Philosophy

“Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” [Audio-book version, Part 2]

Part Two: On Egoism [MP3] [YouTube] [36 minutes] Rand’s egoismNietzsche’s rhetoric and systemThe Major Differences between Nietzsche and Rand Are individuals real? Do individuals have free will? What is the source of moral values? How does the self identify its nature and values? Are individual selves ends in themselves? Are fundamental values universal? Are the

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Tocqueville on “insatiable” equality and the cruelty of democracy to some of its members

Why democratic society is ‘cruel’ to some of its members: Aristocratic society makes people believe their circumstances are inherited destiny and so cannot be helped. But democratic societies encourage people to believe that their destinies depend on their own actions. For some—those who feel themselves to be inferior in some important way—this latter is a

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PANGBURN’S SYMPOSIUM I: Two-day event in San Francisco, featuring Stephen Hicks, Steven Pinker, Justin Sledge, and Steven Bonnell. PHILOSOPHY • SCIENCE • RELIGION • POLITICS.

“In the spirit of ancient Athens, where the greatest minds gathered to question the gods, challenge the powerful, and pursue the nature of truth, a new symposium rises. “Four disciplines. Four extraordinary minds. Two days. One relentless pursuit of truth.“ From the marble halls of ancient Greece to the intellectual battlegrounds of the modern world,

PANGBURN’S SYMPOSIUM I: Two-day event in San Francisco, featuring Stephen Hicks, Steven Pinker, Justin Sledge, and Steven Bonnell. PHILOSOPHY • SCIENCE • RELIGION • POLITICS. Read More »

Canadian Wire interview on misreadings of postmodernism

I was on the Canadian Wire program with co-hosts Will Horton and Matt Daco, to discuss what the postmoderns got right, misreadings of postmodernism, and the current state of the culture wars.Topics and times:00:30 Who is Stephen Hicks?03:30 From civil engineering to logic and philosophy10:47 Why Explaining Postmodernism?30:04 What postmodernism is and what its advocates

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Explaining Postmodernism — first edition text free online

My 10-year publishing agreement with Ockham’s Razor Publishing has ended. ORM published the expanded edition from 2010-2015 and then from 2015 to 2025. Prior to that, Scholargy published the first edition from 2004 to 2009. We’re thinking about a 25th Anniversary edition, with additional material on developments in postmodernism’s theory and its applied activism. I

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Lecture in Porto, Portugal: “The Illiberal Right’s Gurus”

This week I will be in Portugal to speak on the philosophers of the new illiberal right: “Intellectually, the illiberal left are on the defensive. Yet we face a disquieting rise of illiberal right/conservative movements. Who is influential among them and why? Professor Hicks will present essentialized themes from an American (Deneen), an Englishman (Scruton)

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