Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Jerry Kirkpatrick on philosophy’s importance to business

Professor Jerry Kirkpatrick gave a talk at Rockford College on October 27 on “The Importance of Philosophy to Business.” Dr. Kirkpatrick is Professor of International Business at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His talk was sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

In the following two-part interview after his talk, I speak with Dr. Kirkpatrick about his education in philosophy and business and the relevance of moral philosophy and epistemology to practicing business professionals.

Part I:

Part II:

This interview is also available at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s site. More of my interviews with CEE’s guest speakers are available here.

Entrepreneur magazine mentions CEE

Entrepreneur magazine is a leading monthly in the field, and each year it has a feature on top colleges for entrepreneurship, along with a list of other colleges that offer entrepreneurship programs.

This year for the first time Rockford College and the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship are included.

Here is where Rockford College appears on Entrepreneur’s site. Here is their separate Rockford College information page. And here, finally, is a 2 mb PDF scan of the feature from the print version of the magazine.

CEE’s Templeton Award — short video

Here’s a 55-second video clip about CEE’s winning a 2009 Templeton Freedom Award from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation:

This video is also posted at AERF’s Atlas Network site.

Kaizen issue 9 published

The latest issue of Kaizen features my interview with sports entrepreneur David Checketts. Checketts is former CEO of New York’s Madison Square Garden and is now chairman of SCP Worldwide, which owns the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake.

Kaizen also features a course-development project by Rockford College Professor Bill Lewis, a paper given by Professor Shawn Klein at a sports ethics conference, and an international conference organized and hosted by Professor J. J. Asongu.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s Kaizen site, and the full interview with Mr. Checketts will be posted there soon.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

CEE wins Templeton Freedom Award

Excellent news: my Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has won a Templeton Freedom Award. The awards are decided and given by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

From the AERF press release announcing the 2009 Templeton Freedom Awards:

“Award for Special Achievement by a University-based Center – The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford College in Illinois is awarded the University-based prize for launching six courses focusing on the ethical infrastructure of entrepreneurship and the preconditions of the free society in ethics.”

We are very proud of what we have accomplished in less than three years, and we are very happy to get the recognition and the $10,000 prize.

More information about the 2009 awards is at the AERF site. More information about CEE is at the CEE site.

Interview with Timothy Sandefur

Timothy Sandefur gave a talk at Rockford College on September 16 on “Market Entrepreneurs and Political Entrepreneurs: Some Legal and Constitutional Issues.” Mr. Sandefur is Senior Staff Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation in California. His talk was sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

In the following two-part interview after his talk, I speak with Mr. Sandefur about the contrasting views of the Founding Fathers and the Progressives on liberty, democracy, and human rights, how the Progressive agenda has led to an increase in political entrepreneurship, and philosophy’s role in reforming in our politicized economic system.

Part I:

Part II:

This interview is also available at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s site. More interviews with CEE’s guest speakers are available here.

Fall 2009 guest speakers

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship and the Department of Philosophy have an intellectually-stimulating line-up of guest speakers [pdf] this fall semester:

On September 16, Timothy Sandefur will be speaking on “Market Entrepreneurs and Political Entrepreneurs: Some Legal and Constitutional Issues.” Sandefur is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm based in Sacramento, California.

Jerry Kirkpatrick will be giving two talks: “The Importance of Philosophy to a Successful Business Career” on October 27 and “Montessori and Dewey as Educational Philosophers” on October 28. Kirkpatrick is Professor of International Business & Marketing at California State Polytechnic University

Joshua Hall will also be giving two talks on the theme of “The Dilemma of School Finance Reform,” one on October 13 and one on November 11. Hall is Assistant Professor of Economics at Beloit College and on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research.

For more details, please see the flyer [pdf]. Admission is free and open to the public.

Kaizen Issue 8 published

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has published its eighth issue of Kaizen [pdf], focusing on the theme of Education and Entrepreneurship. It features my interview with Steve Mariotti, founder of the excellent Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an organization dedicated to providing entrepreneurship education to low-income youths.

Also featured are guest speakers David Mayer, who spoke at Rockford College on Thomas Jefferson, and C. Bradley Thompson, who spoke on John Adams, along with a mini interview with Professor Steve Kadamian on his new entrepreneurship course and a report on our 2009 High School Entrepreneur Day.

This and previous issues of Kaizen are also available at CEE’s Kaizen page.