Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog

Scruton: “Conservatism, as I describe it, involves the attempt to perpetuate a social organism, through times of unprecedented change.“ About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks takes us on a journey through the evolution of modern political philosophies from the tensions of Cold War to the turbulent post-9/11 era. Major thinkers […]

Suppose that God really is dead. Then, Sartre says “there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it.” Camus asks whether we are then like Sisyphus, “the absurd hero.” Themes: The decline of religion? The reality of war. Depression and the Depression. The pointlessness of existence? Existence precedes […]

Lecture Seven: Progressive Pragmatic Education From Dewey to Du Bois Themes: America���s rise. Woodrow Wilson as professor and president. Pragmatism. James and Dewey. Progressives. Deep democracy and Social Justice. Addams, Adams, and Du Bois. Examples from Sidney Hook. Teachers as agents of social transformation. Texts: John Dewey, Democracy in Education. Jane Addams, Democracy and Social […]

My three-page “Post-postmodern Art” essay was translated into Arabic [pdf] by Moin Jaffar Mohammed of Babylon, Iraq, and published in the journal Al-Adeeb Al-Thakafiya. �������� ���� ������ ��� ���� ������ ������������Post ��� Postmodern Art���������� : ���������� ������������������: �������� �������� �������� �������� �������� ���� ������ ���������� ������������. �������������� �������� ���� ������������ ������������ �� �������� ���������� �� […]

If business begins with entrepreneurship, then so should business ethics. Alma Causevic translated into Serbo-Croatian my journal article “What Business Ethics Can Learn from Entrepreneurship.” The essay was originally published in English [pdf] in the Journal of Private Enterprise and was for awhile on the Social Science Research Network’s “Top Ten” list of papers in […]

Strong words from Heine’s 1834 History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany: “The life-history of Immanuel Kant is difficult to write, for he had neither a life nor a history. He lived a mechanical, orderly, almost abstract, bachelor life, in a quiet little side-street of K��nigsberg, an old city near the north-east boundary of Germany. […]

What distinguishes science from pseudo-science?Why is confirmation bias so hard to overcome?Why were many great scientists in history were labeled heretics?And why have so many crank theories been empowered and killed millions of people? The next time I teach philosophy of science, this “Scientific Heresy” talk by Matt Ridley will be on the reading list. […]

Marx: “The religious world is but the reflex of the real world.” And: “Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.“ About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor Stephen Hicks takes us through the development of political philosophy from the late […]

A world devastated by war. Sigmund Freud asserts “Man is a wolf to man.” Martin Heidegger ��� rejecting the Enlightenment and everything since ancient Greek philosophy ��� asks: “Are we allowed to tamper with the rule of ‘logic’?” Themes: The new psychology. Pessimism. Instinct and aggression. Logic as limiting. Emotions as accessing. Nihilism? World War […]

Lecture Six: The Prussian Model From Kant to Fichte Themes: Napoleon defeats but energizes Prussia and the German states. Sulzer, Kant, and Fichte. Core issues: Duty, Obedience. Nationalism. Texts: Immanuel Kant, On Education. J.G. Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation. Watch here. About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., has been Professor of Philosophy […]