Philosophy

“How Do You Explain the Great Enrichment of the Modern World?” — short video from Buenos Aires

I gave a talk in June at a conference sponsored by Fundación para la Responsabilidad Intelectual (FRI), Junior Achievement Argentina, and the John Templeton Foundation. When I was in Buenos Aires, FRI also did three short videos of me addressing questions. Here is a 12-minute video of my response to “How Do You Explain the Great Enrichment of

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Texts in Philosophy — late 2015 additions

For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. All files are PDFs. Antony Flew, R. M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell, “Three Accounts of What Faith Is,” from “Theology & Falsification: A Symposium” (1971). St. Augustine, on “Righteous Persecution” (c. 397-418 CE). HTML. David Hume, “Moral Distinctions Not Derived from Reason”, A

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Updating the Philosophy’s Longest Sentences competition

More on philosophers’ mind-numbingly long sentences. My initial post with my top candidates is here. Kazuma Kitamura sends in a new contender — a 175 word plea from Chapter One of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women: “If the authority of men over women, when first established, had been the result of a conscientious

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The real father of modern philosophy — Bacon versus Descartes

[At the beginning of the new academic year, a re-visiting of the beginnings of modern philosophy.] I vote for Francis Bacon. . . The standard answer gives the honor to René Descartes. Descartes’s claim to the title is based primarily on his epistemology — specifically his method of doubt. The method of doubt is both

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The ethics of sacrifice, National Socialist version

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

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Interview with entrepreneurs Magatte Wade and Michael Strong — Transcript

Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks: Hi, I’m Stephen Hicks. I am executive director of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship here at Rockford University. My two guests today spoke at Rockford University on the themes of entrepreneurship and ethics. With me is

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