Is peace or war the natural state of man? Do men fight primarily over material possessions or over women? For decades anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon studied the Yanomamö, a remote tribe in South America, learning about their almost-constant warfare — and his findings put him in open conflict with academic anthropologists and the American Anthropological Association. […]
Ideological wars in anthropology Read More »
After a terrible yesterday, like many people I am still trying to understand how someone could do those horrible things. I run through the list of factors and wonder which ones contributed causally. His being male? His mental abilities/disabilities? How his parents raised him? His living in a society with access to firearms or with
Firearm death rates and more Read More »
Following up on “Are we declining from our decline?” and “The constant decline of civilization?”, here is one of my favorites historians, Sallust (86– c. 35 BCE), on how his generation of Romans is so much worse morally than the preceding ones. In The War with Catiline, he writes: “Since the occasion has arisen to
More on the decline of civilization: Sallust Read More »
In this third Socratic seminar on the Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism, we take up three arguments: a) the paternalist argument that human beings are incapable of living freely, b) the collectivist argument that wealth is a social creation (at 11 minutes), and c) the religious argument that value is not of this world (at
Three more anti-free-market arguments (UFM seminar) Read More »
More data showing that culture, not race, is crucial to educational performance: “Africans outperform African-Americans in Seattle schools: Even the children of destitute Somali refugees do better.” From the Seattle Times report: “African-American students whose primary language is English perform significantly worse in math and reading than black students who speak another language at home
Immigrant culture, race, and education Read More »
Stephen Hicks discusses Marxism’s view of education during the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., during the transition from capitalism to socialism. This is from Part 13 of his Philosophy of Education course. 1 Clip: Previous: Marxist teachers in a capitalist system. Next: Education under socialism. Return to the Philosophy of Education page or the full
Education during the dictatorship of the proletariat Read More »
Stephen Hicks discusses Ayn Rand’s theory of human nature. This is from Part 12 of his Philosophy of Education course. Previous: Francis Bacon’s “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed” Next: Individualism: self-responsible living and the virtues Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the StephenHicks.org main page.
Human nature: mind/body integration, volition, reason and emotion, tabula rasa morally Read More »
Stephen Hicks discusses the debate over whether Existentialism is individualist. This is from Part 11 of his Philosophy of Education course. Clips 1-2: Previous: Assessment. Next: Contra the good-news-sunny-skies approach to life. Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the StephenHicks.org main page.