“A famous experiment at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in 1995. In it, a group of students and faculty were asked to choose between earning $50,000 per year while everyone else earned $25,000 — or earning $100,000 per year while others made $200,000. The researchers stipulated that prices of goods and services would be […]
The psychology of inequality — a datum Read More »
Ten of my favorites from the always perceptive Eric Hoffer: “Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.” “The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.” “When people are free to do
Eric Hoffer on true believers and false fronts Read More »
Richard Rorty on the consequences of having to abandon the objectivity and universality of reason: The best we can do is seek “inter-subjective agreement” among the “members of our own tribe.” Though feeling loyal to his American left-liberal roots, Rorty goes on to hope that we will be nice to the other tribes while doing
Richard Rorty in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
My “No Reformation for Islam, Please” is now republished at Britain’s Church and State site: “Islam needs reforming but definitely not a Reformation. “The history matters here, so consider first what the Reformation activists were fighting against. During the Renaissance, the dominant Catholic religion had become worldly. Its thinkers read the naturalistic Greeks and Romans
“No Reformation for Islam, Please” [CHURCH and STATE] Read More »
[Thanks to the careful work of Paula Nedved (mter2013@gmail.com), below is a transcription (PDF here) of our video discussion diagnosing the roots of postmodernism. Dr. Peterson’s introduction: “On August 17, I spoke with Dr. Stephen Hicks, professor in the philosophy department at Rockford University. Dr. Hicks is the author of the influential and courageous 2004
Jordan Peterson and Stephen Hicks diagnose postmodernism [transcription] Read More »
Anti-theocratic-authoritarian protests in Iran are good news for real liberals everywhere. So it’s important that we encourage the spread of human freedom and dignity — and shame those whose silence reveals either hypocrisy or cowardice. I’m happy that two of my books have been translated into Persian/Farsi and published in Iran: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and
Protests in Iran: Who’s speaking out and who’s silent? Read More »
I’m happy to announce that translators Ayoub Salhi and Anouar El Mekki have finished their translation of my book into Arabic. The resulting work should be published later this year. Details forthcoming. Meanwhile, here is the information page about all of the translations, editions, and reviews of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to
Arabic translation of *Explaining Postmodernism* forthcoming Read More »
In our ongoing contest to find the longest sentence in Philosophy, careful reader Matthias Brinkmann alerts me to a new candidate — this 286-worder from Kant’s Practical Philosophy: “Now, if ends must first be given to us, in relation to which alone the concept of perfection (whether internal in ourselves or external in God) can
Philosophy’s longest sentences — Kant upgrade Read More »