From Richard Osborne’s biography Herbert von Karajan, on an event in war-torn Vienna as it was struggling back to life after a cold winter in the last stage of World War Two: “Then the Russians arrived. For three weeks in April 1945, Russian soldiery ran amok in and orgy of pillage and rape, before Stalin […]
Music-loving Soviets in Vienna, 1945 Read More »
Some quotations and brief glosses on Augustine’s views on persecuting and torturing to save souls. “No salvation outside the church.” (418 CE) “[M]any must first be recalled to their Lord by the stripes of temporal scourging, like evil slaves, and in some degree like good-for-nothing fugitives.” Augustine had defended toleration for much of his life.
St. Augustine: Righteous Persecution and Benevolent Torture Read More »
In this episode of Philosophers, Explained, Dr. Hicks discusses Sartre’s 1946 lecture “Existentialism is a Humanism.” Sartre (1905-1980) was a French philosopher, playwright and Nobel Prize Winner for Literature (1964) — which he refused. Episodes: The full playlist. Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting
Is Communism a modern doctrine? Or born of the Enlightenment? Heavens, no. Brief history-of-politics series of points, in response to this question from a few places on social media: 1. For millennia all communisms were religious. (* exception at end) 2. Think of the many religious monasteries and convents, populated by those who see their
Is Communism a modern doctrine? Or born of the Enlightenment? Read More »
Too bad Abraham Lincoln had only old-tech. Advice for presenters everywhere. Click image to begin:
Lincoln’s “Gettysburg” speech as PowerPoint 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
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres | “Grand Odalisque” (1814) [Newberry on Great Art series] Read More »
A flotilla of ships is approaching your shore. Does it matter to you whether they are carrying smartphones and shoes — or rockets and soldiers? In his Economic Sophisms, Frédéric Bastiat makes this exasperated point: “A French ironmaster says: ‘We must protect ourselves from the invasion of English iron!’ An English landlord cries: ‘We must
War metaphors and trade — Bastiat 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.