A fascinating brief item from the Library of Social Science‘s site. All German soldiers swore an oath to Adolf Hitler, vowing, “I shall at all times be prepared to give my life.” Similarly, those in the Schutzstaffel, or SS, vowed “absolute allegiance unto death.” Hitler drew the following conclusion, as he and the National Socialist […]
The ethics of sacrifice, National Socialist version Read More »
Professor Piotr Kostyło of Casimir the Great University in Bydgoszcz, Poland, published a review of Nietzsche and the Nazis. The text of the review follows: Do We Know What We Advocate? Stephen Hicks’s Defence of Individualism The forty-five years of communism in Poland (1944-1989) were marked by the government reminding society of the atrocities committed during
Piotr Kostyło’s review of *Nietzsche and the Nazis* Read More »
[This text is also available via my Texts in Philosophy page.] Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Like all sound political conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in which it is inserted, and
Mussolini and Gentile’s *The Doctrine of Fascism* Read More »
Here is Henry Tandey of Warwickshire, UK, the most highly-decorated private in World War One. The following link is to an intriguing “What-if history” anecdote about Tandey, who crossed paths with Adolf Hitler in the war and decided not to kill him. [Image source: “Pte Tandey VC DCM MM” by Richard Harvey (Regimental Archivist), Duke
The man who spared Hitler’s life in WW I Read More »
1924 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and American philosopher John Dewey was writing a series of essays reflecting on philosophy and current events. The series was published in book form in 1929 as Characters and Events: Popular Essays in Social and Political Philosophy. Here are a few striking
John Dewey on Kant and the causes of World War I Read More »
Muitas pessoas espertas — incluindo Thomas Friedman no The New York Times, Naser Khader no Newsweek, John Lloyd no The Jerusalem Post, Ayann Hirsi Ali no The Wall Street Journal — estão esperando que algum tipo de Reforma ocorra no Islã. Alguns estão clamando por um Martin Luther King islâmico. Desculpe, mas não. O Islã
O Islã precisa de uma reforma? Read More »
Some quotations and brief glosses on Augustine’s views on the use of persecution and torture in order to save souls. “No salvation outside the church.” (418 CE) “[M]any must first be recalled to their Lord by the stripes of temporal scourging, like evil slaves, and in some degree like good-for-nothing fugitives.” Augustine had defended toleration
St. Augustine on “Righteous Persecution” Read More »
I was struck by this reflection on the history of philosophy, made by Adolf Hitler, who read voraciously when young and especially during his prison time in the 1920s: “In the Great Hall of the Linz Library are the busts of Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the greatest of our thinkers, in comparison with whom the
On Hitler’s degree of intellectualism Read More »