At the beginning of a new era, Bacon asks: * What can make science and philosophy productive and generative, not stagnant and sterile as it currently is? * Should we really give tradition much credence? * Learning begins with the senses, but how do we overcome our senses’ and intellects’ native weaknesses? * What is […]
“Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed” | Francis Bacon |Philosophers, Explained Read More »
For Valentine’s Day, reprising my round-up of philosophers talking to their sweethearts – collected from conversations overheard at smoky cafés, college libraries, mountain caves, and seminar rooms the world over. The Aristotelian: “I wish to marry you, for I know that my happiness, both of body and soul, is contingent upon our union in the
Should I marry you? — Philosophers answer the big question Read More »
The 20th century’s most famous philosopher addresses this question: Why do philosophy, if none of its questions are answerable? Related: Others in the Philosophers, Explained series: Catharine MacKinnon on censoring pornography as violence.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on overthrowing capitalism. John Stuart Mill on free speech. Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile on the philosophy of
Bertrand Russell: Is Philosophy Valuable? | Philosophers, Explained by Stephen Hicks Read More »
I think of him as the anti-Homer poet. While Homer’s subjects are gods and heroes, Archilochus writes of drunkenness, running away to live and perhaps fight another day, the common man with his feet planted firmly on the ground — and, occasionally of sweet love. Not much is known about him other than that he
From the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno’s 1913 The Tragic Sense of Life, on how Kant first destroys rational belief in the existence of God but then resurrects that belief on moral grounds. Or: how Kant’s head says No to God but his heart says Yes. Or: how mortal man cannot find God but the
Unamuno on Kant on God in the first two Critiques Read More »
There is wisdom in shoes: “Once I was sad because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.” Your problems are not as bad as they could be. “Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” Knowing the other’s context puts you in a better position to
I’m all confused. The hot-headed Nietzsche’s startling line from his 1887 Genealogy of Morals has always stuck with me: “the truly great haters in world history have always been priests.” That’s from the First Essay, Section 7, in the context of his analysis of slave morality born of ressentiment. But now I read that, according
The teenaged Rodin applied for admission to the École des Beaux-Arts. But: “Rodin, who competed for the first time at seventeen, failed to gain admission — not once but three times within eighteen months. The humiliation of these rebuffs was scarcely lessened by the fact that the examiners acknowledged his gift for drawing but rejected
Art school reject: Auguste Rodin Read More »
The published series now includes thirty episodes, of which the first ten are: 1 Immanuel Kant on the limits of reason. Critique of Pure Reason. 2 William James on pacifism and defeating militarism. “The Moral Equivalent of War.” 3 Galileo Galilei on not persecuting scientists, “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.” 4 Arachne and Athena
The first ten *Philosophers, Explained* Read More »
Below is the recording schedule for each lecture in my two courses, which will be presented live before a studio audience in Miami. For those in the area (or planning to be), free registration is here: Hicks Modern Philosophy and Postmodern Philosophy Two courses by Stephen R.C. Hicks, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy Schedule for studio