A fun anecdote from the history of medicine. (Fun in hindsight, though not necessarily fun for those who lived through the medical history.) The late-medieval Iatrochemists believed that progress could be made by uniting medicine with alchemy. Their intellectual leader was Paracelsus (1493-1541), a Swiss physician whose goal was to reform medical chemistry by rejecting […]
Iatrochemists: why iron salts cure anemia Read More »
Why accurate translation and skilled editing are important: Bloodletting was a common practice in medieval medicine and did not die out until the nineteenth century. The practice was encouraged by the belief that the excellent Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen practiced it. Most phelobotomists followed the Persian genius Avicenna‘s editions of the Greek texts, which
The great Renaissance medical bloodletting controversy Read More »
An Artist’s View: Michael Newberry on Key Works of Art in History Michael Newberry is an avant-garde figurative painter, writer, and teacher promoting evolutionary flourishing through his work. He does this through advances in color theory, body language, symbolism, and composition. Michael is the author of two books released in 2021: Evolution Through Art and Newberry
Bouguereau | “Not Too Much to Carry” (1895) [Newberry on Great Art series] Read More »
A contemporary Kantian on sex: Why sexual desire is objectifying — and hence morally wrong. (And here is the relevant text from Kant’s lectures on sex.) When I read (ahem) hardcore dualist stuff like this, I always wonder if they and I are talking about the same experience. For example, think about most people’s reaction
Icky then and icky now — a disciple of Kant on sex Read More »
An old favorite, discovered in my graduate school days, Anacreon (570–488 BCE) is one of the great poets of drinking parties, the many varieties of love, and the sweetness of life in the shadow of death. Infatuation from a distance: O sweet boy like a girl,I see you though you will not look my way.You
Anacreon and Simonides Read More »
I re-read some of Sidney Hook’s autobiographical Out of Step. I disagree with Hook about most things philosophical — he was a pragmatist and a Marxist of varying sorts — but I do respect that Hook was one of the first to reject and criticize the lockstep Party-mentality and slavish following of all things Soviet
Sidney Hook on growing up poor in New York Read More »
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 University in Poland.
On Education | Immanuel Kant | Philosophers, Explained by Professor Stephen Hicks Read More »
In Education and the State Edited by Professor Katarzyna Wronska (Poland) and Professor Julian Stern (UK) London: Routledge Publishers, 2024 Mind-shift for 21st-Century Education: Entrepreneurism Stephen R.C. Hicks, Department of Philosophy, Rockford University, USA Abstract How do we educate students for jobs that do not exist yet? Education is preparation for life, and one’s work
Forthcoming chapter: “Mind-shift for 21st-Century Education: Entrepreneurism” Read More »