From Rousseau’s 1749 Discourse on the Arts and the Sciences: “Princes always view with pleasure the spread, among their subjects, of a taste for the arts of amusement and superfluities … The sciences, letters, and arts spread garlands of flowers over the iron chains with which men are burdened, … make them love their slavery, […]
Foucault as Rousseauian Read More »
Brett Veinotte interviewed me on postmodernism and its implications and impact on education. After some significant context-setting, the interview portion with me starts around the 28-minute mark. The book discussed is here in various editions and translations. My lecture on philosophy of education and postmodernism is here.
School Sucks podcast on education and pomo Read More »
I initially wrote “Would Immortality Be Worth It?” for my Introduction to Philosophy course. It’s a thought-experiment essay for a unit on The Meaning of Life towards the end of the semester. The essay was then published in Objectivity (1:4, 1992, 81-96) and is now online here in PDF format. The issue is this: When
Is Immortality Worth It? — 25 years later Read More »
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said: “While the state can compel no one to believe it can banish not for impiety, but as an antisocial being, incapable of truly loving the laws and justice, and of sacrificing, if needed, his life to his duty. If, after having publicly recognized these dogmas, a person acts as if he does
Jean-Jacques Rousseau on compulsory religious behavior [from Explaining Postmodernism] Read More »
[The following is a Polish translation of my “What Entrepreneurship Can Teach Us All About Life”. Here are links to translations into Spanish and Portuguese. Tekst ukazał się w The Wall Street Journal, 2 maja 2016. PDF.] Stephen R. C. Hicks Często myślimy o przedsiębiorcach jak o przerysowanych postaciach. Podejmują duże ryzyko. Tworzą własne zasady.
Czego przedsiębiorczość może nas nauczyć o życiu? [Polish translation] Read More »
At the end of this post, a reader identifies me as a pile of human excrement who attacks the rich and advocates the elimination of the middle class. Here’s the comment: You attack the one percenters and the leader of the huge corporations as the problem. Please tell me why almost all one percenters and
My “Marxist lunacy” on display once again Read More »
Kevin Currie-Knight pointed me to this Atlantic article by Susan Engel, in which Engel notes: “Many teachers are pressured to treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility.” That perverse duality pervades so much of education historically and today. I’m reminded of John Locke’s hopeful musing in the 1690s on how best
Joy in education — Susan Engel asks why it’s missing Read More »
For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Justice Brennan, excerpt from Furman v. Georgia 408 U. S. 238 (1972), and Justice Stewart, excerpt from Gregg v. Georgia (1976). Stephen Hicks, “Ethics for a Democratic Republic” (2015). Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785). Stanley Milgram, excerpt from Obedience to
Texts in Philosophy — mid-2017 additions Read More »