The original interview is Spanish is published at Tras la Identidad. Below is a translation into English. A COALITION AGAINST THE WESTStephen RC Hicks, philosopher and professor, October 1, 2025 Stephen RC Hicks is a philosopher and author of, among others, texts such as “Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault”, a book […]
“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.
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Remembering when I retired a favorite old t-shirt. The text read: Jean Paul Sartre’s answering machine… I am not here… You’re not here… Don’t leave a message… There is no beep Some angst at letting it go.The meaning of its 21 years of existence?Was it only to cover a man’s torso?And now it is committed
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“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
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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
My lecture, “What Moves History: An Introduction to the Philosophy of History”, was given at an Atlas Society’s summer conference several years ago. In the lecture I refer to a flowchart, which is available here: Social Dynamics [pdf]. Audio: Related: Hegel’s influential Philosophy of History, in the Philosophers, Explained series:
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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