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Politics scholar at New York University, editor of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
Chris Matthew Sciabarra

Chris Matthew Sciabarra (born 17 February 1960) is an American political theorist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of three scholarly books—Marx, Hayek, and Utopia, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical and Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism—as well as several shorter works. He is also the co-editor, with Mimi Reisel Gladstein, of Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. His work has focused on topics including Objectivism, libertarianism (particularly the work of Friedrich Hayek and Murray Rothbard) and dialectics.

Born

17 Feb 1960, in Brooklyn, New York City

Websites

CHRIS MATTHEW SCIABARRA
Personal website, includes link to his blog, biography, essays, pages for several of his books and photo gallery

Web Pages

Author's Bio
Biographical summary page of personal website, including academic degrees and distinctions
Laissez Faire Books
Author page at Laissez Faire Books; short profile and commented list of Sciabarra's five favorite books
Dr. Chris Matthew Sciabarra was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960. He is the author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical, Total Freedom: Toward A Dialectical Libertarianism, and Ayn Rand, Homosexuality and Human Liberation. He is the co-editor with Mimi Reisel Gladstein of Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand, and also a coeditor of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. He has been a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Politics at New York University since January 1989.

Archived Articles

Rebirth of Reason: Articles: Sciabarra, Chris Matthew
Articles from June 2002 to August 2005

Articles

Chris Matthew Sciabarra - Hero of the Day, The Daily Objectivist, 2000
Biographical profile published by The Daily Objectivist; short bibliographical essay
Chris Matthew Sciabarra exploded onto the Objectivist scene in 1995 with the controversial tome Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical ... In the same week ... Sciabarra also published Marx, Hayek, and Utopia, a book partially derived from his doctoral dissertation (prompting Pete Boettke to observe at a book party for Chris that while other scholars must grind out their volumes slowly, Sciabarra produces them at the rate of "two a week") ... Sciabarra has just completed the third volume of his dialectical trilogy, Total Freedom, which considers the history of dialectical thought and treats the work of Murray Rothbard in depth.
Related Topic: Ayn Rand
Interview with Nathaniel Branden, by Nathaniel Branden, Karen Reedstrom, Full Context, Sep 1996
In two parts; topics range from David Kelley, objectivisim, Ayn Rand, his memoir Judgment Day, Barbara Branden, Leonard Peikoff, homosexuality, self-esteem and more
Q: You have expressed admiration for Dr. Sciabarra's book, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical. What do you see as the chief importance of this book?
Branden: He has brought Ayn Rand into the history of philosophy. He has attempted to place her in a historical context. Whether or not he's right in all his hypotheses is not the most important point. So far, his is the book most likely to gain the interest of the academic community, and that interest is essential if one is thinking long-range about the spread of Objectivism. You've got to get the teaching of Objectivism into the universities.

Writings

Branden, Nathaniel (1930-2014), The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Biographical essay
Nathaniel Branden (born Nathan Blumenthal) is known to many as "the father of the self-esteem movement." Branden is the author of 20 books that explore the philosophical, psychological, and cultural foundations of individualism and the free society. Having developed a close personal relationship with novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand ... in 1958 [he] started Nathaniel Branden Lectures ... In his clinical practice, Branden stresses a variety of techniques “[t]o honor the self—to honor mind, judgment, values, and convictions” as “the ultimate act of courage” and the ultimate prerequisite for human freedom.
Dialectics and Liberty, The Freeman, Sep 2005
Written ten years after publication of the first two of Sciabarra's "Dialectic and Liberty" trilogy, discusses Hayek's and Rand's dialectical analysis approaches and suggests that such context-keeping analysis is important in radical libertarian theory
Ten years ago the first two books of what has become known as my "Dialectics and Liberty" trilogy were published. Those books ... together with the culminating work ... constitute a defense of dialectical method in the service of a libertarian social theory ...
What is required is a more fully developed critique of the system that generates such social problems—and a corresponding vision for social change ... A genuinely radical project beckons, one that integrates the explanatory power of libertarian social theory and the context-keeping orientation of dialectical method.
Herbert Spencer - Hero of the Day, The Daily Objectivist, 2000
Biographical profile published by The Daily Objectivist; argues that Spencer was a pioneer of "dialectical" (context-keeping) libertarianism; based on article in Aug 1999 Liberty
Herbert Spencer, Libertarian Dialectician? Yes, by God! For years, Marxists derided liberals as thoroughly "undialectical" ... because their allegedly "atomistic" approach reduced social analysis to an abstract mental gymnastic on the life and times of Robinson Crusoe ... In his conception of the social world, "whatever produces a diseased state in one part of the community must inevitably inflict injury upon all other parts." It is a "salutary truth" of the ideal community "that no one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy."
Related Topics: Aristotle, Society, Herbert Spencer
How I Became a Libertarian, 19 Dec 2002
Autobiographical essay describing Sciabarra's influences on his road towards libertarianism, primarily Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, born to a Greek and Sicilian family, I had some conservative predilections as a young high school student. One of my earliest high school teachers had a big influence on me; his name was Ira Zornberg. He was a faculty advisor of a social studies newspaper called Gadfly that I edited ... I'm only sorry that Murray didn't live to see my published work on Rand, which greatly interested him, or my Total Freedom, which devotes half of its contents to a discussion of his important legacy. And so: that's not only how I became a libertarian... but also how I've become a libertarian scholar.
Rand, Ayn (1905-1982), The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Biographical and bibliographical essay, also examining Rand's relationships with several leading thinkers
Ayn Rand, a controversial novelist and philosopher, was born in Russia, but emigrated to the United States when she was 21. "For the record," she declared in her monthly periodical, The Objectivist, "I disapprove of, disagree with, and have no connection with, the latest aberration of some conservatives, the so-​called 'hippies of the right.'" ... Although Rand died in 1982, her legacy lives on in many segments of the libertarian intellectual movement. That her legacy has finally sparked the interest of scholars worldwide is proof of its enduring quality.

Interviews

Interview with Chris Matthew Sciabarra, by Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Peter Jaworski, 22 Apr 2002
Topics discussed include: Ayn Rand as a dialectical thinker, dialectics (context-keeping), Murray Rothbard, Russia, Mauritania, Rand's feminism, the future of Objectivism and Sciabarra's 2001 cyberseminar "Dialectics and Liberty"
Is there a resurgence of sorts in Randian studies? If there is, and I wager this is true, then the most prominent of the neo-Randian scholars, Dr. Christopher Sciabarra, should take a tremendous amount of credit for it. Dr. Sciabarra, a visiting scholar at New York University, took an interest in Ayn Rand (and libertarianism by extension) early on in his academic career. ... In this, Chris Sciabarra explains his positions on Rand’s dialectical side, her views on feminism, the importance of context-keeping, & his relationship with the 'official' Objectivists headed by Leonard Peikoff.

Books Authored

Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical, 1995
Partial contents: One: The Process of Becoming - Synthesis in Russian Culture - Lossky, the Teacher - Educating Alissa - The Maturation of Ayn Rand - Two: The Revolt Against Dualism - Being - Knowing - Reason and Emotion - Art, Philosophy, and Efficacy
Related Topic: Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation, 2003
Contents: Ayn Rand on Homosexuality - Post-Randians on Homosexuality - The Horror File - The Times They Are A Changin' - Male Bonding in the Randian Novel - Reconsidering Ayn Rand's Views on Homosexuality - Toward a New Model for Gay—and Human—Liberation
Related Topic: Ayn Rand
Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand
    by Chris Matthew Sciabarra (Editor, Introduction), 1999
Collection of 19 essays, edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra, including essays by Barbara Branden, Nathaniel Branden, Susan Brownmiller, Gladstein, Wendy McElroy, Camille Paglia, Sharon Presley, Joan Kennedy Taylor and Judith Wilt
Related Topic: Ayn Rand
Marx, Hayek, and Utopia, 1995
Contents: Hayekian Dialectics - Utopian Intentions and Unintended Consequences - Constructivism and Human Efficacy - Capitalism and Dualism - Marxian Dialectics - The Marxian Utopia - The Challenge of a New Left - Utopianism and the Radical Project
Related Topic: F. A. Hayek
Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism, 2000
Partial Contents: Aristotle: The Fountainhead - From Aristotle to Hegel - After Hegel - Defining Dialectics - Foundations - The Market versus the State - Class Dynamics and Structural Crisis - On the Precipice of Utopia - The Dialectical Libertarian Turn

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chris Matthew Sciabarra" as of 30 Nov 2017, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.