Philosophy

“I esteem it above all things necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other.” Lecture Three: The Promise of Individual Empiricism. John Locke Themes: Empiricism. Tabula rasa. Individualism. Liberalism. Toleration. Church and State. Henry VIII. Shakespeare. […]

“Who was the greatest man, Caesar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, &c.?Somebody answered that Sir Isaac Newton excelled them all.” Lecture Four: The Philosophes and the French Enlightenment. Voltaire Themes: Deism. Toleration. Anti-superstition. Anti-torture. Irreverence. Who are the greatest humans ever? Augustine. Montaigne. Montesquieu. Diderot. de Gouges. Condorcet. The new “trinity”: Bacon, Locke, Newton. Text: Voltaire: Letters

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): “I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith.” And: “All human reason is wholly incompetent to explain this [morality], and it is a waste of trouble and labour to try. … According to my account of the supreme principles of morality, reason can’t render comprehensible the absolute necessity of an unconditional

James: “We should all feel conscious of our work as an obligatory service to the state. We should be owned, as soldiers are by the army.” And: Dewey: “A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.” About the Course In this eight-lecture

This lecture was given in English to UFM’s Psychology Faculty in October 2024. Themes: Two anecdotes from the history of medicine * Why we live in revolutionary times * What an entrepreneurial mindset is * Why it’s essential for careers in this new era of robotics and AI * How entrepreneurism can re-focus one’s self-education

A course by Stephen R.C. Hicks, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy. Eight lectures on how philosophy influences strategic decisions about education: curriculum, teaching methods, assessment, teacher selection, and school architectural design. (Trailer.) Professor Hicks connects the philosophies to the major historical eras’ approaches to education, including ancient Greek, early Christian, Renaissance Humanism, Enlightenment liberal education, Prussianism,