Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast
Episode: Saving the Enlightenment
Description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4zPY_XnfS8
Podcast audio:
The Enlightenment’s commitment to reason, individualism, and the power of knowledge sparked unprecedented progress in human life. Yet, despite this achievement, contemporary Western societies face deepening crises — mounting political violence, the collapse of alliances of free nations, and a growing support for authoritarian movements. What accounts for this reversal?
In his talk, “Saving the Enlightenment,” delivered at ARI’s 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference, Onkar Ghate diagnoses the problem at its root: our cultural crises are the aftermath of a crucial philosophical gap left by the Enlightenment.
Ghate argues that a key feat...