David Kelley

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This article is about the American philosopher. For other people of the same name, see David Kelley (disambiguation).

David Kelley
Born (1949-06-23) June 23, 1949 (age 74)
Shaker Heights, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
EducationBrown University (BA, MA)
Princeton University (PhD)
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolObjectivism
Libertarianism
Main interests
Epistemology
Objectivist movement
Photo of Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Philosophy
Organizations
Theorists

Ayn Rand Institute

Other

Literature
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
For the New Intellectual
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
The New Left
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
Philosophy: Who Needs It
The Romantic Manifesto
The Virtue of Selfishness
Objectivist periodicals
The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
The Fountainhead
Atlas Shrugged
Related topics

David Christopher Kelley (born June 23, 1949) is an American philosopher. He is a professed Objectivist, though his position that Objectivism can be revised and influenced by other schools of thought has prompted disagreements with other Objectivists. Kelley is also an author of several books on philosophy and the founder of The Atlas Society, an institution he established in 1990 after permanently dissociating with Leonard Peikoff and the Ayn Rand Institute.

Education and career

David Kelley was born in

rationalist, Roderick Chisholm. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1975 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "The Evidence of the Senses", under the supervision of Richard Rorty.[1] He was an assistant professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Vassar College for seven years.[2] He then taught logic for a brief time at Brandeis University, while working as a freelance writer for Barron's
and other publications.

A member of Ayn Rand's circle, Kelley read her favorite poem, "If—", by Rudyard Kipling, at her funeral in 1982.[3]

Objectivism's 'open' faction

In 1985,

bookseller.[5] Schwartz argued that this activity violated the Objectivist moral principle of sanction. He said Kelley was implicitly conferring moral approval on LFB by appearing at an event that it sponsored. Schwartz considered LFB morally objectionable because it promoted books, such as The Passion of Ayn Rand, that he maintained were hostile and defamatory towards Rand and Objectivism.[6] Kelley responded with a privately circulated essay titled "A Question of Sanction", which disputed Schwartz's interpretation of the sanction principle.[7] Peikoff subsequently endorsed Schwartz's view and claimed that Kelley's arguments contradicted the fundamental principles of Objectivism. He also declared Objectivism to be a "closed system" containing only the philosophic principles advocated by Rand herself.[8]

Kelley responded to this dispute in a monograph titled Truth and Toleration,[9] later expanded and republished as The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand. Kelley declared Objectivism to be an "open system" amenable to revision and addition. This disagreement split the Objectivist movement into two factions.[10][11]

In 1990, he founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies (IOS), a non-profit dedicated to cultural advocacy on behalf of "reason, individualism, achievement, and capitalism."

The Objectivist Center
(TOC), as the organization took on a more public-outreach and advocacy orientation.

In order to pursue his scholarly interests, Kelley stepped down as executive director of TOC in 2004, and the organization was again renamed as The Atlas Society (TAS). Kelley reassumed the position of executive director for TAS in 2008. He retired in 2018, but continues to serve on the organization's board of trustees.[13]

Scholarly work

Kelley's books cover a variety of subjects within philosophy. They include The Evidence of the Senses, which argues for a unique form of direct realism about perception; Unrugged Individualism, which explores benevolence as a virtue; A Life of One's Own, a moral critique of the welfare state; and The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand, focusing on the schisms within the Objectivist movement.

government regulation
of broadcasting.

Kelley has published little scholarly work in philosophy since 1998, but has given public addresses, taught courses, and has written articles on politics and current events. An ongoing research and writing project over the past decade has been his magnum opus, The Logical Structure of Objectivism, which he is co-authoring with economist William Thomas. His most recent scholarly article is "Rand Versus Hayek on Abstraction," in the Fall 2011 issue of Reason Papers—a "descriptive and explanatory" account of the similarities and differences between Rand's and Friedrich Hayek's views on cognition and mind.

Kelley was a script consultant for Atlas Shrugged: Part III, the third part in a film version of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.

Works

See also

References

  1. ^ Kelley, David Christopher (1975). The Evidence of the Senses.
  2. ^ Vassar College (1982). Vassar College Catalogue. Poughkeepsie: Vassar College.
  3. ^ Heller, Anne C. (2009). Ayn Rand and the World She Made. New York: Doubleday. p. 410.
  4. The Objectivist Forum
    . 5 (6): 13–15. December 1984.
  5. ISBN 0-7658-0863-3
    .
  6. ^ Schwartz, Peter (February 27, 1989). "On Sanctioning the Sanctioners". The Intellectual Activist. 4 (20): 1.
  7. ISBN 0-7658-0863-3
    .
  8. ^ Peikoff, Leonard (May 18, 1989). "Fact and Value". The Intellectual Activist. Vol. 5, no. 1.
  9. ^ Kelley, David (1990). Truth and Toleration. Verbank, New York: Institute for Objectivist Studies.
  10. ISBN 978-0-19-532487-7
    .
  11. ISBN 978-0-312-59073-4
    .
  12. ^ "February 24 is the 20th Anniversary of the Founding of The Atlas Society". The Atlas Society. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  13. ^ a b "About Dr. David Kelley". The Atlas Society. Retrieved August 16, 2021.

External links

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