Stephen Hicks

Tomorrow I’m leading a live, open seminar on Kant’s views on education. In Britain and America in the 1700s, the most influential philosopher of education was John Locke, with his Some Thoughts Concerning Education. In France, it was Jean-Jacques Rousseau with his Emile. But in the German states, it was Johann Georg Sulzer, with his […]

Suppose that Albrecht is a jerk. He comes home to his wife Gertha and proceeds to order her around. He expects her to cater to his desires, and when she does not he admonishes her in cutting tones. Many would say that Albrecht is “selfish” — using “selfish” to mean someone who expects benefits at

Students at Xavier High School in New York City were assigned to write their favorite authors to persuade them to visit the school. Five wrote to Kurt Vonnegut, author of Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, and other novels. Vonnegut was the only author to reply. While he declined to visit the school (for a reason given

Audience Q&A after this debate between professors John Quiggin and Stephen Hicks. * Did Burke and the Right generate postmodernism? * Is Trump a postmodernist? * Was John Stuart Mill a socialist? * What is libertarianism? * Fake news—new or more of the same? * Is climate-change denialism postmodern? * Is “That offends me” un-Australian?

John Dewey, writing in Teacher Magazine: “There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural laws or moral absolutes.” “Soul Searching,” Teacher Magazine, Sept. 1933

In an interview, Foucault explains what he wants from Marx: “What I desire—and it is here that my formulation has changed in relation to the one you cited—is not so much the defalsification and restitution of a true Marx, but the unburdening and liberation of Marx in relation to party dogma, which has constrained it,

Joseph Stalin put it this way when making a toast to his stable of tame Soviet writers: “The production of souls is more important than the production of tanks.” More information here. Related: To understand the source of this generation’s “Woke” indoctrinators: my Pope series lecture at Clemson University: “The Postmodern Critique of Liberal Education.”

In the mid-20th century intellectual world, JKG was widely regarded as an original and insightful thinker on economics and politics. He was professor at Harvard and author of widely read books such as The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State. While I was a university student in Canada (coincidentally, Galbraith and I both graduated