU on 26 May, six weeks early. This is considered unusual. While most students complete their Confirmation up to six months after the nominal deadline, I was fortunate to complete mine ahead of schedule. In practical terms, I am now a confirmed PhD candidate, meaning I have successfully demonstrated the viability of my research project and am formally approved to complete the remainder of the degree. The process involved producing a substantial research paper, delivering a 45-minute presentation to faculty and graduate students, and then defending the project during a further 45 minutes of brutal questioning. I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Philip Pettit, whose guidance, trust, and philosophical expertise made this achievement possible. My research focuses on egoism: the view that individuals ought to act in pursuit of their own interests. That deceptively simple formulation leaves many questions unanswered. What constitutes an individual's interests? How are they identified? What does it mean to promote them? How should one deliberate about them? What role does virtue play? And why should egoism be accepted at all? These are among the questions my thesis seeks to address. At present, I am particularly interested in which forms of egoism survive three major debates that I call “universality”, “flourishing”, and “deliberation”. The last of these will be discussed by ARI faculty and students following OCON as part of the Ayn Rand Institute's Intellectual Incubator program. I am especially interested in questions surrounding practical decision-making, secondary principles, hierarchy, and context, and I look forward to hearing the perspectives of other participants. Meanwhile, thanks to the efforts of Krish and Humairaa, the search for a venue for the Australian premiere of the 1942 Italian film We The Living continues. Since the film has sold out cinemas worldwide and is beloved by healthy, moral, value-oriented people (and, therefore, generally ignored or disliked by the intellectual establishment and its self-proclaimed aestheticians) we are currently seeking the greediest, most selfish cinema owners, sponsors, and capitalists we can find to sponsor the Australian premiere. If you happen to be such a person, or know one, please get in touch. Our Tech Lead, Stuart, is also working on some exciting branding and digital design projects. I will keep the details under wraps for now, but I think members will be pleased with the results. I am also delighted to announce that ANU Honours student, future doctor, and the first volunteer to join our Intellectual Content Team, Harrison Borough, has published his first article for ACO. His well-researched piece examines the destructive consequences of pharmaceutical regulation, and I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future. We are currently seeking a volunteer social media manager. If you are interested, or would like to recommend someone, please contact us at info@objectivism.au Despite the demands of Confirmation, I also found time to bring Ayn Rand's ideas to a broader audience. On 7 May, I delivered a paid two-hour lecture on individualism and capitalism to university students participating in the Centre for Independent Studies Fellowship Program. The discussion generated thoughtful questions and provided an excellent opportunity to introduce students to ideas relating to liberty and economic freedom. Later in the month, I was invited to participate as one of three panellists in a live event hosted by Logos Forum titled Is It OK to Put Yourself First? The discussion was lively, challenging, and well received. The full recording is available on my YouTube channel and is linked in this newsletter. Finally, I would like to remind both existing and prospective ACO members of one of the principal benefits of membership: our monthly Atlantis meetings. These members-only online discussions are held on the third Sunday of each month at 10:00am AEST and feature a guest speaker connected to that month's topic. As June's topic is We The Living, I am delighted to announce that our guest speaker will be Duncan Scott, who worked directly with Ayn Rand and later restored the original Italian film adaptation of We The Living. Duncan will join us on Sunday, 21 June, at 10:00am AEST. I strongly encourage members to attend and take advantage of the opportunity to ask him questions directly. For those interested in learning more about the remarkable history of We The Living, a film produced in Fascist Italy and later suppressed by the regime itself, I also recommend my recent podcast conversation with Duncan. Until next month, Maxim Bishev
Founder | Australian Centre for Objectivism
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