For years I’ve used the Borden case in my Critical Thinking course. The case became part of American folklore, generating anonymous ditties like this: Lizzie Borden took an axAnd gave her mother forty whacks,And when she saw what she had done,She gave her father forty-one. Yet she was found Not Guilty at trial. Why? I […]
The Lizzie Borden double-murder case Read More »
Postmodern Philosophy A course by Stephen R.C. Hicks, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy Eight lectures. Key philosophers and philosophies since 1900 CE, with focus on the proponents and opponents of Postmodernism. Major thinkers covered: Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Ayn Rand, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida,
SYLLABUS for my Postmodern Philosophy course [Peterson Academy] Read More »
Reprising this on why some cultures become great explorers and others stay home: the role of metaphysics. “And as for trying to sail down the west African coast, everyone knew that as soon as you passed the Canary Islands you would be in the Mare Tenebroso, the Sea of Darkness: ‘In the medieval imagination [writes
On the dangers of exploration — medieval version Read More »
It was twenty years ago this summer that EP came out. Full title: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. The book is an intellectual history of the roots of postmodernism. One-sentence thesis: The failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible; the failure of socialism made postmodernism necessary. I’m pleased that the book has
20th Anniversary of *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »
A strong observation from Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges’s The Ancient City: “It is a general fact, and almost without exception in the history of Greece and of Italy, that the tyrants sprang from the popular party, and had the aristocracy as enemies. ‘The mission of the tyrant,’ says Aristotle, ‘is to protect the people
How Populists become Tyrants — classic examples Read More »
Poem by Anonymous*: Here, richly, with ridiculous display,The Politician’s corpse was laid away.While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged,I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged. * * * [Update: A reader informs me (thanks!) that Hilaire Belloc is the author of the poem.]
The Politician’s Funeral [Humor] Read More »
[Reposting from July, 2012, and with this update on the controversy over Hochschild’s book: Gilley critiques and Hochschild responds.] One of the most outrageous evils of the 19th and early 20th centuries was Leopold II of Belgium’s rape of the Congo. The story is well told by Adam Hochschild in King Leopold’s Ghost. King Leopold
*King Leopold’s Ghost* — slavery in the Congo Read More »
Carrying on the fun Renaissance debate about which art form is the best. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, revenge-killer, likely a rapist, and party animal. Check out his Autobiography for all the energetic and sordid true-confessions details. It was he who did the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, now in the
What is the best art medium? — Sculpture version Read More »