David Hume topped this 2009 PhilPapers survey of most influential and admired philosophers (scroll down to bottom of the page to “Non-living philosophers most identified with”). Aristotle came in second and Kant third. I’ve been thinking much about Nietzsche and Heidegger recently: eleventh and eighteenth, respectively. Overall, the list was still dominated by thinkers in […]
David Hume’s current influence Read More »
I will be at the Academy’s impressive studio in Miami to record a new eight-lecture course on the philosophy of ethics. Here is the invitation to join the live studio audience. We will cover thinkers who made ethics modern (and highly diverse) — and those who resisted the modernizing trends — including John Locke, Jean-Jacques
Studio audience invitation for new Peterson Academy course: *Modern Ethics* Read More »
This series letters written while in exile — on the sometimes-shocking English way of doing religion, politics, science, morals, and philosophy — were hugely influential upon a French audience still in the grip of l’ancien regime. Related: The full Philosophers, Explained series, including classics from Kant, Nietzsche, Rand, Camus, Aristotle, Plato, and other important thinkers.
Voltaire’s essential *Letters on England* brought the Enlightenment to France Read More »
According to Ernst Cassirer, Immanuel Kant was “the man who introduced anthropology as a branch of study in German universities.”[1] And anthropologist W. E. Mühlmann calls Kant “the founder of the modern concept of race.”[2] All humans are members of the same species, Kant argues, since members of the different races are capable of interbreeding.
Kant versus racial interbreeding Read More »
I did not know that in 1818 a younger Arthur Schopenhauer, aged 30, made a trip to Florence, Italy, where he pursued love. Unfortunately for Arthur, it didn’t go well. “After a number of rejections, he decided that ‘only the male intellect, clouded by the sexual impulse, could call the undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged
Schopenhauer in and out of love Read More »
In this introductory volume, Professor Stephen R. C. Hicks makes the essential arguments for and against liberalism. Each argument is supported by quotations from the major thinkers—including Locke, Nietzsche, Plato, Hayek, de Maistre, Rand, Marx, and others—who have advanced or attacked liberalism. The Pro-Liberal claims: Liberalism increases freedom | People work harder in liberal societies |
*Liberalism Pro and Con* A Primer [e-book version] Read More »
A reminder of this prescient remark from Mises’ Liberalism — a book published in 1927: “Fascism can triumph today because universal indignation at infamies committed by the socialist and communists has obtained for it the sympathies of wide circles. But when the fresh impression of the crimes of the Bolsheviks has paled, the socialist program
The recurring socialism/fascism cycle — Mises observation Read More »
Episodes: The full playlist, including Kant, Nietzsche, Rand, Locke, Heidegger, and others. Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting positions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in England, and Jagiellonian University in
Professor Kimberly Baxter’s article summarizes Hegel’s argument that the state’s higher ethical purposes necessitate war as a means. According to Hegel, war is a “positive moment” wherein the state asserts itself as an individual and establishing its rights and interests. Sacrifice on behalf of the the state is the “substantial tie between the state and
Hegel on war’s purifying powers — Baxter article Read More »
Fifty hours of my video lectures on Philosophy of Education are available free online. * The course cover issues from metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, and ethics that are directly relevant to education.* The lectures also cover major philosophies Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, Behaviorism, Existentialism, Marxism, Objectivism, and Postmodernism — that have enormously influenced contemporary education.* Along
Philosophy of Education: My lectures online Read More »