Next year marks the 300-year anniversary of a landmark event in human achievement: “The last execution for witchcraft in England took place in 1716, when Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged.” By the early Enlightenment, Europe had progressed to the point of shedding many superstitions and the often-bizarre cultural, political, and legal practices […]
Witchcraft, my family, and reparations Read More »
Há exatamente um século, Adolf Hitler estava lutando na I Guerra Mundial. Ele era um bom soldado — recebeu a promoção ao posto de cabo, foi ferido duas vezes, e ao final, condecorado com seis medalhas. E com ele durante a guerra estavam os escritos do filósofo Arthur Schopenhauer. A imagem de Hitler lendo Schopenhauer é
Quão esperto e versado era Adolf Hitler? Read More »
A fascinating brief item from the Library of Social Science‘s site. All German soldiers swore an oath to Adolf Hitler, vowing, “I shall at all times be prepared to give my life.” Similarly, those in the Schutzstaffel, or SS, vowed “absolute allegiance unto death.” Hitler drew the following conclusion, as he and the National Socialist
The ethics of sacrifice, National Socialist version Read More »
Professor Piotr Kostyło of Casimir the Great University in Bydgoszcz, Poland, published a review of Nietzsche and the Nazis. The text of the review follows: Do We Know What We Advocate? Stephen Hicks’s Defence of Individualism The forty-five years of communism in Poland (1944-1989) were marked by the government reminding society of the atrocities committed during
Piotr Kostyło’s review of *Nietzsche and the Nazis* Read More »
[This text is also available via my Texts in Philosophy page.] Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Like all sound political conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in which it is inserted, and
Mussolini and Gentile’s *The Doctrine of Fascism* Read More »
Here is Henry Tandey of Warwickshire, UK, the most highly-decorated private in World War One. The following link is to an intriguing “What-if history” anecdote about Tandey, who crossed paths with Adolf Hitler in the war and decided not to kill him. [Image source: “Pte Tandey VC DCM MM” by Richard Harvey (Regimental Archivist), Duke
The man who spared Hitler’s life in WW I Read More »
1924 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and American philosopher John Dewey was writing a series of essays reflecting on philosophy and current events. The series was published in book form in 1929 as Characters and Events: Popular Essays in Social and Political Philosophy. Here are a few striking
John Dewey on Kant and the causes of World War I Read More »
Muitas pessoas espertas — incluindo Thomas Friedman no The New York Times, Naser Khader no Newsweek, John Lloyd no The Jerusalem Post, Ayann Hirsi Ali no The Wall Street Journal — estão esperando que algum tipo de Reforma ocorra no Islã. Alguns estão clamando por um Martin Luther King islâmico. Desculpe, mas não. O Islã
O Islã precisa de uma reforma? Read More »