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] […]
The Climate of Collectivism [EP audiobook] Read More »
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
I received an email from the Übermensch today Read More »
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
“Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” at JARS Read More »
In my Philosophy of Art course, we’ve been reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy for the last two weeks, and we can add him to the list posted here of intellectuals across the ages bemoaning the poverty of their own time’s culture. Nietzsche on mid-19th century Germany: “What else, in the desolate waste of
More on “the constant decline of civilization” Read More »
The great Rachmaninoff on what the creator needs and what this implies for others: “A creator is a very limited person. Always he revolves around his own axis. There is nothing for him but his own creative work. I agree that the wife has to forget herself, her own personality. She must take upon herself
Creative geniuses as selfish — Rachmaninoff version Read More »
Matthew Flamm and Shawn Klein, my two Philosophy colleagues at Rockford College, will be leading a discussion group on Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1872 The Birth of Tragedy and his 1887 Genealogy of Morals. The image links to the flyer (designed by Christopher Vaughan) with the schedule and location information. Both books are wonderfully provocative. So if
Reading group on two works by Nietzsche Read More »
… is forthcoming in August and is now available for pre-order at Amazon. It will be published in both hardcover and Kindle formats. The image is a gray-scale version of the cover. The book version is based on the script of the 2006 documentary and is now complete with footnotes, index, bibliography, appendices, and other
The book version of Nietzsche and the Nazis Read More »
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.