Philosophy

At the beginning of the 20th century, both religion and philosophy seem to have reached a dead end: Russell: philosophy’s answers “are none of them demonstrably true.” Dewey: religions merely “steep and dye intellectual fabrics in the seething vat of emotions.” Lecture One: Uncertain Prospects. Bertrand Russell and John Dewey Themes: Disquieting inheritance: Entropy, Karl

Roger Scruton was this generation’s most well-known conservative philosopher. He was a fierce critic of various sorts of leftism, socialism, collectivism, postmodernism, and so on. Yet note these two items: (a) He regularly states that he is more in agreement with their philosophical fundamentals than he is with (b) the philosophy he believes is most

The Middle Ages (~400 to ~1400) are frequently divided into the ~400-1000 years (the era of decline or “Dark Ages”) and the ~1000-1400 years (when activity picked up again (the “High” or “Late” Middle Ages). The existence of a “Dark Age” is hotly and sometimes angrily contested. Three data visualizations for your consideration, followed by

In this eight lecture (nine-hour) course, Professor Hicks takes us on an exploration of the evolution of 20th-century philosophy, from the disappointed skepticism of Russell and the pragmatism of Dewey to the science-and-rigor philosophies of Popper and Rand to postmodern ideas of Foucault and Derrida. We examine how philosophers responded to major events and challenges

“He is writing a book on metaphysics, and is really cut out for it; the clearness with which he thinks he understands things and his total inability to express what little he knows will make his fortune as a philosopher.” (Quoted in Brand Blanshard, On Philosophical Style, Manchester U.P., 1954, p. 28)