Stephen Hicks

Why indoctrination is key for authoritarians

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.”

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Mortality headlines [humor alert]

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.

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Dewey: philosophy is a social-emotional after-the-fact enterprise

I’m having a trip down memory lane, having come across my grad-school notes on John Dewey’s 1920 Reconstruction in Philosophy. Yes, personal computers had been invented by then, but I was in transition from my old-style card-catalogue method. In part these caught my attention as I am preparing for my upcoming lecture on Dewey for

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