A world devastated by war. Sigmund Freud asserts “Man is a wolf to man.” Martin Heidegger — rejecting the Enlightenment and everything since ancient Greek philosophy — asks: “Are we allowed to tamper with the rule of ‘logic’?” Themes: The new psychology. Pessimism. Instinct and aggression. Logic as limiting. Emotions as accessing. Nihilism? World War […]
John Stuart Mill uses his crystal ball to predict our circumstance — and/or he learned from history: “When nobody, or only some small fraction, feels the degree of interest in the general affairs of the State necessary to the formation of public opinion, the electors seldom make any use of the right of suffrage but
John Stuart Mill on government capture Read More »
Trailer here: “Many of you repeatedly asked us to cover Nietzsche’s thought-provoking ideas. We very lucky to have collaborated on this project with Professor Stephen Hicks — a Canadian-American philosopher, who published several texts on Nietzsche, including the book Nietzsche and the Nazis. The full description with video links here.
Carrying on the fun Renaissance debate about which art form is the best. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, revenge-killer, likely a rapist, and party animal. Check out his Autobiography for all the energetic and sordid true-confessions details. It was he who did the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, now in the
What is the best art medium? — Sculpture version Read More »
Filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 22 Questions: Should One be Cynical or Benevolent? | How Can I Find My Own Voice? | Who is Your Favorite Artist? | Why did Art become Ugly? | What is Postmodernism? | What is Art? | Is Ambition Good? | Is Capitalism the Most Moral System? | What
The article was first published in 2004, based on a 2003 lecture in New York City. “For a long time critics of modern and postmodern art have relied on the “Isn’t that disgusting” strategy. By that I mean the strategy of pointing out that given works of art are ugly, trivial, or in bad taste,
“Why Art became Ugly” — with updated images Read More »
Wall Street Journal art critic Terry Teachout asks: “Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” As examples, Teachout quotes one of thousands of sentences from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake like this one: “It is the circumconversioning of antelithual paganelles by a huggerknut cramwell energuman, or the caecodedition of an absquelitteris puttagonnianne to the
Is modern art too complicated for us? Read More »
Who are the great philosophers, and what makes them great? Episodes: The full playlist. Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting positions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in England, and Jagiellonian
From Jack D. Flam’s Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship (2003): ‘Picasso characterized the arbitrariness of representation in his Cubist paintings as resulting from his desire for “a greater plasticity.” Rendering an object as a square or a cube, he said, was not a negation, for “reality was no longer in
Artistic representation: Picasso versus Matisse Read More »
An Artist’s View: Michael Newberry on Key Works of Art in History Michael Newberry is a California-based artist who has exhibited across Europe and North America. He is the author of books on color theory, philosophy of art, modernism and postmodernism in art, and art history. We invited him into our studio for this series
Three Goddesses, c. 438-32 BCE [Newberry on Great Art series] Read More »