I gave a talk in June at a conference sponsored by Fundación para la Responsabilidad Intelectual (FRI), Junior Achievement Argentina, and the John Templeton Foundation. When I was in Buenos Aires, FRI also did three short videos of me addressing questions. Here is a 12-minute video of my response to “How Do You Explain the Great Enrichment of […]
For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. All files are PDFs. Antony Flew, R. M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell, “Three Accounts of What Faith Is,” from “Theology & Falsification: A Symposium” (1971). St. Augustine, on “Righteous Persecution” (c. 397-418 CE). HTML. David Hume, “Moral Distinctions Not Derived from Reason”, A
Texts in Philosophy — late 2015 additions Read More »
[This week in my Introduction to Philosophy course, we are reading Crito and discussing whether Socrates should escape or accept his death sentence. Here is a revisiting of an earlier post.] Socrates’ two bad arguments for not escaping In the Crito, Socrates is in prison awaiting execution for impiety and corrupting the youth. His impiety
Socrates in jail — escape or not? Read More »
More on philosophers’ mind-numbingly long sentences. My initial post with my top candidates is here. Kazuma Kitamura sends in a new contender — a 175 word plea from Chapter One of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women: “If the authority of men over women, when first established, had been the result of a conscientious
Updating the Philosophy’s Longest Sentences competition Read More »
[At the beginning of the new academic year, a re-visiting of the beginnings of modern philosophy.] I vote for Francis Bacon. . . The standard answer gives the honor to René Descartes. Descartes’s claim to the title is based primarily on his epistemology — specifically his method of doubt. The method of doubt is both
The real father of modern philosophy — Bacon versus Descartes Read More »
A fascinating brief item from the Library of Social Science‘s site. All German soldiers swore an oath to Adolf Hitler, vowing, “I shall at all times be prepared to give my life.” Similarly, those in the Schutzstaffel, or SS, vowed “absolute allegiance unto death.” Hitler drew the following conclusion, as he and the National Socialist
The ethics of sacrifice, National Socialist version Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks: Hi, I’m Stephen Hicks. I am executive director of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship here at Rockford University. My two guests today spoke at Rockford University on the themes of entrepreneurship and ethics. With me is
Interview with entrepreneurs Magatte Wade and Michael Strong — Transcript Read More »
[At the beginning of the new academic year, a re-visiting of the beginnings of philosophy.] The standard claim is that philosophy begins with Thales. When I teach this to my students, it’s a hard sell, for here are the founding texts in philosophy — ascribed to Thales by Aristotle: “The first principle and basic nature
The Birth of Philosophy — Thales and Homer Read More »