📺 Live February 23, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show Interviews
Bonus Episode Season 12, Episode 6
Conversation with Tara Smith, Valuing Other People | Yaron Brook Show

What does it actually mean to value other people—not sentimentally, not self-sacrificially, but rationally and morally?

In this special bonus episode, Yaron Brook sits down with philosopher Tara Smith for a deep, focused conversation on a topic that rarely gets the attention it deserves: how valuing others fits within a rational, egoistic morality—and why getting this wrong distorts everything from personal relationships to politics and law.

This discussion probes the multiple dimensions of the concept of Valuing Other People: emotional, moral, psychological, and social. How should we think about valuing others without collapsing into altruism? How does this topic connect to broader questions about valuing—period? And why is clarity here essential for living well?

From there, the conversation opens into two closely related areas of Tara Smith’s current work:
• her upcoming ARU course on the moral virtues, launching this April
• her continuing research on privacy and the Fourth Amendment, examining privacy both as a personal value and a legal right.

Rather than skimming headlines, this episode aims for depth over breadth—a sustained philosophical exploration of one or two core questions.

If you care about ethics, human relationships, individual rights, or the philosophical foundations of law, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

👤 About Tara Smith:
Tara Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin and a leading scholar of Ayn Rand’s moral and political philosophy. Her work focuses on the nature and foundations of values and virtues, the requirements of objective law, and the philosophical underpinnings of individual rights. Her legal interests include proper methodology in judicial review, First Amendment questions of intellectual freedom, and proper applications of the Fourth Amendment. Her most recent books are Egoism Without Permission: The Moral Psychology of Ayn Rand’s Ethics (2024), The First Amendment: Essays on the Imperative of Intellectual Freedom (2024), and Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System (2015). Professor Smith’s current research explores privacy—both as a personal value and as a legal right—as well as the psychological dimensions of moral values. Learn more about her work: https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/plan2/...

#ValuingOtherPeople #TaraSmith #Objectivism #MoralPhilosophy #EthicsAndVirtue
#RationalEgoism #IndividualRights #PhilosophyOfLaw #AynRandPhilosophy

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