Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Part I Hicks: I’m Stephen Hicks, executive director of CEE, and our guest today is Dr. William Kline, an expert on David Hume, the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher. He spoke today at Rockford University in the Ethical Theory […]
Dr. William Kline on David Hume — video interview transcript Read More »
One century ago, Adolf Hitler fighting in the Great War. He was a good soldier — he would be promoted to the rank of corporal, be wounded two times, and be awarded six medals. And with him during the war he had the writings of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The image of Hitler reading Schopenhauer is
How Smart and Well-read was Adolf Hitler? [Good Life series] Read More »
[In my Introduction to Philosophy course this week, we are reading and discussing Galileo Galilei’s attempt to reconcile the new science with traditional religion. The text of his Letter is at my Texts in Philosophy page.] In his open letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), Galileo offered a defense of science against the prevailing
Galileo and the Early Modern Compromise in Philosophy Read More »
Some parts of the world really are environmental Hells. They are dirty and depleted, making them unhealthy and economically unsustainable. We can argue about the severity of various places’ problems, but I want to focus on another aspect of the debate: determining accurately the causes of the degradation so we can focus productively on finding
Blamestorming and Environmental Problems (Part I) [Good Life series] Read More »
[Originally published at EveryJoe.com.] Many smart people — including Thomas Friedman in The New York Times, Naser Khader in Newsweek, John Lloyd in The Jerusalem Post, Ayaan Hirsi Ali in The Wall Street Journal — are hoping that the Reformation will come to Islam. Some are calling for an Islamic Martin Luther. Sorry, but no.
No Reformation for Islam, Please [Good Life series] Read More »
Strange times for free speech. A century ago, Germany was the authoritarian nation. Kaiser Wilhelm was presiding over its efforts in World War I, and young Adolf Hitler was working toward his opportunity in World War II. At the same time, Britain and America were havens of liberal ideals. Yet those nations seem to have
Is Free Speech Dead in Universities? [Good Life series] Read More »
A dedicated page for my online lecture series on the Philosophy of Education. Course Description: This fifteen-part video course covers philosophical issues that bear directly upon education. Professor Hicks discuss the philosophers — Plato, Locke, Kant, Dewey, Montessori, and others — who have influenced education greatly, and he compares systems of educational philosophy and their
Philosophy of Education — Course Lectures page Read More »
In this article, Newberry discusses Kant’s theory of the sublime and contrasts it to Aristotle’s and Rand’s aesthetic theories, along the way using modernists and postmodernists such as Duchamp, Manzoni, Hatoum, and Creed as examples, and then giving an extended review of Start Mark Feldman’s The Future in Our Hands sculpture group. Pandora’s Box: The
Michael Newberry on the sublime in art Read More »
Irrational and unjust discrimination in the workplace deserves exposure and condemnation. But what about rational discrimination? Consider the following cases. * You are the chair of the hiring committee for a new president of a historically-black college. So you discriminate in favor of black candidates and against non-black candidates. * You are the owner of
How to Discriminate Properly [Good Life series] Read More »
¿Por qué la filosofía comienza con Thales? Por Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. Traducido al Español por Fermin Elizalde, 2019. English Version ¿Tiene Kant un lugar en el liberalismo clásico? Por Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. La respuesta es complicada. Cualquier lectura de la gran masa de escritos de Kant nos ofrece inicialmente una mezcla