Stephen Hicks

*Liberalism Pro and Con* A Primer [e-book version]

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

In this introductory volume, Professor Stephen R. C. Hicks makes the essential arguments for and against liberalism. Each argument is supported by quotations from the major thinkers—including Locke, Nietzsche, Plato, Hayek, de Maistre, Rand, Marx, and others—who have advanced or attacked liberalism. The Pro-Liberal claims: Liberalism increases freedom | People work harder in liberal societies |  […]

*Liberalism Pro and Con* A Primer [e-book version] Read More »

The recurring socialism/fascism cycle — Mises observation

3 Comments / Philosophy /

A reminder of this prescient remark from Mises’ Liberalism — a book published in 1927: “Fascism can triumph today because universal indignation at infamies committed by the socialist and communists has obtained for it the sympathies of wide circles. But when the fresh impression of the crimes of the Bolsheviks has paled, the socialist program

The recurring socialism/fascism cycle — Mises observation Read More »

Galileo, free speech & censorship, religion and science

1 Comment / History, Philosophy, Religion /

A re-post of my Galileo and the Modern Compromise: IN HIS OPEN LETTER to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), Galileo offered a defense of science against the prevailing heavy hand of religious orthodoxy: “But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has

Galileo, free speech & censorship, religion and science Read More »

*Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand* [audio-book version]

2 Comments / Ethics, Philosophy /

Audio version of my 42-page journal article “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand.” Table of Contents: Part One: On Critiquing Altruism [MP3] [YouTube] [64 minutes] Three Nietzsches and Ayn RandSome Intellectuals on Nietzsche and RandEgoism, altruism, and “selfishness”A Nietzschean sketch: * God is dead * Nihilism’s symptoms * Two bio-psychological types * Psychology and morality *

*Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand* [audio-book version] Read More »

Driver’s education and the government-schooling debates

2 Comments / Education, Politics /

Re-reading E. G. West’s classic Education and the State, which plunges into the current and historical debates over private and government education. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we grant that the government has obligation to protect children and that growing up ignorant is one of the things the government should protect children against.

Driver’s education and the government-schooling debates Read More »

Napoleon’s German admirers

1 Comment / History, Philosophy /

From Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven: “For Beethoven’s German and Austrian contemporaries, the Napoleonic image was especially potent: Bonaparte’s admirers included Kant, Herder, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schiller, Goethe, Hölderlin, Wielan, and Klopstock. Grillparzer, in his Autobiography wrote, ‘I myself was no less an enemy of the French than my father, and yet Napoleon fascinated me with a

Napoleon’s German admirers Read More »