A zinger from Zingales: “Keynesianism has conquered the hearts and minds of politicians and ordinary people alike because it provides a theoretical justification for irresponsible behavior. Medical science has established that one or two glasses of wine per day are good for your long-term health, but no doctor would recommend a recovering alcoholic to follow […]
Luigi Zingales on Keynesians Read More »
Rand: “Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational faculty or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free of the interference of those who don’t.” About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks takes us
The author of Brideshead Revisited was a nasty man. So much so that “a woman once remarked to Waugh that, though he claimed to be a Christian, he was one of the most unpleasant men she had ever met. Did he not, she asked, sense any contradiction here? ‘Not at all,’ Waugh is supposed to
Evelyn Waugh’s Christian self-control Read More »
From a 2020 interview: Jennifer Grossman [34:00]: Speaking of philosophical shifts … it seems to me like right now, we are seeing just like we’re seeing an acceleration in so many other areas, an acceleration in technological change, and acceleration in transitions to different kinds of education. Are you are you seeing an acceleration in the
From academic skepticism to “Take-it-to-the-streets” [interview excerpt] Read More »
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 covered include: Ayn Rand, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, James Buchanan, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, Roger Scruton, Sayyid Qutb, Alexander Dugin, and others.
Syllabus for The PHILOSOPHY of POLITICS: From the Cold War to After 9/11 Read More »
I had not seen these before: Two letters from Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard [pdf] to Ayn Rand upon their reading of Atlas Shrugged. The letters were also published in 2007 in the Journal of Libertarian Studies and forwarded to me by a colleague. Fascinating reading. Related: Ayn Rand, in the Philosophers, Explained series.
Letters from Mises and Rothbard to Rand Read More »
I’m re-reading some biographical material on Kant, the great counter-Enlightenment philosopher of Königsberg. (Apparently, the crooked-timber house that Kant lived in early in his career was subject to vandalism. A sublime and phenomenal critique of the critiquer.) With one exception, Professor Kant had no pictures hanging on the walls of his house. Kant had been
Immanuel Kant, portraiture, and I Read More »
Burke: “The French have rebelled against a mild and lawful monarch with more fury, outrage, and insult than ever.” About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor Stephen Hicks takes us through the development of political philosophy from the late 18th to the early 20th century, focusing on key thinkers and movements that shaped the