Friedrich Nietzsche

Postmodern Strategy [Explaining Postmodernism audiobook]

2 Comments / Economics, Film, History of Philosophy, Literature, Philosophy, Philosophy of History /

This is the sixth and final chapter of the audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Chapter Six: Postmodern Strategy [mp3] [YouTube] [54 minutes total] Connecting epistemology to politics [mp3] [YouTube] Masks and rhetoric in language [mp3] [YouTube] When theory clashes with fact [mp3] [YouTube] Kierkegaardian postmodernism [mp3] [YouTube] Reversing […]

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The Climate of Collectivism [EP audiobook]

2 Comments / History of Philosophy, Politics /

This is the fourth chapter of the audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Chapter Four: The Climate of Collectivism [mp3] [YouTube] [102 minutes] From postmodern epistemology to postmodern politics [mp3] [YouTube] The argument of the next three chapters [mp3] [YouTube] Responding to socialism’s crisis of theory and evidence [mp3]

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Friedrich Nietzsche on the necessity of war

4 Comments / History, Politics /

One of the themes in my Contemporary European Philosophy course is the vast gulf between the Continental and Anglo-American traditions over the desirability of war and peace. Relevant to that discussion are these quotations from Nietzsche on war: Why war is necessary: “War essential. It is vain rhapsodizing and sentimentality to continue to expect much

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22 points from Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals

12 Comments / Ethics, History of Philosophy /

This week in Contemporary European Philosophy we finished our discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1887 Genealogy of Morals, which is an essentialized and more systematic presentation of themes from his 1886 Beyond Good and Evil. Here is my digest of the main line of argument of Genealogy‘s first essay: 1. Evolution and psycho-biology: Humans are an

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I received an email from the Übermensch today

3 Comments / Philosophy /

Subject: Emanation of Zarathustra… Dear Professor Hicks, I’ve noted in your “Overman” piece: “Nietzsche gives a name to his anticipated overman: He calls him Zarathustra, and he names his greatest literary and philosophical work in his honor. “Zarathustra will be the creative tyrant. Having mastered himself and others, he will exuberantly and energetically command and

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“Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” at JARS

Leave a Comment / Ethics, Film, History of Philosophy, Literature, Philosophy of History /

My lengthy journal article entitled “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” [pdf] is now publicly available for free at the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies‘ site. The abstract: “Philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand are often identified as strong critics of altruism and arch advocates of egoism. In this essay, Stephen Hicks argues that Nietzsche and

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