In the Crito, Socrates is in prison awaiting execution for impiety and corrupting the youth. His impiety was judged to be a matter of questioning and possibly disbelieving the traditional gods, and his corrupting the youth was a matter of his teaching them to do the same. (See Apology.) Crito arrives at the prison, having
Socrates’ two bad arguments for not escaping Read More »
“Black people will never gain full equality in this country.” Critical Race Theory is based in part upon a pessimistic, anti-progress view of race relations. Derrick Bell, one of CRT’s founders, thus urged a rejection of Martin Luther King’s “’We Have a Dream’ mentality”, to be replaced with a strategy “to harass white folks.” Here
Derrick Bell | “Racial Realism” | Stephen Hicks’s *Philosophers, Explained* series: Read More »
Following up on a series of posts about Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Liszt. From Frederic V. Grunfeld’s very good Rodin: A Biography, the answer in the case of August Rodin is education and self education. Rodin was born into a French culture in which the large majority of the population was illiterate or semi-literate. The fact
How great artists become great: Rodin Read More »
The allegory is a full philosophical illustration of a dualistic metaphysics, a “purified” cognitive theory, a pessimistic assessment of (most) humans’ ambitions, and a justification of compulsion in education and politics. The full series:
I’m again doing some work on the philosophy of money, now that we’re into the Bitcoin and crypto era, so reprising this piece. At the Library of Law and Liberty’s site — my reaction to Leonidas Zelmanovitz’s ambitious work in the philosophy of money: Review of The Ontology and Function of Money: The Philosophical Fundamentals of
My review of Zelmanovitz on money’s truth and money’s health Read More »
“Tell something to children, tell them the whole thing right to the end, and they’ll still ask: Then what? What comes next?”
“Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers will always be children.”
Zamyatin: Children as bold philosophers Read More »
Philosopher Lewis White Beck was selected to write the entry on “German Philosophy” for The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He wrote: “Immanuel Kant was to put almost every fundamental concept of the Enlightenment in jeopardy.” That is a striking claim, as it goes against a standard interpretation of Kant as a paragon of the Enlightenment. Immanuel
Why did Professor Beck say Kant is Counter-Enlightenment? Read More »
The 20th century’s most famous philosopher addresses this question: Why do philosophy, if none of its questions are answerable? Related: Others in the Philosophers, Explained series: Catharine MacKinnon on censoring pornography as violence.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on overthrowing capitalism. John Stuart Mill on free speech. Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile on the philosophy of
Bertrand Russell: Is Philosophy Valuable? | Philosophers, Explained by Stephen Hicks Read More »