[I’m teaching biomedical ethics this semester and so revisiting some posts on innovation and progress.] Current infant mortality rates are less than half of one percent, and it is awful for parents who lose a child. But in the 1700s, infant mortality rates were over 50%. I came across this in Robert K. Massie’s Catherine
Some appalling infant mortality numbers from history Read More »
We are having two debates at the same time, on both sides of the mind/body split: Person A says: “Let good and bad germs fight it out in our bodies. That’s how individuals and groups develop physical strength.”Also: “Let good and bad ideas fight it out in our minds. That’s how individuals and groups develop
Covid and Social Media: the same debate in two forms Read More »
I guest-hosted The Atlas Society Asks program and interviewed classicist Victor Davis Hanson for 30-minutes on what we moderns can learn from the classics about human nature and war. Some of the questions we covered: Is a lesson of history that freer societies prevail over authoritarian ones? E.g., how the Greeks were able to defeat
Victor Davis Hanson interview: war and foreign policy Read More »
The techno-pessimists are wrong about our jobs and careers and the impact of robotics. The Robots Will Free Us is Episode 47 in my Open College with Dr. Stephen Hicks podcast series. “There’s a perennial divide between the technological optimists and the technological pessimists. We see that playing out right now among those assessing the
The Robots Will Free Us [Open College] Read More »
Stephen Hicks: Philosopher, Highwayman By: Kevin Ryan The philosopher navigates from the passenger seat of our Mazda CX-3 as we cross Stone Arch Bridge in deepening afternoon, over the North Mississippi with its polluted blue water. “Everything is connected,” he says. “Everything has implications.” When he talks, he floats his hands. Throughout the day, random
The Blaze profile: “Stephen Hicks: Philosopher, Highwayman” [re-printing] Read More »
For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground (1864). Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Difference of Manners,” from Leviathan (1651). John Hospers, “Justice versus Social Justice” (1985). Elbert Hubbard, “A Message to Garcia” (1914). David Ross, “The London Plague of 1665” (no date). Thucydides, “Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” from
Texts in Philosophy — late-2020 additions Read More »
Ignasi Boltó, a.k.a. the Spanish Libertarian, asked me eleven questions for his YouTube channel. Here is the transcript: Ignasi Bolto: Hello, friends from the internet. It’s Ignasi from Spanish Libertarian. Today we’re making another interview in English. I know most of you usually speak in Spanish, but we also like to give content in other language. Also,
We’re posting the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Most are available only to subscribers, but here for the holiday season is the thirtieth, on Scrooge’s hero’s journey: To speak of pride, friendship, liberality, and an overarching wisdom about how they all contribute to a fully self-realized life—all of that is to make Dickens’s Scrooge
The Real Scrooge [Open College transcripts] Read More »