Andrew Joseph Galambos

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Andrew Joseph Galambos (born Joseph Andrew Galambos, Jr., 1924, in Hungary; died April 10, 1997) was most famous for his strict stances on intellectual property rights.

Contents

[edit] Early career

Galambos moved to Los Angeles in 1952 to work for North American Aviation. Later, in 1958, he worked for Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, which later became TRW Space Technology Laboratories.

[edit] Academia

Around 1960, Galambos left the aerospace industry to teach at Whittier College. In 1961, Galambos met with Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Leonard Read, Murray Rothbard, and Henry Hazlitt in New York. He also established The Free Enterprise Institute that year, which gave for-pay lectures on freedom and capitalism.

[edit] Intellectual property

Galambos felt that intellectual property owners should have complete control over their ideas and how they are used. According to Galambos, all forms of property came from a combination of "primordial property" (a person's life) and "primary property" (a person's ideas). By using the natural resources available in the physical universe, individuals use their primary property, or ideas, to create "secondary property," which are the physical goods and services individuals trade, use, and consume as they live their lives.

Some of Galambos' students were required to acknowledge a "proprietary notice" which asked those students to give credit (both intellectually and financially) for the information gleaned from his courses; later he required that all participants in his lectures sign a non-disclosure agreement. Students were allowed to take notes and most lectures were taped. Course V-50T (the "T" was for Tape) was transcribed and published as "Sic Itur Ad Astra" (see below). Another course, V-201, which focused on mechanisms for intellectual property protection for inventors, also had a taped version, which is expected to be transcribed into future volumes.

V-50T and V-201T are occasionally offered as taped courses by The Free Enterprise Institute.

Since his father's name was Joseph Andrew Galambos, Galambos changed his name from Joseph Andrew Galambos, Jr., to Andrew Joseph Galambos, so that he wouldn't infringe on his father's property right in the name Joseph Andrew Galambos.

In 1998, volume one of "Sic Itur Ad Astra" ("This is the Way to the Stars") (ISBN 0-88078-004-5) was first published. The book is based on a course entitled "Course V-50, The Theory of Volition," Galambos gave at The Free Enterprise Institute in 1968. In the lectures which form the basis for the book, Galambos laid out his two postulates of volitional science,

  • "Postulate Number One: All volitional beings live to pursue happiness," and
  • "Postulate Number Two: All concepts of happiness which do not include immoral action are equally valid."

(See 1 Sic Itur Ad Astra, p. 96 (2d ed. 1999)). Immoral action is equated with coercion.

The remainder of the course (and the book) consists of Galambos' elaboration of these two postulates, his definition of the concept of freedom, which Galambos defines as "the societal condition wherein every individual has one hundred percent control over his own property" (id., p. 115), his derivation from these postulates of his theory of the science of volition, or act of choosing, and his application of that science to solve the problems of modern society.

Originally a Republican supporting Barry Goldwater, Galambos later became a classical liberal. He supported private protection and defense, the absolute rights of the owner of private property, and was opposed to political voting and other forms of political activism.

[edit] End of life

In the 1980s, Galambos was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and was institutionalized in 1990. He died on April 10, 1997.

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links