John Stuart Mill: “To do as one would be done by, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.” Stephen Hicks: “Unless one is a masochist.” (Image by Roland Topor, 1960.) Related: John Stuart Mill’s great work on liberty of thought and expression:

In an interview, Foucault responds: “I am simply a Nietzschean, and I try as far as possible, on a certain number of issues, to see with the help of Nietzsche’s texts” (1989, 471). Source: Foucault Live (Interviews, 1961-1984). Edited by Sylvère Lotringer. Translated by Lysa Hochroth and John Johnston. New York: Semiotext(e), 1989, p. 471.)

I’m happy to announce that this winter I will be visiting professor at the University of Kasimir the Great. I’ll be teaching a course for graduate students on the theme of Entrepreneurial Education, as well as giving some public talks on philosophical topics. Thanks very much especially to Professor Piotr Kostyło for enabling my visit.

Who are the great philosophers, and what makes them great? Our series covers major philosophers and texts. For each, we’ve selected an excerpt and done a close reading with the accompanying text. Our goal is to understand and interpret — not to argue with — though we point out key claims and controversies. This Episode:

Do appreciate the philosophical (if not historical) accuracy. Considering this as my costume for next year’s festivities. (On the philosophical accuracy.)

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

One-minute introduction to the series: Full Series playlist. Philosophers in the first series: Immanuel Kant Plato Galileo Galilei Ayn Rand Jean-Jacques Rousseau René Descartes Jean-Paul Sartre Socrates Martin Heidegger Thomas Aquinas Arachne and Athena Aristotle Albert Camus Friedrich Nietzsche John Dewey Sigmund Freud G.W.F. Hegel William James Søren Kierkegaard John Locke Karl Marx John Stuart