In 1974, the great Polish intellectual Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009) published “My Correct Views on Everything, A Rejoinder to Edward Thompson’s ‘Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski’”. Kolakowski is best known for Main Currents of Marxism, his huge survey of Marxism from its neo-Platonic and Hegelian roots through Marx and his immediate followers to the post-Russian-Revolution Marxist […]
Kolakowski on Leftist responsibility Read More »
A zinger from Zingales: “Keynesianism has conquered the hearts and minds of politicians and ordinary people alike because it provides a theoretical justification for irresponsible behavior. Medical science has established that one or two glasses of wine per day are good for your long-term health, but no doctor would recommend a recovering alcoholic to follow
Luigi Zingales on Keynesians Read More »
[This is Section 29 of Stephen R.C. Hicks’s Nietzsche and the Nazis.] 29. On contemporary Germans: the world’s hope or contemptible? While the Nazis put the German-Aryan racial type first, Nietzsche is almost never complimentary about his fellow Germans. In Nietzsche’s view, Germany has slipped into flabbiness and whininess. Germany once was something to be
Nietzsche on his contemporary Germans Read More »
Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) was a leading neo-Kantian philosopher. He trained under Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), a founder and leader of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, which was perhaps the most dominant school of philosophy in the German academic world in the 19th century. Here is Cassirer’s assessment of why Kant matters to the history of socialism:
Kant and socialism, according to Cassirer Read More »
Bulletin: Sex and Economics — A Modest Proposal [pdf] Text by Stephen R.C. Hicks Graphics by Christopher Vaughan Permanent URL Fellow citizens: Our nation’s sex life is in peril. Surveys show widespread sexual discontent. Market failure is everywhere. Many males complain of not getting enough sex and many females object to constant male looks and
From the Office of the Reproducer-General [press release] Read More »
Strategy question: Does one plunge into political activism—or will political efforts not be effective until the broader culture is ready for it? A common response is to say “Politics is downstream from culture.” Here is one datum, from Philip Reiff: “[T]he first Christian culture revolution accommodated itself from the beginning to the ruling classes of
How do political cultures change? Read More »
I had no idea until I read this in Hugh Barnes’s Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg: “Until the end of the eighteenth century, even houses of wealthy Russians were barely distinguishable from peasant huts.” Who knew? (File under Humor, Sarcasm.) More on Gannibal and Gannibal.
18th-century Russia as egalitarian paradise Read More »
Below is the transcript. Or here in PDF. The lecture is part of the Business Ethics Cases series. The Tragedy of the Commons (transcript) Video lecture by Stephen Hicks, Ph.D. Transcription by Matheus Pacini. Part 1: What the Tragedy Is [Video clip 1] The Tragedy of the Commons is a foundational case study in business