[This excerpt is from Chapter 5 of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault] Marxism and waiting for Godot First formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, classical Marxist socialism made two related pairs of claims, one pair economic and one pair moral. Economically, it argued that capitalism was driven by a logic of competitive […]
Marx’s three failed predictions [EP] Read More »
Episodes: The full playlist. Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting positions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in England, and Jagiellonian University in Poland.
Thales and the Origin of Philosophy | Philosophers, Explained by Professor Stephen Hicks Read More »
There is wisdom in shoes: “Once I was sad because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.” Your problems are not as bad as they could be. “Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” Knowing the other’s context puts you in a better position to
I re-read some of Sidney Hook’s autobiographical Out of Step. I disagree with Hook about most things philosophical — he was a pragmatist and a Marxist of varying sorts — but I do respect that Hook was one of the first to reject and criticize the lockstep Party-mentality and slavish following of all things Soviet
Sidney Hook on growing up poor in New York Read More »
Episodes: The full playlist. Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting positions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in England, and Jagiellonian University in Poland.
On Education | Immanuel Kant | Philosophers, Explained by Professor Stephen Hicks Read More »
At the beginning of Crito, Socrates is in prison awaiting execution, having been found guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. His good friend Crito arrives, having worked out an escape opportunity for Socrates. Crito rushes through a few reasons why Socrates should escape immediately. Socrates then suggests that the issue is more
In class: Reason, according to Socrates Read More »
Stephen Hicks discusses Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous phrase “existence precedes essence” and its implications for the Existentialist view of human nature. This is from Part 11 of his Philosophy of Education course. (See also my episode on Sartre’s essay “Existentialism Is a Humanism’ in the Philosophers, Explained series.)
Jean-Paul Sartre and “Existence precedes essence” Read More »
Reprising this from Thomas Akehurst’s Philosophy Now essay on why Bertrand Russell blamed German fascism on German philosophy: “What is less well known is that in the 1930s and 1940s Russell’s attention turned to the idea that the origins of Nazism were primarily philosophical.” Russelll, according to Akehurst, mentioned several German philosophers by name, among
Why did Bertrand Russell blame German fascism on German philosophy? Read More »