David Kelley’s The Evidence of the Senses (LSU Press, 1986) is a modern classic defense of direct realism in perception. I reviewed it for the journal Auslegung in 1989. Here is a 10-minute audio version of the review in MP3 format or at YouTube. Related: My review of Professor Tara Smith’s Cambridge University Press book […]
Review of David Kelley’s *The Evidence of the Senses* Read More »
Lecture One: At the beginning of the 20th century, both religion and philosophy seem to have reached a dead end: Bertrand Russell: philosophy’s answers “are none of them demonstrably true.” John Dewey: religions merely “steep and dye intellectual fabrics in the seething vat of emotions.” In such a pathetic state, what is the point of
Lecture Five: Spontaneous Life and Natural Feeling From Rousseau to Wordsworth Themes: Rousseau against the Enlightenment. Romanticism as anti-rational religion (Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard). Romanticism as anti-mechanical/industrial nature-worship (Wordsworth, Keats). Some Romanticism as extension of the Enlightenment (Dumas, Hugo). Core issues: Emotions. Anti-reason. Anti-determinism. Texts: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile. William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us.
“SPONTANEOUS LIFE and NATURAL FEELING.” Lecture 5 of *Philosophy of Education* Read More »
In 1974, the great Polish intellectual Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009) published “My Correct Views on Everything, A Rejoinder to Edward Thompson’s ‘Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski’”. Kolakowski is best known for Main Currents of Marxism, his huge survey of Marxism from its neo-Platonic and Hegelian roots through Marx and his immediate followers to the post-Russian-Revolution Marxist
Kolakowski on Leftist responsibility Read More »
Foucault: “There is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations. 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
“The symbol of this struggle, inscribed in letters legible across all human history, is ‘Rome against Judea, Judea against Rome.’” Lecture Eight: Liberal or Anti-Liberal? John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche Themes: Darwinism. Utilitarianism versus Expressive Power. Liberty versus Slavery. Social philosophy as derived from basic philosophy. Continuing or rejecting the Enlightenment? Pasteur. Darwin, biology
Lecture Four: Through the Scientific Revolution. From Galileo to Locke Themes: Montaigne. Milton. Copernicus. Galileo. Locke as continuation. Core issues: Reason. Harmony. Integration. Liberalism. Bacon’s “Knowledge is Power.” Education as empowerment. Modern liberal education. Texts: Galileo Galilei, “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.” John Locke, “Some Thoughts concerning Education.” Watch here. About the Instructor Stephen
I’m in Milwaukee today to give a seminar in a graduate philosophy course on Foot’s rejection of the ‘Naturalistic Fallacy’ and her argument for an objective, biologically based ethics. Thanks to Professor Stanislaus Husi for the invitation.
University of Wisconsin talk today Read More »