Revisiting this deeply personal question: Do I have what it takes to be a philosopher-king? Maybe not, according to Plato’s Republic Book 6 description of the true philosopher’s character. A real philosopher, he says: 1. Will love the pursuit of truth [485b],2. Will be indifferent to the pleasures of the body [485d],3. Will not be […]
Could I be a philosopher-king? Read More »
I’ll be traveling to speak at these in-person events over the next month or so: Belgrade, Serbia, April 11, 2023, Lecture: “Love and Hate in Uncertain Times.” Debate: “Is Objectivism an Open or Closed Philosophy?” Ayn Rand Center Europe. Warsaw, Poland, April 14, 2023. “Clash with Totalitarianisms, 1939-1945.” Institute of National Remembrance. Stockholm, Sweden, May 9-12, 2023, various
Speaking schedule: Serbia, Poland, Sweden, Norway (April-May 2023) Read More »
Stephen Hicks, Professor of Philosophy (USA) and John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister (Australia) discuss Democracy, the do-it-yourself politics that presupposes agency — in contrast to Marxism’s environmental determinism that overrides agency. Excerpted from this full-hour interview. Related:
In his notebooks, Walt Whitman wrote: “I never yet knew how it felt to think I stood in the presence of my superior.—If the presence of God were made visible immediately before me, I could not abase myself.” In his Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote: “The real test of being in the presence of
Self-esteem in Walt Whitman and C. S. Lewis Read More »
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, I sat down and responded to 22 questions from Charlie Zagoren and Maria Marty. The questions range over ethics, art, politics, religion, and autobiography. Related: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, for my views on other philosophers:
Introduction to My Thinking Read More »
Nietzsche is usually labelled an individualist. One of the more controversy-generating claims of my Nietzsche and the Nazis appears in Section 34, where I argue that Nietzsche is more collectivist than individualist.[1] Re-reading Zarathustra I came across two more relevant quotations. In both cases, Zarathustra is speaking: “A thousand goals there have been until now,
Zarathustra’s predatory collectivism Read More »
Mostly with students in mind — who often have limited budgets — we produced this free online edition of Explaining Postmodernism. I’m happy to see that it has passed the 200,000 views mark. Related: My *Philosophers, Explained* series, launched in late 2022:
Update on the free edition of Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Is philosophy pointless? With Carter Loren of Unsafe Spaces, Stephen Hicks takes up those and other questions. Related: Professor Hicks’s Philosophers, Explained series on the great thinkers and classic texts.
Do we have an innate need to believe in something bigger than ourselves? Read More »