Alexander Fürstenberg, a young German who completed the Human Action course on this website, later engaged the course's author (Rob Cunningham) in extensive e-mail discussions of philosophical and personal implications of principles set forth in the course. Although these e-mails were not originally intended for publication, Mr. Fürstenberg, with this author's consent, later decided to publish a large portion of this English-language exchange on his German-language website www.philodata.de. A link to this frank and lively dialogue, encompassing e-mails exchanged over a six-month period in 2003, is provided below. It provides a tableau of two individuals whose philosophical differences are apparent, even though they are bound by the same basic premises—the objectivity of reality, and reason as the sole tool of cognition. The topics covered are wide-ranging, including Objectivism and spirituality, determinism, materialism, the scientific method, quantum and relativity theory, and the ethics of self-interest, among others. Yet these topics are not treated merely as dry intellectual abstractions; rather, they are explored against the backdrop of the two authors' lives, experiences, and aspirations.
LINK TO DIALOGUE
