General Sessions
Concurrent Events
Social Events
Lunches
6:30 – 10:00 PMOpening Reception
Meet and mingle with fellow attendees at the official opening of OCON 2025! This event is smart casual. Your fee includes two drinks, and a cash bar is available. The opening reception and dinner are included in all in-person week passes.
8:00 – 9:00 PMYaron BrookWhat is Western Civilization?
As “the nation of the Enlightenment” (in Leonard Peikoff’s description), America represents the culmination of philosophical ideals that trace back to the origins of Western Civilization. But what are those ideals? In this talk, Yaron Brook will highlight as the essence of Western Civilization the gradual recognition of reason as man’s only source of knowledge and guide to life—and the corresponding rejection of religious faith.
7:30 – 8:30 PMFirst Timer Breakfast (Invitation Only)
Meet and mingle with fellow attendees at the official opening of OCON 2024! This event is smart casual. Your fee includes two drinks, and a cash bar is available. The opening reception and dinner are included in all in-person week passes.
8:40 – 9:40 AMJunior Intellectual Talk Series
New this year: a series of brief, incisive short-form talks from ARI’s intellectuals-in-training. Hear from the new generation of developing Objectivist intellectuals as they showcase their burgeoning subject-matter expertise on a wide range of fascinating topics.
8:40 – 9:40 AMJunior Intellectual Talk Series
New this year: a series of brief, incisive short-form talks from ARI’s intellectuals-in-training. Hear from the new generation of developing Objectivist intellectuals as they showcase their burgeoning subject-matter expertise on a wide range of fascinating topics.
10:00 – 11:30 PMONKAR GHATESaving the Enlightenment
11:45 AM – 1:30 PMBen Bayer, Nikos SotirakopoulosNetworking Lunch and Reading Discussion: “For the New Intellectual”
Join us for a stimulating lunchtime event that will allow you to meet fellow OCON attendees of all ages, including current and prospective ARU students and ARI intellectuals-in-training. The lunch will also include a reading discussion of one of Ayn Rand’s most challenging philosophical works, “For the New Intellectual.”
The title essay of Rand’s first nonfiction book presents a sweeping survey of intellectual history as part of Rand’s analysis of the state of Western culture. OCON attendees are invited to submit answers to a homework question of their choice about the reading. You’ll discuss the essay during the networking portion of the lunch and then the panel will discuss the homework questions – and comment on select homework submissions – with the aim of deepening appreciation of the essay and its significance for Rand’s philosophy.
You can find the homework instructions here.
1:50 – 3:20 PMTBA
3:40 – 4:40 PMPeter SchwartzPrinciples of a Proper Foreign Policy
How is the ethics of rational self-interest to be implemented in the field of foreign policy? This talk covers the basic principles by which a country should formulate its foreign policy, and then shows how they should be applied to current events. Topics include: a policy of American self-interest vs. Trump’s policy of “America First”; whether America should act to promote freedom in other countries; the role of international alliances; the difference between nationalism and patriotism.
3:40 – 4:40 PMNikos SotirakopoulosTBA
5:00 – 6:00 PMIntroduction to Planned Giving Happy Hour
In this session, Anna Steinberg, Director of Gift Planning for the Ayn Rand Institute, will discuss ways in which you can choose to support the Institute for generations into the future by joining the Atlantis Legacy Program, the planned giving program of ARI. We will cover the basics of estate planning, wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, how gifts can save you taxes, and gifts that pay you an income. Membership in the Atlantis Legacy includes recognition in the Ayn Rand Center! Light refreshments will be provided.
6:30 – 8:30 PMOCON's Got Talent
9:00 PM – 12:00 AM Fifth Annual OCON Texas Hold ’Em Poker Championship Tournament
8:40 – 9:40 AMJunior Intellectual Talk Series
New this year: a series of brief, incisive short-form talks from ARI’s intellectuals-in-training. Hear from the new generation of developing Objectivist intellectuals as they showcase their burgeoning subject-matter expertise on a wide range of fascinating topics.
8:40 – 9:40 AMJunior Intellectual Talk Series
New this year: a series of brief, incisive short-form talks from ARI’s intellectuals-in-training. Hear from the new generation of developing Objectivist intellectuals as they showcase their burgeoning subject-matter expertise on a wide range of fascinating topics.
10:00 – 11:30 AMTal Tsfany Spreading Objectivism: A Vision for ARI’s Future
Tal Tsfany, ARI’s president and CEO, will review ARI’s mission to spread Objectivism and the progress made during 2024–25.
11:45 AM – 1:30 PM Lunch Break
Lunch on your own.
1:50 – 3:20 PMShoshana MilgramAllen Drury’s Inspiring Political Fiction: From Advise and Consent (1959) to The Promise of Joy (1975)
Allen Drury’s Washington novels represent political fiction at its finest: intricate plots, colorful characterizations, violent conflicts of values, clear contrasts between good and evil, and, in Ayn Rand’s words, the “ability to dramatize abstract ideas.” The first in a six-novel series, Advise and Consent, won a Pulitzer in the face of fierce leftist opposition. Drury’s books entertain and inspire, making us wish our current political landscape had the sharp clarity of Drury’s novels—and that his heroes walked among us.
1:50 – 3:20 PMTara Smith, Josh Windham, Elan Journo (mod)Reclaiming the Fourth Amendment
A panel discussion featuring attorney Josh Windham, philosopher Tara Smith, and moderator Elan Journo. The Fourth Amendment (proclaiming the right “against unreasonable searches and seizures”) exemplifies the individualist spirit of the Enlightenment. Yet, despite increasing concerns with privacy these days (of medical records, financial information, etc.), it is increasingly abused. What is the relationship between privacy and property? How can we update our understandings of a trespass or of a search to accommodate digital technologies while maintaining objectivity? And what philosophical principles are needed to guide the application and fulfill the promise of the Fourth Amendment?
3:40 – 4:40 PMAmesh AdaljaSmallpox in 1721: Boston, Bolyston, and Benjamin Franklin
In this talk, Dr. Adalja will recount the captivating story of smallpox in the pre-vaccine era, when the controversial and sometimes dangerous method of prevention — variolation — was attempted to halt a smallpox outbreak in Boston. This event saw Benjamin and James Franklin’s newspaper become a leading forum for anti-variolation sentiment and eventually culminated in a firebombing. The talk will emphasize how new technology was sometimes received and the principles of government involvement in communicable disease control.
3:40 – 4:40 PMAudra Hilse, Brandon Lisi, Elan Journo (mod)Celebrating Ayn Rand at the Ford Hall Forum: Archivists Panel
Between 1961 and 1981, Ayn Rand gave 19 talks at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, where she analyzed major events and issues of the time from the framework of her unique philosophy of Objectivism. In this panel featuring the Ayn Rand Institute’s archivists, attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at Rand’s iconic talks at the forum and a selection of rare audio that has never been released online. The event will also commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Ayn Rand Archives and share its ambitious plans for the future.
7:00 – 11:00 PMARI's Annual Fundraising Gala
7:00 – 10:15 PMDouble Feature Movie Night
Independence Day Programming TBA
8:40 – 9:40 AMTBA
8:40 – 9:40 AMJunior Intellectual Talk Series
New this year: a series of brief, incisive short-form talks from ARI’s intellectuals-in-training. Hear from the new generation of developing Objectivist intellectuals as they showcase their burgeoning subject-matter expertise on a wide range of fascinating topics.
10:00 – 11:30 PMGreg SalmieriConceiving Values
It is a central tenet of Objectivism that, because the human form of consciousness is volitional, human beings do not have any automatic values—not even valuing our own lives. This talk will discuss the process by which we rationally form values at all levels from valuing a specific activity, toy, career, or person to valuing one’s life and the moral values needed to sustain it. Topics covered will include: the relations between values, needs, and desires, the steps involved in the formation of new values, and what makes a value objective.
11:45 AM – 1:30 PM Benefactors and Atlantis Legacy Lunch (Invitation Only)
1:50 – 3:20 PMJason RheinsThe Greek Enlightenment: Lessons from the Achievements and Failures of the first Age of Reason
If a culture achieves “enlightenment” when its intellectuals bring all natural and human phenomena under the scrutiny and judgment of reason informed by experience, then the 5th-4th centuries BCE in Ancient Greece were an age of nascent enlightenment. In this talk we investigate what made it culturally, politically, and intellectually possible, what its achievements and shortfalls were, and what we can learn from it.
1:50 – 3:20 PMThomas Eiden, Derek SutherlandInnovations in Nuclear Technology
The nuclear industry is one of the most striking examples of taking the most advanced, abstract, theoretical scientific discoveries and applying them to the development of practical life-serving technologies and products. In this session, two engineers/businessmen will tell you about their work in two different areas of nuclear technology. Thomas Eiden, CEO of Atomic Alchemy (and OAC graduate), will give an update on the progress his company is making in solving the problem he described in his OCON 2021 talk: the looming crisis in the supply of materials for nuclear medicine. Derek Sutherland, VP of R&D at Realta Fusion (and current ARU student), will talk about recent advancements in fusion energy development and his motivations for his work towards making nuclear fusion energy a practical reality.
3:40 – 4:40 PMTBA
7:00 PM – 12:00 AM Closing Reception and Dinner with ARU Graduation Ceremony
Objectivist Conferences / Ayn Rand® Institute reserves the right to make necessary adjustments to the schedule.
Updates
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