Parenting Principles

My wife and I started a family. We both approach parenting with same point of view, total selfishness.

Don't get me wrong, I love my son dearly and I will work my butt off to ensure he's in a safe and secure environment conducive to developing his independence, confidence, and self-esteem. But the common notion of living altruistically for your children does not (and should not) apply. I will not do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING for my children. There are physical and moral limits to what I will and will not do, as every good parent should realize. But, we realize that our son is of tremendous value to us, and as such, we selfishly want to see him succeed in life, both in achieving his own happiness and in pursuit of his own goals.

To that end, I am attempting to develop a list of principles for how to be a good parent. After only 7 months with my son (but many years of interacting with children) I have developed two guiding principles for what a parent should DO and ACT when raising children.

Principle 1:
Provide an environment for children to flourish.

This not only requires establishing a safe home, but also providing the tools necessary for them to explore, learn, and grow. Children are naturally curious about the world. It is the responsibility of parents to facilitate that exploration. Facilitation does not mean forcing, but rather providing the backdrop, so to speak, for learning. This can be done by providing the child with age-appropriate toys and games. And encouraging age-appropriate activities such as painting or reading. The Montessori Method is the best educational theory I've learned about that promotes this type of environment.

Principle 2:
Enjoy the interactions

Children desire close interactions with their parents, especially when they're young. They often mimic and copy their parents because they're trying to learn about the world from the people they trust most. As a parent, it is important to learn how to enjoy these interactions because they are not only critical to the child's development, but because it is necessary for our own sanity. Parenting can be a stressful chore if we don't enjoy the process. Using your child's natural interest in what you're doing can be a great springboard for learning. Taking time with your child to cook, clean the house, build a birdhouse, weed the garden, or write a letter is a great way for them to learn and for you to develop a close bond. While multiple children can sometimes make this difficult, creative parenting will always find a solution.

While I admit I have a lot to learn still about being a parent, these two principles offer a starting point for myself (and hopefully other parents) in raising my children. I haven't fully integrated my own philosophic beliefs into this list of principles, so I'm sure it has room to grow. I am interested in other parents think. Do you have similar principles? How would you incorporate Objectivism into parenting? Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

Viable Values

For one of my class assignments, I have decided to write an article that uses Tara Smith's meta-ethical discussion in Viable Values as a foundation for analyzing ethics in IT.

First let me compliment Smith on a job well done. Her masterful analysis of various ethical theories is a treasure to behold. Although there are several places I think her arguments could be stronger (given my limited knowledge of these theories), it is the overall product that is important. More than anything I'm surprised, not that Smith could do this, but that it took this long for an objectivist philosopher to offer such a devastating critique of alternate theories. While I know Rand laid the foundation, she obviously had no interest in digging into the particulars. But with so many PhDs in philosophy associated with the objectivist movement, I figured there would be more in depth analysis would have been done the same. Instead, I saw a lot of me too-isms, essentially focusing on just Ayn Rand's words and ignoring the rest of the world. While developing Objectivism is a worthwhile cause, many philosophers outside the objectivist movement have little or limited respect for Rand because her articles tended to be short and not detailed. If Objectivism is to take prominence in field of ideas, critiques such as Tara's will put it there. That is why I'm able to write my article, because her book gave me the tools necessary to complete an argument.

American Idol predictions

Because my wife is a big American Idol fan, I've been watching the last couple seasons with her. This season, the first couple rounds have already commenced and I'm ready to make some predictions. I have two rounds of predictions, the four who will get voted off next week (leaving the top 12), and who will be the last 2 boys and last 2 girls still in the contest.

For the boys, next week is pretty difficult. Their all good singers and those that are less good at singing have some good looks and good stage performance to make up for it. Overall, I predict Will and Ace will be voted off. Kevin will also have a tough time, as he had the third lowest number of votes this week. But I believe he will turn it around and perform exceptionally next Tuesday, bumping him way up in the standings. Will and Ace have the pretty boy looks going for them, but that won't be enough next week.

For the girls, I predict Melissa and Katharine. Neither of them have been memorable. Of course if one of the other girls has an off night, they might get booted instead, but we can only wait and see.

As for the top two guys, its no contest. Chris and Elliot are by far the best two performers and singers. There is no question that they'll be around to the end.

The top two girls will be Paris and Mandisa. Lisa, the youngest girl, is really good vocally, but I don't think she's as good a performer.

The Economics of Libertarianism

I've started reading Mises's classic, Human Action. Ludwig von Mises was one of the first economists from the Austrian School to bring his thoughts to America. Mises was also one of the first to attack the works of Marx and Lenin and promote what today is known as Libertarianism. His defense of libertarianism proceeds from an economic standpoint. And that economic standpoint is dependent on the requirements of human action, hence the title of his book. While his dicussion of ethics is thoroughly subjectivist, he manages to cling to enough Carl Menger's evalutaion of value to develop a defense of capitalism similar to Ayn Rand's, even though Rand explicitly rejects a subjectivist ethics in favor an objectivist ethics.

So far, I've found his text to be difficult to read, not because he's a bad writer, but because he doesn't address the topics I found most interesting about economics. Mises starts his discussion in the world of philosophy (good in principle) and spends nearly 200 pages discussing human action, praxeology, and society (bad in his wordiness). While it does provide a good foundation for his beliefs, it is a bit tedious getting through it.

With any luck, I'll be able to land a part-time fellowship at the Mises Institute this summer, where I can study the works of Mises, Menger, Hazlitt, and Reisman in greater detail. I've already inquired with the Institute and they've encouraged me to apply. This could work out great as I'm interested in defending the Austrian tradition against game theory economics prevalent in management literature.