In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn argues for metaphysical subjective relativism: “the proponents of competing paradigms practice their trades in different worlds.” In part, this is because scientists are not educated so much as brainwashed: “the member of a mature scientific community is, like the typical character in Orwell’s 1984, the victim of […]
Thomas Kuhn in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Mark Michael Lewis interviewed me on a variety of philosophical topics. Below is an excerpted transcription, from 26:55 to 36:05, on the evolution of postmodernism. The transcription is by Walter Evans-Wenz. PDF here. Mark Michael Lewis interviews Stephen Hicks Hicks: Right now we are with respect to that phenomenon—that’s third generation postmodernism. What you have
Three Stages of Postmodernism–From Foucault and Rorty to Now [transcript] Read More »
I’m giving two talks in Rhode Island this week at Salve Regina University. Thanks to philosophy professor Khalil Habib for the invitation. One talk, “Nietzsche on Masters and Slaves,” is for SRU students only and will focus on the First Essay of Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals. Here’s
Nietzsche on Masters and Slaves — SRU talk upcoming Read More »
The poet Thomas de Quincey said: “Here I pause for one moment to exhort the reader never to pay any attention to his understanding when it stands in opposition to any other faculty of his mind. The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind, and the most to
Thomas de Quincey in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
I’m giving two talks in Rhode Island this week at Salve Regina University. Thanks to philosophy professor Khalil Habib for the invitation. One talk takes up leading postmodernist claims that “the Enlightenment Project has failed” (Rorty), that we are living amid its “dim ruins” (Gray), and that consequently our civilization’s “deepest strata” are shifting earthquake-like
SRU talk coming up: “Postmodernism and the Verdict of History” Read More »
Why does Fountain matter so much to art history? Honored to be included in this collection of quotations on Duchamp’s significance. For more context and development: “The Most Important Artist of the Century” and “Why Art Became Ugly.”
The significance of Duchamp’s urinal Read More »
In The Wall Street Journal, she asks: “Who’s Afraid of Jordan Peterson?” “What could a grown-up, seemingly stable professor (former associate professor of psychology at Harvard, full professor for 20 years at the University of Toronto) stand for that would make a journalist want to annihilate him on live TV—or, failing that, to diminish him
Peggy Noonan on Jordan Peterson’s morality Read More »
Historian Thomas Nipperdey on one reason why German philosophy came to prominence in American intellectual life: “Until 1830 it was the general rule that talented and curious young minds gravitated to Paris; but from then on they came, in ever-increasing numbers (American students, for example) to Germany, to Berlin.” For more on the meaning and implications
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I think what the postmodernists did was truly evil. They are responsible for the intellectual fad that made it respectable to be cynical about truth and facts. You’d have people going around saying: “Well, you’re part of that crowd who still believe in facts.” Source.
Daniel Dennett on the postmodernists Read More »
Philosopher Christopher Janaway said: “One feature uniting many kinds of recent philosophy is an increasing recognition that we are working within the legacy of Kant”. For more on the meaning and implications of Janaway’s remark, see p. 79 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. Information about other editions and translations is available at this
Christopher Janaway in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »