“I think. Therefore, I am.” Lecture Two: Radical Doubt. René Descartes Themes: What can I doubt? Rationalism. Unintended Skepticism? God? External world? Dualism. Vesalius. Hobbes. Copernicus. Galileo. Pope Urban VIII. Text: Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy. About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., has been Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Illinois; Visiting Professor

Marcuse: “What is proclaimed and practiced as tolerance today, is in many of its most effective manifestations serving the cause of oppression.“ About the Course In this eight-lecture course, Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks takes us on a journey through the evolution of modern political philosophies from the tensions of Cold War to the turbulent post-9/11

From a 2020 interview: Jennifer Grossman  [47:15]:  What is your perspective, Professor Hicks, on reparations, a claim that current society must repay current racial minorities for wrongs done in the past? Stephen Hicks: My view is: Absolutely not. Reparations comes out of a kind of tradition of justice. Justice is absolutely important. If an individual wrongs

The influential Jean-Jacques Rousseau was anti-Enlightenment, advocating censorship, collectivism, and the death penalty for non-believers. For an elaboration, check out this 4-minute clip from my discussion with James Lindsay and Michael O’Fallon: The full 1.5-hour video is here: Related: Stephen R.C. Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Expanded Edition).

Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) on why innovation first takes failure. “Unless you have a tolerance for failure, you will never experiment. If you don’t experiment you won’t innovate, and if you don’t innovate you won’t succeed.” So a key question for educators: How do we teach successful failing? Especially since kids often learn to fear

“Knowledge is Power.” Lecture One: The Birth of the Modern. Francis Bacon Themes: What is the Modern? 1500: Art. Science. Exploration. Religion. Economy. Politics. Individualism of independent thinking, Individualism of identity, and Individualism of worth. Galileo. Milton. Descartes. Empiricism. Experimentalism. Text: Bacon: The Great Instauration, esp. Novum Organon. About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks,

Heidegger: “Russia and America, seen metaphysically, are both the same: the same hopeless frenzy of unchained technology and of the rootless organization of the average man.“ And: “German Socialism wants an order of merit based on inner confirmation and achievement: it wants the inviolability of service and the absolute honor of all labor. That is