[I use Ayn Rand’s classic The Fountainhead in my Introduction to Philosophy course, analyzing the five major characters as moral-philosophical types. Here is a digest of the novel’s brilliant-manipulator villain, Ellsworth Toohey.] The ethics of altruism holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of […]
Ellsworth Toohey’s five strategies of altruism [repost] Read More »
I did not know this about Priestley’s significance to two of the great American founding fathers: “In the 165 letters that passed between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the name Benjamin Franklin is mentioned five times, George Washington three times, Alexander Hamilton twice — and Joseph Priestley, a foreign immigrant, is cited no fewer than
Joseph Priestley’s significance Read More »
John Dewey was one of the top two most influential philosophers of education in the twentieth century. Maria Montessori was the other. Dewey’s influence has been most strongly felt in the American public school system. In America, Montessori’s influence has mostly been grassroots and in privately funded schools. Montessori’s approach is highly individualistic and individualized.
John Dewey on education as socialization Read More »
In this eight lecture (nine-hour) course, Professor Hicks takes us on an exploration of the evolution of 20th-century philosophy, from the disappointed skepticism of Russell and the pragmatism of Dewey to the postmodern ideas of Foucault and Derrida. We examine how philosophers responded to major events and challenges of the era, such as World War
Postmodern Philosophy course [Peterson Academy] Read More »
Philosopher David Kelley (Ph.D., Princeton) is author of The Evidence of the Senses, A Realist Theory of Perception (LSU, 1986), a work on foundational issues in epistemology, and The Art of Reasoning: An Introduction to Logic (W.W. Norton, 1st edition 1990, 5th edition 2020), a widely used textbook. He has published a new essay, “Concepts
David Kelley new essay on Concepts, Propositions, and Truth Read More »
My video lecture on the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial “Fairness Doctrine,” part of the Business Ethics Cases series. Contents:1. The early days of radio and a tragedy of the commons.2. What is fairness? Two competing answers.3. The argument for the “Fairness Doctrine.”4. The argument against the “Fairness Doctrine.”5. Related issues: whether politics is special, whether
Telecommunications — the FCC’s ‘Fairness Doctrine’ [Business Ethics Cases series] Read More »
Great Books: Seven categories. Five only in each. Works that I love or learned from or influenced me or that I return to regularly. LiteratureVictor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943)Elliott Arnold, White Falcon (1958) Historical FictionMary Renault, The Persian Boy [Alexander the
Great Books — My Recommended Reading List Read More »
The Laws is Plato’s last book. Its dialogue is set in Crete and led by an Athenian who is never identified. He converses with a citizen from Sparta and a politician from Crete. The politician has been given the authority to create laws for a new colony, so he asks the Athenian for advice, and
Plato on games and educating for rule-following Read More »
My essay “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” is a 43-page study published in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (2009). Text version. Audiobook version: Part One, Part Two. The abstract: “Philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand are often identified as strong critics of altruism and arch advocates of egoism. In this essay, Stephen Hicks argues
“Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” now online Read More »
Imperialism and colonialism are older than human history, and across the centuries virtually every culture in every part of the world practiced it. Until the Enlightenment of the 1700s. At which point a few voices began arguing that we should only trade with people rather than conquer them and take their stuff — and that
Why liberal capitalism opposed imperialism and colonialism Read More »