Past Meetings

Below is a sampling of HOS meeting during its thirty year history:

• Discussion of Memri.org
• A Brief Philosophical History of Texas
• Discussion of In Defense of Selfishness
• 2016 Election Preview
• Killing the Bad Guys
• 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
• 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
• Art Museum Field Trip
• Barack Obama Exposed
• Pragmatism—Recognizing and Combating It
• Health Care Activism
• History of Medicine
• Understanding Poetry
• The Man Behind the Mouse (Walt Disney)
• Idealism and the Rise of American Democracy
• Dr. Andrew Bernstein at Rice University: “Religion vs. Morality”
• Cultural Event–Leonardo da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius
• Epistemology and Justice
• Illegal Immigration
• The Founding Fathers and Democracy
• Applying Ayn Rand’s Essays to Our Lives
• How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings
• Reading & Analysis of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men
• Speaker Event–Greg Salmieri on “Ayn Rand’s Conception of Valuing”
• 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
• Copper Pot Show-and-Tell
• Sam Walton: Retail Genius
• Architecture: Theory & Practice
• Outside Speaker: Dr. Tara Smith, “Why Originalism Won’t Die”
• HMNS Field Trip: Benjamin Franklin
• The Importance of Integration in Education
• Analysis of Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan
• Outside speaker: C. Bradley Thompson, “Foundations of the American Constitution”
• 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
• The philosophical roots of Middle East terrorism
• Analysis of Shakespeare’s Othello
• Workshop: Thinking in Essentials
• Q&A with Dr. Harry Binswanger
• Discussion of Bernard Goldberg’s book “Bias,” and bias in the media
• Discussion of conflicts in everyday life and how to handle them rationally
• Field trip to Shackleton exhibit at Museum of Science
• Behind the scenes at Mission Control
• Field trip to the new Beck Building at the Museum of Fine Arts
• The Achievements of Rome (the Emperor Hadrian’s architecture and Roman Law)
• The objective value of sports
• An analysis of Raphael’s “Philosophy”
• Francis Bacon: The Father of the Scientific Method
• Houston Art Galleries – the Decent Few
• 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
• 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