Philosophy

Year 1500 context: 50 years earlier Gutenberg had developed his printing press, eight years earlier Columbus had crossed the Atlantic, Michelangelo had just finished his Pietà, Luther was in school, and Copernicus was in university. Fewer than 10% of Europeans were literate. Source: Robert C. Allen, Global Economic History, Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 26. […]

“The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth: and this without a particle of regard to the results to which the exercise of

Description: “Andy Schmitt and Stephen Hicks on the evolution of Western philosophy, especially the transition from modern to postmodern thought. They begin with fifteenth-century globalization unleashed by Columbus, Gutenberg’s press, and Martin Luther’s insistence on individual Scripture reading, through the emergence of scientific reasoning and the radical individualism of the Quakers. “They examine how postmodern

Description: Join Dr. Stephen Hicks, philosopher, professor, author and Mark Michael Lewis as they discuss the philosophies of Postmodernism and Marxism and their strange union in modern woke politics—and the Objectivist contrast. Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction to Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and Its Application 02:50 – Cultural Conversations: Postmodernism vs. Modernism 06:06 – The Impact of Postmodernism on Society 09:01 – Historical Perspectives on

Capitalism, Socialism, & Communism are visiting and chatting. Socialism says he needs to do an errand. Three hours later he returns with a small package.“What took you so long?” asks Capitalism.“I had to buy some sausage, and there was a long line,” Socialism explains.“What’s a line?” asks Capitalism.And Communism inquires, “What’s sausage?” (A Soviet joke)

In its recent issue, Reason Papers published an informative review essay by philosopher Gary James Jason of Cal State University: “Selling Eugenic Killing: The Nazi Propaganda Campaign to Support the Liquidation of the Disabled.” Quote: “Positive eugenics means promoting breeding ‘superior individuals’ from ‘good stock.’ Negative eugenics refers to prohibiting the breeding of children of

Walter Donway’s How Philosophers Change Civilizations: The Age of Enlightenment is a good survey of the major thinkers who contributed to the development of the Enlightenment — along with some important coverage of their Counter-Enlightenment detractors — as well as an argument about what causes historical change. Here’s his question: ‘How did the “new philosophers”

From a 2020 interview: Jennifer Grossman  [03:20]: What do people mean when they talk about structural racism? What is sort of the origin of that even terminology comes from and what is what’s your perspective on it? What does it mean? Stephen Hicks: Yes, well, we’ll start with the racism itself, which is an intellectual