John Dewey: “we have an explicit fear of the hampering influence of a state-conducted and state-regulated education upon the attainment of these ideas. But in less than two decades after this time, Kant’s philosophic successors, Fichte and Hegel, elaborated the idea that the chief function of the state is educational; that in particular the regeneration […]
From Kant to compulsory state education [Dewey quotation] Read More »
A good interview with philosopher of science Noretta Koertge. She was a student of Karl Popper’s at the University of London and became editor of the academic journal Philosophy of Science. She was also a member of my Ph.D. dissertation committee at Indiana University. Upon the publication of this excellent collection of articles — A
Koertge and the mis-uses of science Read More »
Ennui and emptiness. Meet Henri, le chat existentialiste. Revisiting this now-classic humor series. Related: My close reading of the most famous and un-humorous Existentialist:
By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA. Lecture 3: If education is about the transmission of knowledge, then what is knowledge? Or if education is about training young people’s habits of mind, then what about alertness to evidence, skill with logic, and a commitment to reason? Does faith work? Is everything just opinion? Previous
Lecture Four: Why has moral philosophy become skeptical and sterile? In contrast, Ayn Rand rejects the is-ought dichotomy and argues that ethics is “an objective necessity” for volitional, rational beings. Philippa Foot, also updating Aristotle, states that “the grounding of a moral argument is ultimately in facts about human life.” Themes: Naturalism. Bio-centrism. Value and
On the widespread phenomenon of frustrated and angry young men becoming hateful and destructive: “I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me, and I learned to hate” is a line from Mikhail Lermontov’s 1840 novel, A Hero of Our Time. I’ve frequently wondered, given the timing, how much the young
“I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me, and I learned to hate.” Read More »
More precisely: Who is the most loathsome philosopher in his or her personal life? Let me set the bar high by naming my top two candidates. 1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who fathered several children and had them abandoned to orphanages, and of whom David Hume wrote in a letter to Adam Smith: “Thus you see, he
Who is the most loathsome philosopher in history? Read More »
I’m a philosopher, and on the job I ‘ve been known to read literary works as “premises with feet.” Despite that occupational hazard I’m also fascinated with how great fiction writers can seamlessly integrate abstract philosophical themes with concrete literary portrayals. When I teach Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, my focus in class is philosophical, but
Howard Roark and Peter Keating: first meetings Read More »