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Podcast: The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast
Episode: Values Are Made, Not Found: Watch Gregory Salmieri’s Talk on “Conceiving Values”
Description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtmQv3O7T8
Podcast audio:
It is common to think of values as things we “discover” about ourselves — pre-packaged preferences waiting somewhere deep inside. We speak, for example, of “discovering our passion” or of finally realizing “what we were meant to do,” as if these priorities had been there all along. On this view, valuing is automatic: we simply respond to our needs, desires, or emotions.
In his 2025 Objectivist Summer Conference talk, titled “Conceiving Values,” Gregory Salmieri offers a different account. Drawing on Ayn Rand’s distinctive view, he argues that valuing is not passive or instincti...