The tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I (died 367 BCE), liked having intellectuals and creative types in his court. Plato the philosopher, Philistus the historian, and Philoxenus the poet were in his circle at various times. Yet the tyrant was capricious—especially when he thought his own literary accomplishments were under-appreciated. Philoxenus once voiced a negative opinion […]
Tyrants and Poets Who Have Integrity — anecdote Read More »
A favorite from Jacob Burckhardt’s great The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860): In the Middle Ages, “Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation — only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an objective treatment and consideration of
Burckhardt quotation on the birth of individualism in the Italian Renaissance Read More »
I think of him as the anti-Homer poet. While Homer’s subjects are gods and heroes, Archilochus writes of drunkenness, running away to live and perhaps fight another day, the common man with his feet planted firmly on the ground — and, occasionally of sweet love. Not much is known about him other than that he
From the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno’s 1913 The Tragic Sense of Life, on how Kant first destroys rational belief in the existence of God but then resurrects that belief on moral grounds. Or: how Kant’s head says No to God but his heart says Yes. Or: how mortal man cannot find God but the
Unamuno on Kant on God in the first two Critiques Read More »
Medieval medical know-how: “John of Gaddesden (1280-1349), physician to Edward II and compiler of the encyclopaedic Rosa anglica medicinae [The English Rose of Medicine], recommended reciting the gospel over an epileptic patient while bedecking him with peony and chrysanthemum amulets or the hair of a white dog” (From Roy Porter’s excellent The Greatest Benefit to
Curing epilepsy — peonies, the gospel, and hair of the dog Read More »
Professor Piotr Kostyło of University of Casimir the Great reviewed the Polish edition of Nietzsche and the Nazis. Here’s an English translation of Kostyło’s review: “Do We Know What We Advocate? Stephen Hicks’s Defence of Individualism” [pdf]. The original Polish: “Czy wiemy, za czym cie opowiedamy? Stephena Hickss obrana indywidualizmu”. The review was published in
Kostyło’s review of *Nietzsche and the Nazis* Read More »
The interview is In English, with Swedish overlay: modernity anti-modernity, rationality and illogic, freedom for all and cynical power games. I was interviewed by the smart and well-prepared Dr. Richard Sörman for the RIKS channel on the occasion of a Swedish printing of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (English text here,
RIKS interview of Stephen Hicks, Stockholm, Sweden Read More »
Then: image is from Buenos Aires a few years ago, when Javier Milei (economist, Argentina), Axel Kaiser (economist, Chile), and I gave talks at an event. Both Kaiser and Milei gave great talks, in my judgment, Milei adding his trademark dramatic flair. Now: My Twitter/X Spaces discussion from a couple of weeks ago, when economist
Milei’s Argentina: Stephen Hicks and Richard Salsman discuss Read More »