Volume 3, No. 1: Spring 2008
From the Editor, Spring 2008
Welcome to the Spring 2008 issue of TOS. Here is a preview of the articles at hand.
Isaac Newton: Discoverer of Universal Laws
Author’s note: The following is adapted from a chapter of my book in progress, “The Inductive Method in Physics.”
The Exalted Heroism of Alistair MacLean's Novels
Less than fifty years ago, Alistair MacLean’s novels were international best-sellers that spawned major motion pictures. Today, his novels are out-of-print in America and MacLean, once considered a “master storyteller,” is virtually unknown to an entire generation of readers. This is tragic, for MacLean was one of the few authors of the last one-hundred…
Immigration and Individual Rights
Every year, millions of people seek to immigrate to the United States, and with good reason: Opportunities to improve their lives abound here. Immigrants and would-be immigrants want to pursue the American dream. Whether or not they would put it in these terms, they want to be free to think and act on their best judgment; they want to produce wealth and…
Caspar David Friedrich and Visual Romanticism
The romantic school of art, wrote Ayn Rand, “is concerned—in the words of Aristotle—not with things as they are, but with things as they might be and ought to be.” In her esthetic writings, Ayn Rand elaborated on this idea relative to her own field, the novel. But she said little about how it applies to the visual arts; and, when asked, she commented, “…
Darwin and the Discovery of Evolution
The Creationist assault on the theory of evolution is an all-too-familiar feature of today’s culture. One widespread claim that the opponents of evolution have advanced is the notion that evolution is “just a theory”—that is, that evolution is just a speculative hypothesis, a crazy idea that Charles Darwin dreamed up one day in his study but that has li…