Stephen Hicks

What explains the appealing transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge? My annual reposting, in text and audio (at end). The many interpretations of Scrooge // Robin Hood analogy // Scrooge as villain of Socialism // as anti-Christian // as Savvy Investor // as Environmentalist // as Malthusian // as anti-Commercialization // Scrooge’s Aristotelian hero’s journey By Stephen […]

According to some, Cambridge University professor James Orr is the intellectual architect of U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance’s political philosophy. Dr. Orr is also Chairman of the National Conservatism movement and author. I debated Professor Orr in London, England, hosted by Konstantin Kisin of Triggernometry. That led to the publication of our formal, written three-round debate

Objectivism is a set of scientific claims about reality. Scientists study reality—the same reality that is open to everyone—and discover facts about reality that, in principle, every thinking person can verify independently. Sometimes defenders of the Closed position say things like “because Rand owns Objectivism” or “This is a matter of respecting intellectual property rights”

Objectivist philosophy is a set of propositions identifying facts of reality. To the extent those identifications are new to philosophy, they are discoveries. They are very much not inventions or creations. For example: That human concept-formation involves measurement omission. Ayn Rand did not “invent” that. Another example: That integrity is a virtue. Rand did not

Lecture Eight: What are the lessons of 20th-century philosophy? Has the Enlightenment been a success or a failure? Do we need to build on the Modern world’s successes — or return to a better, Pre-modern intellectual and cultural world — or, rejecting both, accept a disquieting Postmodern future? Themes: History as “philosophy teaching by example.”