“If the growth of reason is to continue, and human rationality to survive, then the diversity of individuals and their opinions, aims, and purposes must never be interfered with …. Even the emotionally satisfying appeal for a common purpose, however excellent, is an appeal to abandon all rival moral opinions and the cross-criticisms and arguments […]
Karl Popper on diversity of opinion and values [quotation] Read More »
[Every few years I post an updated version of student bloopers from exams and essays.] A Brief History of Philosophy Humor alert: Being a compilation of student research collected over the years, gently edited by Stephen Hicks, Rockford University (updated: December 2016). Is philosophy a waist of time? Ethical debates have been around for a
An Alternate History of Philosophy — Student edition (2016) Read More »
Here are Mark Michael Lewis and I in conversation about applied philosophy. A rough guide to the topics: 1. Why you should always take arguments at their best [10:15 minutes] 2. Why many philosophers are “left” [16:00] 3. How Objectivism is an “outlier” philosophy [19:00] 4. Third-generation postmodernism and the weaponry of affirmative action [25:00]
Making Work Beautiful, and more — Interviewed by Mark Michael Lewis Read More »
[From lecture notes for Immanuel Kant’s 1775-1780 courses as published in Lectures on Ethics [1775-1780], translated by Louis Infield, New York: Harper and Row, 1963, pp. 162-168. The text is below and here as PDF.] Duties towards the Body in Respect of Sexual Impulse Amongst our inclinations there is one which is directed towards other
Kant on sex, marriage, concubines, prostitutes, and incest [text] Read More »
[Text is below or in PDF.] The Grand Inquisitor By Fyodor Dostoyevsky [From The Brothers Karamazov (1880, II.v.5). Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. In this novel, Ivan and Alyosha are brothers; Ivan questions the possibility of a personal, benevolent God, and Alyosha is a novice monk. Aside from this background knowledge, the
Dostoyevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor” scene [text] Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Part I Hicks: I’m Stephen Hicks, executive director of CEE, and our guest today is Dr. William Kline, an expert on David Hume, the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher. He spoke today at Rockford University in the Ethical Theory
Dr. William Kline on David Hume — video interview transcript Read More »
Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State (1871) Chapter 1 Who is right, the idealists or the materialists? The question, once stated in this way, hesitation becomes impossible. Undoubtedly the idealists are wrong and the materialists right. Yes, facts are before ideas; yes, the ideal, as Proudhon said, is but a flower, whose root lies in
Bakunin’s God and the State [text] Read More »
From National Post, during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: International tensions spilled into competition on Friday when an Egyptian judoka refused to shake his Israeli competitor’s hand following their bout at the Rio Olympics. Or Sasson stepped forward to shake Islam El Shehaby’s hand after defeating the Egyptian fighter, but El
Olympics, Israelis, Islamists Read More »