John Adams the mini-series came out last year, but I just began watching it yesterday. The first two episodes are excellent. What a great way to spend part of July 4. Paul Giamatti’s performance hooked me: I have a renewed appreciation for John Adams’s brilliance, determination, and integrity. I also have an enlarged appreciation for […]
Late to the show, but excellent timing Read More »
“Read the news today? It’s like ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is happening in real life,” as this Facebook group points out. Many intelligent observers have noted the connection, which has led to sharply increased sales of Atlas and prominent coverage of Atlas‘s themes in Business Week, Forbes, the New York Times, the Economist, The Wall Street Journal,
The increasing(ly clear) relevance of Ayn Rand Read More »
My third contribution to the contest to find the longest sentences ever published by a philosopher, my first and second contributions being a 161-word contender from John Stuart Mill and a 163-word heavyweight from Immanuel Kant. We turn now to Book 1 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: “Now if the function of man is an activity
Philosophy’s longest sentences, Part 3 Read More »
Here is my second contribution to the contest. Edging out John Stuart Mill’s 161-word effort is the following from Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: “And then nothing can protect us against a complete falling away from our Ideas of duty, or can preserve in the soul a grounded reverence for its law,
Philosophy’s longest sentences, Part 2 Read More »
I hereby announce a contest: What is the longest sentence ever written by a philosopher? The kind of sentence that, as you are reading it through — trying to hold the context and decipher the meaning — flows majestically onwards, or meanders along deceptively, with occasional side streams (and parenthetical remarks), until your cerebrum is
Philosophy’s longest sentences Read More »
I vote for Francis Bacon. The standard answer gives the honor to René Descartes.
Who is the real father of modern philosophy? Read More »
Dr. David Mayer on his lecture, “Thomas Jefferson and the Holy Cause of Freedom,” about Jefferson’s writings on the nature and importance of liberty. Part I Part II More interviews with CEE’s guest speakers are available here.
Interview: David N. Mayer on Thomas Jefferson Read More »
Insights from my students collected over the years. Updated this semester. I offer you: “A Student History of Philosophy” (Being a compilation of student research, gently edited by Stephen Hicks, Rockford College). [pdf]
What I Have Learned about the History of Philosophy from My Students Read More »