Updating this chart from my Free Speech & Censorship course, used when we read Catharine MacKinnon’s Only Words (Harvard, 1993), an influential egalitrian-postmodern feminist case for the censorship of pornography. By then we have already read Plato’s pre-modern case for censorship from Book 10 of Republic and John Stuart Mill’s modern case for free speech […]
Feminisms: liberal versus egalitarian-postmodern Read More »
… is by Sting. From his 1999 Brand New Day album. If you like, listen to the song while reading the lyrics below (YouTube version here). Then further below are the lyrics with my thematic-dramatic-arc notes added. “Fill Her Up” Mobil stationWhere I standThis old gas pumpIn my hand. The boss don’t like meA face
The best religious conservative song ever [reprise] Read More »
By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA. Lecture 9: What is “Pragmatism”, and how did the major Pragmatist philosophers, John Dewey in particular, apply it to education? Previous lectures in the series: Part One: Introduction: What is the purpose of education, and what is philosophy’s relevance? Part Two: Reality: Metaphysics and Education: The Creation
Pragmatism and Education: John Dewey [Lecture 9 of Philosophy of Education course] Read More »
“Faith requires the crucifixion of reason.” Lecture Three: Is God Dead? Themes: Abraham and absolute faith. Psychological functionalism? Pascal’s Wager? Social functionalism? The Grand Inquisitor. Texts: Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling and Either-Or. Dostoevsky, “The Grand Inquisitor,” The Brothers Karamazov About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and the author of
IS GOD DEAD? KIERKEGAARD. Lecture 3 of Philosophy of Ethics course [Peterson Academy] Read More »
Aristotle died in Greece in 322 BCE. In 86 BCE, the Roman general (and soon-to-be dictator) Sulla captured Athens. He confiscated the library of a man named Apellicon of Teos, whose collection included manuscripts of Aristotle and Theophrastus. Sulla had the library transported to Rome, where the meticulous Andronicus of Rhodes edited the texts, forming
“I repudiated rational thought in favour of a theology of feeling.” * This article in Oxford Academic notes that “Kant’s philosophy is one of the most important presuppositions of Schleiermacher’s thought and that his work would have been unthinkable without Kant’s.” * Source: Schleiermacher, Friedrich. The Christian Faith [1821-22]. Ed. H. R. Mackintosh and J.
Schleiermacher: “I repudiated rational thought in favour of a theology of feeling.” Read More »
The history of those who debase money in an effort to get something for nothing — i.e., coin clippers, counterfeiters, and central bankers — is long and sordid. Here’s an eye-opener about how one medieval king dealt with officers found guilty of devaluing the currency: “Henry I castrated currency officials whose output was found wanting.
On currency debasement and castration Read More »
Re-posting this classic from Rudyard Kipling, which is also on my Quotations page: “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you’ll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to
Kipling on the individual and the tribe Read More »