The biographer of Nobel Peace prize-winning (and Rockford University graduate) Jane Addams recounts this incident, in which Addams invokes Kantian duty-ethic in response to a friend’s desire for some gratitude in response to her charitable works: “Her wealthy friends like Louise deKoven Bowen [1859-1953] viewed gratitude for their good work as the only payment they […]
Jane Addams and Ellsworth Toohey Read More »
Matt Zwolinski and I have a friendly debate about several technical, foundational issues in Rand’s theory of rights: Can rights be based on egoism? What’s the connection between property rights and value creation? What counts as an improper initiation of force? Several other sub-issues about content and method arise along the way. In about 750 words each,
Zwolinski and Hicks on Rand and rights theory Read More »
Football player Marshawn Lynch in an interview, on his independence of judgment: “If you tell me to do something and I want to know why and you don’t want to tell me why — No.” Take that, hero-of-the-Old-Testament Abraham, whose blind faith made him willing to kill his son Isaac when commanded. Sources: American Way,
Marshawn Lynch (NFL) versus Abraham (Genesis) on morality Read More »
[Kant died on February 12 in 1804.] Duty, not inclination: “Now an action done from duty must wholly exclude the influence of inclination and with it every object of the will, so that nothing remains which can determine the will except objectively the law, and subjectively pure respect for this practical law, and consequently the
Kant on what makes one morally worthy Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks: I am Stephen Hicks. Our guest today is Professor Terry Noel, who teaches Entrepreneurship and Management at Illinois State. He is here today at Rockford College speaking on the theme of the virtuous entrepreneur. Interesting title, but
Dr. Terry Noel on the Virtuous Entrepreneur [video interview transcript] Read More »
Here are two recent reviews of philosopher Neera Badhwar’s (recommended) Well-Being: Happiness in a Worthwhile Life (Oxford University Press, 2014): * Professor Jason Raibley in Ethics (pdf, or via Academia.edu). * Professor Jean Karez in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
Two reviews of Neera Badhwar’s *Well-Being* Read More »
[From lecture notes for Immanuel Kant’s 1775-1780 courses as published in Lectures on Ethics [1775-1780], translated by Louis Infield, New York: Harper and Row, 1963, pp. 162-168. The text is below and here as PDF.] Duties towards the Body in Respect of Sexual Impulse Amongst our inclinations there is one which is directed towards other
Kant on sex, marriage, concubines, prostitutes, and incest [text] Read More »
[Text is below or in PDF.] The Grand Inquisitor By Fyodor Dostoyevsky [From The Brothers Karamazov (1880, II.v.5). Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. In this novel, Ivan and Alyosha are brothers; Ivan questions the possibility of a personal, benevolent God, and Alyosha is a novice monk. Aside from this background knowledge, the
Dostoyevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor” scene [text] Read More »