Reposting this from a trip that took me to Texas and Oklahoma. I saw this sign along a highway a little across the OK border. “Steve,” the sign seemed to say to me, “you’re not in Illinois anymore.” So I took a tourist memento picture. It turns out that they are not worried about what weirdos […]
Dueling billboards, Oklahoma style Read More »
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 »
David Hume topped this 2009 PhilPapers survey of most influential and admired philosophers (scroll down to bottom of the page to “Non-living philosophers most identified with”). Aristotle came in second and Kant third. I’ve been thinking much about Nietzsche and Heidegger recently: eleventh and eighteenth, respectively. Overall, the list was still dominated by thinkers in
David Hume’s current influence Read More »
Results from a recent survey of children: Respondents across all countries were worried about climate change (59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried). More than 50% reported each of the following emotions: sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext Much of modern environmentalism strikes me as very Old
Children’s fears and environmental education Read More »
An evocative quotation from philosopher Sidney Hook (1902-1989), from his autobiographical Out of Step. In an earlier post I quoted Hook’s account of his family’s living conditions. Here Hook recalls his authoritarian-style education in American schools circa one century ago: “Although the public schools were religiously attended (children feared the wrath of their parents much
Sidney Hook on public education Read More »
Unexpected news: Explaining Postmodernism wins first place in a university’s edible cake contest. The cake’s maker, who wishes to remain anonymous online, explains: “Mickey, the dialectical apprentice to such gnostic sorcerers as Rousseau, Hegel, and Derrida, is busy deconstructing our cake, leaving destruction and ruin in his wake.” I like that the book side of
*Explaining Postmodernism* wins baking contest Read More »
Today at Jagielloninan University in Krakow, Poland, is a book-launch event for this new volume: Defending the Value of Education as a Public GoodPhilosophical Dialogues on Education and the State, edited by Katarzyna Wrońska (Jagiellonian University, Poland), Julian Stern (Bishop Grosseteste University, England). I contributed an essay. My title and abstract: “Mind-shift for 21st-Century Education:
Chapter: “Mind-shift for 21st-Century Education: Entrepreneurism,” by Stephen Hicks Read More »
I will be at the Academy’s impressive studio in Miami to record a new eight-lecture course on the philosophy of ethics. Here is the invitation to join the live studio audience. We will cover thinkers who made ethics modern (and highly diverse) — and those who resisted the modernizing trends — including John Locke, Jean-Jacques
Studio audience invitation for new Peterson Academy course: *Modern Ethics* Read More »