Philosophy

Does ‘freedom first’ lead to tyranny? James Orr (Cambridge Univ.) debates Stephen Hicks (Rockford Univ.)

Professor James Orr: “a society that prizes freedom above all else is a society that will, in time, descend into tyranny.” That is from Dr. Orr’s second essay, “A Conservative Critique of Liberalism,” in this Reason Papers three-round debate with Dr. Stephen Hicks. Orr advocates and defends Conservatism; Hicks does the same for Liberalism. Links […]

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Poland’s president-elect Karol Nawrocki (and his interview of me in Gdańsk)

Poland’s new president is historian Karol Nawrocki, who was director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and head of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. Dr. Nawrocki did this interview with me (in English with Polish translation) on the ideas behind the rise of totalitarian movements such as National Socialism.

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Is conservatism a “middle course” between collectivism and self-elevation? James Orr (Cambridge Univ.) debates Stephen Hicks (Rockford Univ.)

Professor James Orr: “only conservatism charts the middle course between ideologies that elevate the self over the collective and ones that swallow up the self in the collective.” That is from Dr. Orr’s opening essay in this Reason Papers three-round debate with Dr. Stephen Hicks. Orr advocates and defends Conservatism; Hicks does the same for

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The Pakistani intellectual scene — and *Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault*

A Pakistani intellectual, Khurshid Ali Singay, in correspondence with me wrote about the situation there: “I can assure you again that in this side of the world, being an intellectual—secular or religious—means reading Marx or some Postmodernist thinkers. Marx is the hero both for the commoners and the literate. British philosophers, Empiricism and Liberalism are either taken

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Heidegger’s “Reunion Speech” of 1934

[Courtesy of the translator, W. H. F. Altman, here is the text of Martin Heidegger’s speech, delivered on the occasion of a 25th anniversary reunion in Konstanz, May 26-27, 1934.] Martin Heidegger, The Reunion Speech Twenty-five Years after Our Graduation, Reunion in Konstanz on May 26-27, 1934 Dear classmates! Our reunion—after twenty-five years and more—might

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