Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are on a camping trip. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Watson a nudge. “Watson,” he says, “look up in the sky and tell me what you see.” “I see millions of stars, Holmes,” says Watson. “And what do you conclude from that, Watson?” Watson […]
Philosophy humor — Logical inference Read More »
A man wins $100,000 in Las Vegas and, not wanting anyone to know about it, he takes it home and buries it in his backyard. The next morning he goes out back and finds only an empty hole. He sees footprints leading to the house next door, which belongs to a deaf-mute, so he asks
Philosophy humor — Ethics and honesty Read More »
Who are the great philosophers, and what makes them great? 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
Reprising this chart on the Enlightenment of the long 1700s and it self-conscious grasp it its own significance. Related: My “Enlightenment Vision” flowchart and other posts and lectures on the Enlightenment. The chart is from Chapter One of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault.
How the Enlightenment solved all of our problems Read More »
A quotation from Jane Addams, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rockford University student on progressivism’s meaning of democracy. “In this effort toward a higher morality in our social relations, we must demand that the individual shall be willing to lose the sense of personal achievement, and shall be content to realize his activity only in
Jane Addams and the progressive mindset Read More »
I’m preparing a lecture on Sayyid Qutb (to be delivered late summer), so this makes me chuckle. The connections: Qutb was executed by Egyptian gov’t in 1966 and became an Islamist martyr. Qutb’s writings were translated into Persian by Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomenei led the 1979 theocratic revolution in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei is his successor. Here’s
Qutb, Khomeini, and Khamenei Read More »
Following up on “The constant decline of civilization?” A favorite historian, 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 speak of the morals of our country, the nature of my
Are we Rome? Sallust on the decline of civilization Read More »
Episodes: The full playlist. About the Professor: 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.