For my Introduction to Philosophy course, an optional question on the final exam was: In your judgment, what is the most dangerous book we read this semester? First give a clear and sympathetic presentation of the book’s most important themes, and then explain why you think the book is dangerous. We read six major works
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Those who questioned his theology he called “pigs,” “asses,” “riffraff,” “dogs,” “idiots,” and “stinking beasts.”
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Two student groups at Rockford College are producing a discussing of a perennially important topic: Morality without God? * Is life purposeless or meaningless without belief in a particular God or religion? * Without God, does that mean “anything goes”? * Does belief in a particular God or religion incline one to morality? Does it
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Stephen Hicks discusses Marx’s claim that religion is the opium of the masses. This is from Part 13 of his Philosophy of Education course. Clips 1-3: Previous: Revolution, not evolution. Next: The role of teachers in developing revolutionaries. Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the StephenHicks.org main page.
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Stephen Hicks discusses the science in Marx’s “scientific socialism.” From Part 13 of his Philosophy of Education course. Clips 1-3: Previous: Marxist philosophy. Next: The socialism in “scientific socialism.” Return to the Philosophy of Education page or the full lecture series on Philosophy of Education at YouTube via these playlists. Return to the StephenHicks.org main
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Why Existentialists hold that both traditional religion and science are dehumanizing. This is from Part 11 of Stephen Hicks’s Philosophy of Education course. 1 Clip: Previous: Jean-Paul Sartre and “Existence precedes essence.” Next: Authentic humanism. Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the StephenHicks.org main page.
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Stephen Hicks introduces the philosophy of Existentialism by means of Friedrich Nietzsche’s claim that God is dead, reflection on the rise of science and the decline of religion in the modern world, and the early-twentieth-century lived experience of world war, Depression, and the Holocaust. This is from Part 11 of his Philosophy of Education course.
The modern West is hybrid civilization, drawing upon competing ethical traditions from Greco-Roman culture and Judeo-Christian religion. Professor Hicks illustrates the contrast by means of a thought-experiment survey about the Declaration of Independence and Priests’ Vows. This is from Part 5 of his Philosophy of Education course. Clips 1-3: Previous: Six questions in ethics. Next:
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