Title: “Is Dugin Fascist, Neo-Marxist, or What? (And what Is Dugin’s Political Advice to Putin?“) Description: Alexander Dugin claims that Fascism and Communism are dead—and that Liberalism is evil. So a fourth political theory is needed for Russia’s future. What alternative does he propose? And is it really a fourth alternative—or a re-packaging of old […]
Hicks lecture on Alexander Dugin, Gdansk, Poland, December 16 Read More »
“The fiercest fanatics are often selfish people who were forced, by innate shortcomings or external circumstances, to lose faith in their own selves. They separate the excellent instrument of their selfishness from their ineffectual selves and attach it to the service of some holy cause.” (Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of
On fanatics and ineffectual selves (Eric Hoffer) Read More »
Refreshing these two strikingly similar passages from Georg Hegel and Søren Kierkegaard, philosophers I generally think of as stylistically opposed. At issue are two key questions:1. What is the origin of the universe?2. What is the self? Hegel on the beginning of the universe: “So far, there is nothing: something is to become. The beginning
Philosophical style: Hegel and Kierkegaard Read More »
I will be giving these public lectures in Poland in December: “Does Dugin Really Have a Political ‘Fourth Way’?” Location: Gdánsk, Museum of the Second World War. Date: December 16. “Mind-shift for 21st-Century Education: Entrepreneurism.” Location: Polish Educational Research Association. Date: December 13. “Entrepreneurial Thinking in Life for Students: How Can Educators Cultivate It?” University
Four Public Lectures in Poland by Professor Stephen Hicks Read More »
Foucault’s response to an interview question: “Heidegger has always been for me the essential philosopher. I started by reading Hegel, then Marx, and I began to read Heidegger in 1951 or 1952; then in 1952 or 1953, I no longer remember, I read Nietzsche. I still have the notes I took while reading Heidegger –
Is Foucault a Neo-Marxist? Heidegger as the “essential” philosopher Read More »
A good example in The Wall Street Journal, reporting on a study published in Lancet: Climate Change Saves More Lives Than You’d ThinkEight times as many people die from cold as heat, and the fix for both is access to cheap fuel.
Cost-benefit thinking and climate change Read More »
Experienced consultant John Davis on how to have productive discussions. A snippet: * Stick to the subject.* Don’t interrupt.* One person talking at a time.* No ad hominem.* No name calling.* Eliminate gutter talk* Avoid logical fallacies.* Know the underlying premises of your positions.* Identify the underlying premises of the others’ positions.* Argue from basic
How to have a successful discussion [from John’s Views for a Better World] Read More »
On the priority of character: “Wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the State” (Apology, 30b). On the dangers of democracy: “No man on earth who conscientiously opposes you or any other organized democracy, and flatly prevents a great many wrongs and illegalities
In class: Socrates in Plato’s *Apology* Read More »