Stephen Hicks

Bertrand Russell: Is Philosophy Valuable? | Philosophers, Explained by Stephen Hicks

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

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

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Marx’s three failed predictions [EP]

25 Comments / Economics, History of Philosophy, Philosophy /

[This excerpt is from Chapter 5 of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault] Marxism and waiting for Godot First formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, classical Marxist socialism made two related pairs of claims, one pair economic and one pair moral. Economically, it argued that capitalism was driven by a logic of competitive

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Peter Watson on *The German Genius*, 1754-1933

3 Comments / History, Philosophy /

I’m re-reading Peter Watson’s The German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century (Harper Perennial, 2011). It’s a powerful history of the intellectually most powerful nation in Europe in the last three centuries. Watson introduces his theme and its scope this way: Between the publication of Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s groundbreaking

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Tyrants and Poets Who Have Integrity — anecdote

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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

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Burckhardt quotation on the birth of individualism in the Italian Renaissance

Leave a Comment / History /

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

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Archilochus

5 Comments / Literature /

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

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