Philosophy

“ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION: From MONTESSORI to the FUTURE.” Lecture 8 of *Philosophy of Education*

Lecture Eight: Entrepreneurial Education From Montessori to the Future Themes: Our entrepreneurial age. Montessori. The new Socratics. Learning as play. Core issues: Agency. Freedom. Work as creative play. Social win-win. AI and Robotics as challenge and as opportunity. Entrepreneurism as one’s comparative advantage. Concluding claim: Education as philosophy in practice. Text: Maria Montessori, The Montessori […]

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German philosophy in pre-World-War-II Japan

In Western nations, there is a clear connection between philosophy and totalitarian politics. Hegel’s philosophy, for example, took a “left” turn in Marx’s thinking — which Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin drew upon — and it took a “right” turn in Treitschke’s and Nietzsche’s thinking — which Goebbels, Hitler, and the National Socialists drew upon, as

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Thanksgiving reflection upon Schubert’s early death

Franz Schubert, the great lyrical composer of the early 1800s, died at age 31. While his music is usually too melancholy for my taste, what a sadness. Franz was lucky to get that many years. Biographer Christoper Gibbs reports that Schubert’s parents had fourteen children and “nine of their fourteen children died in infancy.” (The

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WHAT THE WOMEN ETHICISTS ARE UP TO: AYN RAND and PHILIPPA FOOT. Lecture 4 of Postmodern Philosophy

Lecture Four: Why has moral philosophy become skeptical and sterile? In contrast, Ayn Rand rejects the is-ought dichotomy and argues that ethics is “an objective necessity” for volitional, rational beings. Philippa Foot, also updating Aristotle, states that “the grounding of a moral argument is ultimately in facts about human life.” Themes:  Naturalism. Bio-centrism. Value and

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Was Kant really that skeptical?

Some readers of Explaining Postmodernism object that I over-interpret Kant’s skepticism. Some prefer a gentler, more objectivity-friendly Kant. So while I quote Kant a lot in making the argument that Kant’s philosophy is radically subjectivist and the critical step down the road to postmodernism—not everyone is convinced. So I am grateful to Quee Nelson for

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MODERN CONSERVATISM. Roger SCRUTON. Lecture 8 of *The Philosophy of Politics: From the Cold War to After 9/11*

Scruton: “Conservatism, as I describe it, involves the attempt to perpetuate a social organism, through times of unprecedented change.“ About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks takes us on a journey through the evolution of modern political philosophies from the tensions of Cold War to the turbulent post-9/11 era. Major thinkers

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ABSURDITY AND MEANINGLESSNESS? JEAN-PAUL SARTRE and ALBERT CAMUS. Lecture 3 of Postmodern Philosophy

Suppose that God really is dead. Then, Sartre says “there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it.” Camus asks whether we are then like Sisyphus, “the absurd hero.” Themes: The decline of religion? The reality of war. Depression and the Depression. The pointlessness of existence? Existence precedes

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