Who are the great philosophers, and what makes them great? Our series covers major philosophers and texts. For each, we’ve selected an excerpt and done a close reading with the accompanying text. Our goal is to understand and interpret — not to argue with — though we point out key claims and controversies. This Episode:

Do appreciate the philosophical (if not historical) accuracy. Considering this as my costume for next year’s festivities. (On the philosophical accuracy.)

1. The young Friedrich Schiller wrote The Robbers (1781), a play that made him an overnight sensation. To deepen his education, he plunged into Kantian philosophy. As a result: His imagination, he feared, had abandoned him. Philosophical enquiries into Immanuel Kant’s philosophy had somehow eradicated his poetic sensibilities, and he felt that he was neither

One-minute introduction to the series: Full Series playlist. Philosophers in the first series: Immanuel Kant Plato Galileo Galilei Ayn Rand Jean-Jacques Rousseau René Descartes Jean-Paul Sartre Socrates Martin Heidegger Thomas Aquinas Arachne and Athena Aristotle Albert Camus Friedrich Nietzsche John Dewey Sigmund Freud G.W.F. Hegel William James Søren Kierkegaard John Locke Karl Marx John Stuart

I read the book in manuscript and wrote this blurb for it: “Max Reynolds’ eye for the telling details works well with his strategic judgment in tracing ideological evolutions—from their roots in Hegel and Marx—to their 20th- and 21st-century transmutations. Read this book to understand our current cultural battles.”—Stephen R.C. Hicks, Professor of Philosophy, author

Will Knowland, in our interview, asked my how I became interesting in philosophy. Other excerpts: How Education Became Indoctrination:  On Power: Related:

On Sunday I will be in Morrison, Illinois, for this open-to-the public talk. Press release: Dr. Stephen Hicks is Professor of Philosophy and Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford University in Rockford, IL. He is the author of six books that have been translated into 20 languages: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism