By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA. Lecture 8: What did the great Realist philosophers believe—e.g., “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed”—and how they apply it to education? Previous lectures in the series: Part One: Introduction: What is the purpose of education, and what is philosophy’s relevance? Part Two: Reality: Metaphysics and Education. […]

“Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law.” Lecture Two: Absolute Duty Themes: Purifying Ethics. Divine Command Theory. Moses. Uzzah. Whose interests: Egoist, Predatory, Altruist? None: Deontology. Texts: Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and Critique of Practical Reason About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. is Professor of

Following up on posts on Marxism and its fellow travelers (Engels, Mao, Guzmán, Hobsbawm), a question about whether Marxism’s brutal history is a built-in consequence of its principles or an accidental by-product of well-intentioned theory. So a series of quotations (with sources) from some principal figures: Marx in 1848: “there is only one way in

“Deconstruction never had meaning or interest, at least in my eyes, than as a radicalization, that is to say, also within the tradition of a certain Marxism in a certain spirit of Marxism.” Source: Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx. Routledge, 1994. Related: On the fuller context of Derrida’s provocative claim: Related: On Derrida’s place in

Will the real Communists please identify yourselves? One reads of … * Communism as atheist scientific materialism. “The iron laws of historical development.” * Communism as fanatical religion: “The exploited shall inherit the Earth!” * Communism as angry envy-psychology: “Kill the rich!” My podcast at Open College: Related: “The Crisis of Socialism,” Chapter 5 of

By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA. Lecture 7: What did the great Idealist philosophers believe and how did they apply it to education? The associated reading excerpts are here: Plato (https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/plato_republic-poe.pdf) and Kant (https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/kant_immanuel-poe.pdf). Previous lectures in the series: Part One: Introduction: What is the purpose of education, and what is philosophy’s relevance?