“History is philosophy teaching by example,” said Bolingbroke. Philosophy has a reputation for being abstract, which it is. Philosophy also has a reputation for being impractical or pointless, which it certainly is not. Here is my nine-minute explanation for why philosophy is life or death. (Much thanks to Christopher Vaughan for his fine video and […]
Philosophy and a century of war Read More »
Following up on a series of recent posts on Marxism and its fellow travelers (Engels, Mao, Guzmán, Hobsbawm), a question about whether Marxism’s brutal history is a built-in consequence of its principles or an accidental by-product of well-intentioned theory. So a series of quotations from some principal figures: Marx in 1848: “there is only one
Marxists and violence Read More »
(No peeking at the answer below. I mean it.) “I want everyone to keep the property that he has acquired for himself according to the principle: benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual. But the state should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the state. It is his
Which leftist said this? Read More »
One of my talks at Francisco Marroquín University was on making sense of our mixed economy–an unwieldy combination of market and socialist elements. The 28-minute talk integrates themes from my intellectual heroes–Smith, Mill, Mises, Hayek, Rand, Popper, Friedman, Buchanan, and Tullock–and connects market economics, politics, ethics, history, and public choice to explaining our semi-coherent mixed
Seminar: Philosophy and the Evolution of the Mixed Economy Read More »
Stephen Hicks discusses Marx’s account of the necessary economic development stages in scientific socialism. This is from Part 13 of his Philosophy of Education course. 1 Clip: Previous: The science in “scientific socialism.” Next: The socialism in “scientific socialism”–Capitalism’s dynamic: “The rich get richer …” Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the
The socialism in “scientific socialism” Read More »
Following up on an earlier post contrasting modernism with pre-modernism, I here contrast post-modernism to both. Postmodernism as a philosophical system is defined by means of its characteristic claims in the five major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, ethics, and politics. Postmodernism as a historical movement is defined by the time of its
Defining postmodernism Read More »
[This is Section 8 of Nietzsche and the Nazis.] 8. Economic socialism, not capitalism The second theme of the Program is a stress upon socialism and a strong rejection of capitalism. Numerically, socialism is the most emphasized theme in the Nazi Program, for over half of the Program’s twenty-five points—fourteen out of the twenty-five, to
Economic socialism, not capitalism [Section 8 of Nietzsche and the Nazis] Read More »
I am organizing a session for the Association for Private Enterprise Education conference to be held April 11-13, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The theme is “Reason in Hayek and Rand.” Here we have two giants of twentieth-century thought, but few comparative studies have been done. So as a start I have chosen Reason as
Hayek and Rand on reason Read More »