Kleist was widely traveled, energetic, a brilliant writer — and a suicide at age 34. Why? In reviewing Selected Prose of Heinrich von Kleist, Ian Brunskill writes: “Kleist in his youth had espoused with enthusiasm all the optimism of the Enlightenment. Reason would conquer all; happiness would come with experience and understanding. In March 1801, […]
Kleist: How Kant ruined my life Read More »
Seven categories. Five only in each. Works that I love or learned from or influenced me or that I return to regularly. Biography and AutobiographyAnthony Holden, TchaikovskyRobert Massie, Peter the GreatAdrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented EvolutionistJames Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small [a veterinarian in Yorkshire]Walt Whitman, Song of
Great Books — My Recommended Reading List Read More »
All from the twenty-first century: * Sorcerers stealing or shrinking men’s penises in Congo. * Black magic murders in Brazil. * Witches beaten and humiliated in in southern India. * God punishes Haiti for its witchcraft and other immoralities. * Though progress in Ghana: a call “for the immediate abolition of witches camps and witchcraft
What’s new in witchcraft Read More »
Current infant mortality rates are about half of one percent, and it is awful for parents who lose a child. But in the 1700s, before the achievements of the Enlightenment were widespread, infant mortality rates were over 50%. I came across this in Robert K. Massie’s Catherine the Great: Peter the Great (1682-1725) and his
More appalling infant mortality numbers, then and now Read More »
1. The young Friedrich Schiller wrote The Robbers (1781), a play that made him an overnight sensation. To deepen his education, he plunged into Kantian philosophy. As a result: His imagination, he feared, had abandoned him. Philosophical enquiries into Immanuel Kant’s philosophy had somehow eradicated his poetic sensibilities, and he felt that he was neither
2 poets on what reading Kant did to them Read More »
On Sunday I will be in Morrison, Illinois, for this open-to-the public talk. Press release: Dr. Stephen Hicks is Professor of Philosophy and Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford University in Rockford, IL. He is the author of six books that have been translated into 20 languages: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism
Upcoming talk for the Whiteside Forum Read More »
The questions: Modernism and the Enlightenment—what are they? Is philosophy a science? Is epistemology or ethics most important? Can you explain briefly Foucault, Rorty, Lyotard, Derrida? Why do the post-moderns reject the modern? Sense-perception—are the arguments against its validity perverse? What’s the Representational theory of perception? What did Kant think of Rousseau? What makes Rousseau
Guest on the Secular Foxhole with Blair Schofield and Martin Lindeskog Read More »
Refreshing this story from Francis Kane, professor of philosophy and former colleague of Professor George Walsh at Salisbury State University, in a eulogy delivered November 21, 2001. The phone rang one Friday afternoon (I’ll never forget): “Fran, I’m going to be fired!” “George, you’re not going to be fired.” “Yes, I am! Something horrible has
Professor Walsh gives an “A” to a Jain monk Read More »
How media report statistics according to their philosophy: Enlightenment headline: SCIENCE and CAPITALISM a great success. Jaded-feminist headline: The PATRIARCHY encouraging women to be BABY-MAKING MACHINES. Socialist-Marxist headline: Europeans gain by EXPLOITING poor women in the THIRD WORLD. Postmodern headline: NO news here — “HEALTH” and “PROGRESS” mere SUBJECTIVE narratives.
Mortality headlines [humor alert] Read More »
In New York I debated Dr. Thaddeus Russell, who argues that postmodernism is correct and useful in advocating for a free society. I disagreed, arguing that the Enlightenment is essential to liberty and that postmodernism is an explicit reject of all Enlightenment and libertarian principles. The SOHO Forum debate was moderated by Gene Epstein. Post-script:
Libertarian Postmodernism? The Debate Read More »