Past Meetings

2011 Meetings

  • Planning meeting
  • Book Share
  • The Trials and Tribulations of Living in a Nanny State
  • Atlas Shrugged, The Movie Preview
  • Atlas Shrugged, The Movie Review
  • Defending Capitalism
  • The Intellectual Roots of Progressivism
  • Architecture from the Ground Up: Inductive Exercises in the Evaluation of Building
  • The Logical Leap:  Induction in Physics
  • The Closing of the Muslim Mind
  • ARI speaker—Eric Daniels
  • Christmas Party

2010 Meetings

  • TV share
  • Copper Pot
  • Determining Musical Theme
  • Objectivist Jeopardy
  • 1984 vs. Anthem
  • Meaning of Life
  • Ayn Rand Essay Discussion
  • Hegel and Progressivism
  • The Senses Revealed
  • Winning the Unwinnable War
  • Christmas Party

2009 Meetings

  • Planning meeting
  • Art Museum Field Trip
  • Barack Obama Exposed
  • Pragmatism—Recognizing and Combating It
  • Objectively Speaking – Ayn Rand Interviewed
  • Health Care Activism
  • History of Medicine
  • Understanding Poetry
  • The Man Behind the Mouse (Walt Disney)
  • Idealism and the Rise of American Democracy
  • Christmas Party

2008 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • Dr. Andrew Bernstein at Rice University: “Religion vs. Morality”
  • Bookshare
  • Cultural Event–Leonardo da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius
  • Epistemology and Justice
  • HOS 20th Anniversary Party
  • Illegal Immigration
  • The Founding Fathers and Democracy
  • Applying Ayn Rand’s Essays to Our Lives
  • How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings
  • Christmas Party

2007 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • Reading & Analysis of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men
  • Using Technology to Promote HOS and Objectivism.
  • Speaker Event–Greg Salmieri to speak on “Ayn Rand’s Conception of Valuing”
  • Reading & Analysis of Ayn Rand’s Essay “For The New Intellectual”
  • Art/Cultural Event: production of Twelve Angry Men
  • Playing Devil’s Advocate
  • Epistemology & Language
  • Comparing Australia, New Zealand, and the United States
  • NASA’s Monopoly on Manned Spaceflight
  • The ExxonMobil Merger: A Tale of Two Mergers
  • Christmas Party

2006 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • HOS marketing meeting/Video interviews of Ayn Rand.
  • Roman Law
  • Copper Pot Show-and-Tell
  • Reading & Analysis of Ayn Rand’s play Ideal
  • “Sam Walton: Retail Genius”
  • Architecture: Theory & Practice
  • Ayn Rand Bookstore Book / Tape Review
  • Reading & Analysis of Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A
  • Outside Speaker: Dr. Tara Smith, “Why Originalism Won’t Die”
  • HMNS Field Trip: Benjamin Franklin
  • Christmas Party

2005 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • Celebration of Ayn Rand’s 100th birthday
  • Group reading of Ayn Rand’s play Think Twice
  • Reading Ayn Rand’s essays: “Objectivist Ethics” and “Collectivized Ethics”
  • Book-share
  • “The Importance of Integration in Education”
  • Analysis of Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan
  • “Foundations of Western Music”
  • “Burt Rutan and the New Space Entrepreneurs”
  • Reading Ayn Rand’s essays: “Property Status of Airwaves”
  • Outside speaker: C. Bradley Thompson, “Foundations of the American Constitution”
  • Christmas Party

2004 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • Outside speaker: John Lewis: “Failure of the Homeland Defense”
  • Outside speaker: Amy Peikoff: “Copyright: Its Moral Justification and Proper Duration”
  • Music-share
  • Culture and Coinage: Ancient Greece to the Renaissance
  • Analysis of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac
  • Presentation: Just War Theory
  • Reading Ayn Rand’s essays: “How does one lead a rational life in an irrational society?”, and “The Argument from Intimidation”
  • Group reading of Ayn Rand’s play Night of January 16th
  • Discussion of the upcoming Presidential election
  • Christmas Party

2003 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • Movie-share
  • Does effective war-fighting require sacrifice?
  • Outside speaker: Robert Mayhew compares “We the Living – ’36 and ’39″
  • The philosophical roots of Middle East terrorism
  • Videotaped lecture by Peter Schwartz: “The New Primitivism”
  • Analysis of Shakespeare’s Othello
  • Workshop: Thinking in Essentials
  • Outside speaker: Robert Garmong: “Political Thought of John Locke and Ayn Rand”
  • Christmas Party

2002 Meetings

  • January: Psycho-epistemology of the Arab world – audio tape; Collect ideas for 2002 meetings
  • Book-share
  • Q&A with Dr. Harry Binswanger
  • Outside Speaker – Darryl Wright: “Students’ Reaction to Ayn Rand”
  • Presentation – Dr. Harry King: “A Rational and Integrated Approach to the Care of the Body”
  • Discussion of Bernard Goldberg’s book “Bias,” and bias in the media
  • “Classical Education vs. Public School”
  • Essay contest awards ceremony
  • A personal glimpse of Ayn Rand
  • Great Plays – “Monna Vanna”
  • Movie-share
  • Christmas Party

2001 Meetings

  • January Planning Meeting
  • Discussion of conflicts in everyday life and how to handle them rationally
  • Reading of a heroic Western story, “Tanner”
  • Dina Garmong lectures – “Reclaiming Egoism and Morality”
  • Field trip to Shackleton exhibit at Museum of Science
  • June meeting cancelled due to tropical storm Allison
  • “Kant’s Gimmick” – audio tape lecture by Adam Mossoff
  • Reading of Chris Land’s screenplay for Atlas Shrugged
  • Essay contest award’s ceremony
  • Chris Land lecture – “What I learned writing the Atlas screenplay”
  • Anti-terrorism letter writing
  • Christmas Party

2000 Meetings

  • Book-share
  • “Behind the scenes at Mission Control” (Flight Director: Paul Hill)
  • Read Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” (before meeting) discussed in Leonard Peikoff’s “Eight Great Plays”, then listen to lecture and discuss
  • Andrew Bernstein: “Philosophical and Literary Integration in Atlas Shrugged
  • Dina Garmong: “Reclaiming Egoism” – preview of her Second Renaissance conference presentations
  • Field trip to the new Beck Building at the Museum of Fine Arts
  • 4th of July Party – games, contests and food
  • The Achievements of Rome (the Emperor Hadrian’s architecture and Roman Law)
  • Movie: “Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life” at Rice University
  • Movie-share
  • “The Human Form in Greek Sculpture” (taped lecture by Diane Durante) + visuals
  • Christmas party

1999 Meetings

  • “Objectivism Through Induction” – 11 meetings spent, one lecture per month
  • Lyceum: “The World Financial Crisis” and “The Corruption of the American Bar Association”
  • Special lecture by Dina Garmong: “Virtue and its Consequences”

1998 Meetings

  • Movie: “We the Living”
  • Book-share
  • Lyceum: “Productiveness: The Central Purpose of a Good Life”
  • The objective value of sports
  • Lecture 1 of Dr. Peikoff’s “Eight Great Plays”
  • An analysis of Raphael’s “Philosophy”
  • Movie-share
  • Francis Bacon: The Father of the Scientific Method
  • Houston Art Galleries – the Decent Few

1997 Meetings

  • Donahue and Tom Snyder interviews with Ayn Rand
  • Promotion of Leonard Peikoff’s radio show in Houston
  • Brains of Steel II – game designed to hone skill of identifying context
  • Lyceum: Ayn Rand’s early life
  • Chewing the virtue of honesty
  • Manners as philosophy – the philosophical aspects of etiquette
  • Lyceum: Objective Investing
  • The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

Previous Years

  • Defense of rights in land use
  • Philosophical detection (analyzing quotes)
  • Toward an architectural esthetic
  • Heroes
  • In appreciation of Ayn Rand – 90th birthday celebration
  • Literary analysis of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
  • Thinking in essentials
  • Ethical crises in science
  • Analyzing the news
  • Building intellectual skills via the game “How Come?”
  • Ethics of reproductive technologies
  • Crime and Punishment in Texas
  • Workshop on arguing for ideas
  • Q&A on Objectivism – for newcomers and old-timers
  • How teachers are taught to teach writing
  • Pamphleteering: “Health Care is Not a Right” sent to doctors
  • Workshops on writing letters and Op-Ed’s
  • Various audios and videos, including: “Nature’s Cancers,” “Philosophy and the Real World Out There,” “Debate – Capitalism or Socialism: Which is the Moral Social System?”
  • The Montessori Method
  • The Right of Habeas Corpus
  • The limitation on perpetuity in property rights
  • The sculpture of Brookgreen Gardens (S. Carolina)
  • The 1996 presidential candidates
  • The history of art trends in the 20th century
  • The real meaning of vegetarianism
  • Objective care of the body
  • An objective theory of humor
  • Workshop on identifying context
  • Space day: A tour of the Johnson Space Center at NASA