In my Introduction to Philosophy course we read Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents. In Chapter 5, Freud makes the following strong claim about human nature: “Men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among […]
Freud and original sin Read More »
[This column is a part of the Theist vs. Atheist debate series between Stephen Hicks and John C. Wright. Here Hicks responds to Wright’s column about whether religion is essential to ethics.] In my judgment, issues of morality are the most difficult in philosophy. They are intellectually challenging, as everything about the human condition is
On Natural Morality and Religious Amoralism [Theist vs. Atheist series] Read More »
“People are scum.” “Mankind is a moral wasteland.” “I’m ashamed to be human.” Whenever cynics express themselves, I’m tempted to retort that philosophy is autobiography and they should put their claims in the first-person: “I am scum.” “I am a moral wasteland.” “I’m ashamed to be me.” A colleague once took me up on that
Why Humans are Born Fit for Freedom [Good Life series] Read More »
I gave a lecture at the Atlas Summit in June 2015 in New Hampshire on “The Three Best Arguments against Liberal Capitalism.” See the video of the 50-minute lecture here: More information about the Atlas Society and its annual Atlas Summit is here.
The Three Best Arguments against Liberal Capitalism Read More »
There’s a calculator at the EFW site with this heading: “The average American’s lifetime share of the national debt is $482,367. What’s your share?” One enters one’s age and clicks the calculator. I entered age zero to calculate for a newborn American. Result: “Your lifetime share of the national debt is: $1,536,621.” How’s that for
National debt and Original Sin Read More »
As part of an invited lecture series, I led several seminars on the topic The Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism. The format is Socratic and the participants are professors at my host, Francisco Marroquín University. In this second seminar, we take up the arguments that: a) We live in a world of scarce resources, and
Two anti-capitalist arguments: scarcity and depravity (UFM seminar) Read More »
Stephen Hicks here introduces the five foundational issues of human nature. This is from Part 4 of Professor Hicks’s Philosophy of Education course. Clips 1-2: Previous: [Part 3: Epistemology] Choose your hero – Semmelweis or Abraham? Next: Dualism of mind and body. Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the StephenHicks.org main page.
Five issues in human nature Read More »
Intellectual systems and movements are defined philosophically by means of their characteristic claims in the five major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, ethics, and politics. As historical movements, they are defined by the time of their formulation and most vigorous activity. So in the following table I offer a definitions of pre-modernism and
Defining modernism and pre-modernism Read More »