A man wins $100,000 in Las Vegas and, not wanting anyone to know about it, he takes it home and buries it in his backyard. The next morning he goes out back and finds only an empty hole. He sees footprints leading to the house next door, which belongs to a deaf-mute, so he asks […]
Philosophy humor — Ethics and honesty Read More »
Three women are in a locker room dressing to play racquetball when a man runs through wearing nothing but a bag over his head. The first woman looks at his penis and says, “Well, it’s not my husband.” The second woman says, “No, it isn’t.” The third woman says, “He’s not even a member of
Philosophy humor — Knowledge and esse est percipi Read More »
Who are the great philosophers, and what makes them great? Episodes: The full playlist. 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
Reprising this chart on the Enlightenment of the long 1700s and it self-conscious grasp it its own significance. Related: My “Enlightenment Vision” flowchart and other posts and lectures on the Enlightenment. The chart is from Chapter One of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault.
How the Enlightenment solved all of our problems Read More »
A quotation from Jane Addams, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rockford University student on progressivism’s meaning of democracy. “In this effort toward a higher morality in our social relations, we must demand that the individual shall be willing to lose the sense of personal achievement, and shall be content to realize his activity only in
Jane Addams and the progressive mindset Read More »
I’m preparing a lecture on Sayyid Qutb (to be delivered late summer), so this makes me chuckle. The connections: Qutb was executed by Egyptian gov’t in 1966 and became an Islamist martyr. Qutb’s writings were translated into Persian by Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomenei led the 1979 theocratic revolution in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei is his successor. Here’s
Qutb, Khomeini, and Khamenei Read More »
Following up on “The constant decline of civilization?” A favorite historian, Sallust (86– c. 35 BCE), on how his generation of Romans is so much worse morally than the preceding ones. In The War with Catiline, he writes: “Since the occasion has arisen to speak of the morals of our country, the nature of my
Are we Rome? Sallust on the decline of civilization Read More »
In Henry the VIII’s time, sugar became widely available in England. Those who could afford it used it on just about everything, and too much sugar causes one’s teeth to become black. But sugar was still expensive, so having black teeth came to be a symbol of wealth. Soon many of the English, women especially,
Fashion: white teeth — or black? Read More »