[This week in my Introduction to Philosophy course, we’re reading Galileo’s “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina” — published exactly 400 years ago — in which he argues that free inquiry in the sciences is compatible with religion rightly understood. Here is a re-posting of my Galileo and the Modern Compromise.] IN HIS OPEN LETTER […]
Galileo on religion and science (Introduction to Philosophy this week) Read More »
Há exatamente um século, Adolf Hitler estava lutando na I Guerra Mundial. Ele era um bom soldado — recebeu a promoção ao posto de cabo, foi ferido duas vezes, e ao final, condecorado com seis medalhas. E com ele durante a guerra estavam os escritos do filósofo Arthur Schopenhauer. A imagem de Hitler lendo Schopenhauer é
Quão esperto e versado era Adolf Hitler? Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks: Our guest today is Professor Nicholas Capaldi, who is the Legendre-Soulé Professor of Business Ethics at Loyola University in New Orleans. Professor Capaldi was here lecturing on business ethics. You framed your discussion on business ethics in
Video Interview with Professor Nicholas Capaldi — Transcript Read More »
[In July 2015 I gave a talk at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on “The Next Revolution in Art.” The text of my talk follows.] Why art matters to us Art is a perennial human desire. We need and hunger for stories, images, and sounds that are unique, beautiful, self-affirming, and/or profound. We love to
The Next Revolution in Art — my lecture in Hong Kong Read More »
More on philosophers’ mind-numbingly long sentences. My initial post with my top candidates is here. Kazuma Kitamura sends in a new contender — a 175 word plea from Chapter One of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women: “If the authority of men over women, when first established, had been the result of a conscientious
Updating the Philosophy’s Longest Sentences competition Read More »
1924 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and American philosopher John Dewey was writing a series of essays reflecting on philosophy and current events. The series was published in book form in 1929 as Characters and Events: Popular Essays in Social and Political Philosophy. Here are a few striking
John Dewey on Kant and the causes of World War I Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship as a part of the Profiles in Liberty series. Part I: Why did you become a philosopher? Rasmussen: I guess the reason I became a philosopher is because I was asking questions at a very early age. I remember
Video Interview with Professor Douglas Rasmussen — Transcript Read More »
Muitas pessoas espertas — incluindo Thomas Friedman no The New York Times, Naser Khader no Newsweek, John Lloyd no The Jerusalem Post, Ayann Hirsi Ali no The Wall Street Journal — estão esperando que algum tipo de Reforma ocorra no Islã. Alguns estão clamando por um Martin Luther King islâmico. Desculpe, mas não. O Islã
O Islã precisa de uma reforma? Read More »
I was struck by this reflection on the history of philosophy, made by Adolf Hitler, who read voraciously when young and especially during his prison time in the 1920s: “In the Great Hall of the Linz Library are the busts of Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the greatest of our thinkers, in comparison with whom the
On Hitler’s degree of intellectualism Read More »
Tempos difíceis para a liberdade de expressão. Há um século, a Alemanha era uma nação autoritária. O Kaiser Guilherme II estava presidindo as forças da nação na 1º Guerra Mundial, enquanto o jovem Adolf Hitler estava trabalhando para ser ele o comandante das forças da nação na 2ª Guerra Mundial. Ao mesmo tempo, a Grã-Bretanha
A liberdade de expressão está morta nas universidades? [Portuguese translation] Read More »