Philosophy

Enacted on February 28, 1933, less than one month after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor: § 1. Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom [habeas corpus], freedom of (opinion) expression, […]

At the beginning of the 20th century, both religion and philosophy seem to have reached a dead end: Russell: philosophy’s answers “are none of them demonstrably true.” Dewey: religions merely “steep and dye intellectual fabrics in the seething vat of emotions.” Lecture One: Uncertain Prospects. Bertrand Russell and John Dewey Themes: Disquieting inheritance: Entropy, Karl

Roger Scruton was this generation’s most well-known conservative philosopher. He was a fierce critic of various sorts of leftism, socialism, collectivism, postmodernism, and so on. Yet note these two items: (a) He regularly states that he is more in agreement with their philosophical fundamentals than he is with (b) the philosophy he believes is most

The Middle Ages (~400 to ~1400) are frequently divided into the ~400-1000 years (the era of decline or “Dark Ages”) and the ~1000-1400 years (when activity picked up again (the “High” or “Late” Middle Ages). The existence of a “Dark Age” is hotly and sometimes angrily contested. Three data visualizations for your consideration, followed by

In this eight lecture (nine-hour) course, Professor Hicks takes us on an exploration of the evolution of 20th-century philosophy, from the disappointed skepticism of Russell and the pragmatism of Dewey to the science-and-rigor philosophies of Popper and Rand to postmodern ideas of Foucault and Derrida. We examine how philosophers responded to major events and challenges