Philosophy

“The symbol of this struggle, inscribed in letters legible across all human history, is ‘Rome against Judea, Judea against Rome.’” Lecture Eight: Liberal or Anti-Liberal? John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche Themes: Darwinism. Utilitarianism versus Expressive Power. Liberty versus Slavery. Social philosophy as derived from basic philosophy. Continuing or rejecting the Enlightenment? Pasteur. Darwin, biology […]

Lecture Four: Through the Scientific Revolution. From Galileo to Locke Themes: Montaigne. Milton. Copernicus. Galileo. Locke as continuation. Core issues: Reason. Harmony. Integration. Liberalism. Bacon’s “Knowledge is Power.” Education as empowerment. Modern liberal education. Texts: Galileo Galilei, “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.” John Locke, “Some Thoughts concerning Education.” Watch here. About the Instructor Stephen

I’m in Milwaukee today to give a seminar in a graduate philosophy course on Foot’s rejection of the ‘Naturalistic Fallacy’ and her argument for an objective, biologically based ethics. Thanks to Professor Stanislaus Husi for the invitation.

Keynes: “It is not true that individuals possess a prescriptive ‘natural liberty’ in their economic activities.” Or: Hayek: The economic question is “how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know.“ About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor

Nietzsche’s advice for any ambitious thinker making a genuine life: * On those who are—years later—still students of Objectivism. “One repays a teacher badly if one remains nothing but a pupil.” * On those who remain followers after having learned a thinker’s key principles: “Now I bid you lose me and find yourselves; and only

“Our mode of treating the subject is a Theodicaea,—a justification of the ways of God,—so that the ill that is found in the World may be comprehended, and the thinking Spirit reconciled with the fact of the existence of evil.” Lecture Seven: Resurgent Collectivism. Georg Hegel and Karl Marx Themes: After Kant, reality or reason?

Lecture Three: The Renaissance Ideal From Aquinas to Alberti Themes: The Toledo School. Aquinas and integrating Aristotle and Christianity. The method of the Summa. Scholastics, Humanists, and Protestants (Calvin, Luther). Is it a sin to read the Bible? Tyndale and Servetus. Michelangelo, Da Vinci. Core issues: Overcoming the dualisms. God and nature. Mind and Body.

For my online Logic course, three books I recommend to supplement the eight lectures: 1. David Kelley and Debby Hutchins, The Art of Reasoning, Fifth edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2020. An excellent comprehensive, clearly written textbook. 2. H. W. B. Joseph, An Introduction to Logic, Second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press,