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Since 1999, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (JARS) has published over 250 essays, written by over 130 authors, working across scholarly disciplines and specialties. Starting in 2013, with Volume 13, Number 1 (Issue 25), the JARS Foundation will begin a collaboration with Pennsylvania State University Press (PSUP).  PSUP will manage distribution and subscription fulfillment for print and online editions, while the Editorial Board will focus exclusively on journal content.  Extensive digital dissemination and preservation of the journal is guaranteed through PSUP partnerships with JSTOP and Project Muse, and the dark archiving of all journal back issues at Stanford's CLOCKSS.

The Logic of Liberty:  Aristotle, Ayn Rand, and the Logical Structure of the Political Spectrum, pp. 5-75

Roger E. Bissell

Analyzing various false alternatives using a technique based on Aristotle's Law of Excluded Middle, the author shows how a system of individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism relates logically to other politico-economic systems and ideologies. He gives special attention to Nolan's two-dimensional diagram of the political spectrum, Rand's critique of conservatism and liberalism, and Rothbard's work on the historical phenomenon of Salutary Neglect and its relationship to fascism, socialism, and laissez-faire. The author also assesses current prospects for liberty, as reflected in such policies as Obamacare and education vouchers.

Ayn Rand Shrugged: The Gap Between Ethical Egoism and Global Capitalism, pp. 77-116

Andre Santos Campos

There is a gap between Rand's ethical egoism and today's global capitalism on at least six points. Since her version of "capitalism: the unknown ideal" addresses none of these points, it cannot resemble the reality of today's global capitalism. The connection between Objectivist ethics and politics is preserved by a possible change in her minarchical political philosophy. This will mean that there is no necessary connection between ethical egoism and minarchism or between ethical egoism and minimal government intervention. An ethically hard Objectivism determining the (less) unknown ideal of capitalism leaves room for a politically soft Objectivism.

A Defense of Rothbardian Ethics via a Mediation of Hoppe and Rand, pp. 117-50

Cade Share

This paper will provide Murray. N. Rothbard's "ethics of liberty" with a greater theoretical cogency and ultimately validate its natural law underpinnings. This can be achieved via a mediation of Hans- Herrmann Hoppe's praxeological argumentation ethics and Ayn Rand's Objectivist teleological/Objectivist theory of ethics. Synthesizing these two disparate schools of epistemology provides a metaethic or praxeological/Objectivist epistemology that considerably strengthens and ultimately validates the central axioms of the Rothbardian natural law project on both rational and moral grounds.

Ayn Rand and Deducing 'Ought' from 'Is', pp. 151-68

Lachlan Doughney

Under R.M Hare's interpretation of David Hume's is-ought gap, Hume thought it impossible to deduce an 'ought' conclusion, solely from 'is' premises. Ayn Rand rejects this view. In this paper, we see both how and why she attempted to deduce such an 'ought' conclusion in her ethical theory.

The Childs-Peikoff Hypothesis, pp. 169-78

Dennis C. Hardin

In his infamous "Open Letter to Ayn Rand," Roy Childs, a prominent libertarian advocate of anarcho-capitalism, argued that limited government is inconsistent with Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. In the early 1980s, Childs changed his mind and rejected anarcho-capitalism as a rational political system. Despite a brief, unfinished, posthumous essay, some say that the real reasons for Childs' change of heart will always remain a mystery. However, specific comments by Childs in that essay point directly to the influence of a series of lectures on Objectivism presented by Leonard Peikoff in 1983.

VOL. 12, NO. 1:   CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES