Stephen Hicks – Page 17 – Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Current champion in Philosophy’s Longest Sentences contest — Kierkegaard

4 Comments / History of Philosophy / Stephen Hicks

Reviving this contest for readers: What is the longest sentence ever written by a philosopher? I mean the kind of sentence that, as you are reading it through — trying to hold the context and decipher the meaning — flows majestically onwards, or meanders along deceptively, with occasional side streams (and parenthetical remarks), until your cerebrum […]

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Could Tchaikovsky play Tchaikovsky?

Humor, Music / Stephen Hicks

Reprising this amusing anecdote from Tchaikovsky, by Anthony Holden. Tchaikovsky was traveling from St. Petersburg to Tiflis “via the scenic route, aboard a steamship down the Volga. Concealing his identity from the other passengers, he agreed one evening to accompany an amateur soprano in a romance by Tchaikovsky, only to be told by the singer

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Announcement: Leaving Rockford University

4 Comments / Philosophy / Stephen Hicks

Rockford made me a very nice early-retirement offer, which I’ve accepted. “Retirement” is an undefined and vaguely alien concept to me. So far it means I am a free agent and think about what the next Big Thing will be. It also means getting more of those almost-done publishing projects out the door. It may

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The Enlightenment Vision — Flowchart

2 Comments / Economics, Fruits of the Enlightenment, History, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of History, Politics / Stephen Hicks

The Enlightenment of the long 18th century was an era of awesome intellectual and cultural transformation. My Enlightenment Vision flowchart [pdf] is pitched at a high level of abstraction, showing schematically how the philosophical revolution of the 17th century led to the 18th-century revolutions in science, technology, politics, and economics — which in turn led

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Hannibal and Kipling at UL, Mexico City

3 Comments / Philosophy / Stephen Hicks

This week I gave five talks at the impressive Universidad de la Libertad, a new university focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship. My hosts snapped this pic of me beside a favorite quotation adorning one of the walls there. For my fellow gringos whose Spanish could use an assist: “No price is too high to pay

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Hayek, Popper, and “Negativism”

5 Comments / History of Philosophy, Philosophy / Stephen Hicks

In a letter to Karl Popper dated October 21, 1964, Friedrich Hayek proposed that they name their philosophy “Negativism.”[1] Hayek’s philosophy of economics holds that the limits of knowledge doom any attempt at central planning,[2] and Popper’s philosophy of science holds that observations can only falsify hypotheses.[3] Hence, “Negativism” would capture the central epistemic insight

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Mao on selflessness, altruism, and collectivism

1 Comment / Ethics, Politics / Stephen Hicks

Mao Zedong on the ethical requirements of communism: “A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless

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Five lectures at Universidad de la Libertad, Mexico City

Leave a Comment / Philosophy / Stephen Hicks

This week I will be in Mexico to give five lectures at the new Universidad de la Libertad. I’m honored to be invited. My titles are: “The Morality of Money and Capitalism” “American vs. French Revolutions—and Why They Matter for Latin America Today” Why Property Rights? “The Morality of Free Trade” “On Being the Entrepreneur

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