Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 10

Nietzsche’s Kantianism—”reason does not derive its laws from nature but prescribes them to nature.”

Nietzsche on Kant’s fundamental correctness: “reason does not derive its laws from nature but prescribes them to nature.” Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, Human All Too Human, A Book for Free Spirits [1878]. Related: On the related context of Nietzsche’s provocative claim: Related: On Nietzsche’s place in the historical course of philosophy: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism […]

Nietzsche: Kant is right—”reason does not derive its laws from nature but prescribes them to nature.”

Nietzsche on Kant’s fundamental correctness: “reason does not derive its laws from nature but prescribes them to nature.” Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, Human All Too Human, A Book for Free Spirits [1878]. Related: On the related context of Nietzsche’s provocative claim: Related: On Nietzsche’s place in the historical course of philosophy: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism […]

“Man’s Rights” | Ayn Rand | *Philosophers, Explained* series by Professor Stephen Hicks

Who are the great philosophers, and what makes them great? Episodes: The full playlist. Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, USA, and has had visiting positions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in England, and Jagiellonian […]

Rafe Champion on How Science Lost Its Way: Popper and Tullock against Kuhn and the Postmoderns

Champion’s essay on Substack, “How Science Lost its Way: Karl Popper and Gordon Tulloch on the institutional malaise of science.” After World War II: “The philosophical diaspora in the US converted the philosophy of science into a wasteland of conceptual analysis and sterile probability theory instead of an introduction to the kind of imaginative and […]

‘Woke Left’ and ‘Woke Right’: false consciousness and the red pill

From a 2020 interview: Jennifer Grossman [24:40]: Another term that could have some help unpacking is the Woke culture. What does that mean? Where did it come from? Stephen Hicks: That’s a much broader concept. It comes out of the Left politically. Interestingly on the Right politically too—if we can use these labels—they’re obviously Left and […]

Immanuel Kant’s Profound Impact on Art | A conversation with Stephen Hicks and Jan-Ove Tuv

Synopsis: Late in the 19th century artists began to experiment with non-representational art. Dr. Hicks traces this movement to Immanuel Kant’s basic philosophy as expressed in his 1781 Critique of Pure Reason. Their conversation ranges over Kant’s metaphysical ideas and his ideas of beauty and the sublime as expressed in Critique of Judgment. The perceptual […]

Behaviorism and Education: B.F. Skinner [Lecture 10 of Philosophy of Education course]

By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA. Lecture 10: What did the major Behaviorist thinkers, and B.F. Skinner in particular, believe and how they apply it to education? Previous lectures in the series: Part One: Introduction: What is the purpose of education, and what is philosophy’s relevance? Part Two: Reality: Metaphysics and Education: The […]

ALTRUISM and SELF-SACRIFICE: SCHOPENHAUER and COMTE. Lecture 4 of Philosophy of Ethics course [Peterson Academy]

“Nothing else can be stated as the aim of our existence except the knowledge that it would be better for us not to exist.” Lecture Four: Altruism and Self-Sacrifice Themes: Suffering. Nihilism. Self-interest and selflessness. Egoism, Predation, and Altruism. The Religion of Humanity. Texts: Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality and The World as Will and […]

MAGA and Trump: What Are the Issues?

My initial list of key issues and themes in the new Trump-MAGA era. Please add other major issues/themes in the comments. State them neutrally, as my purpose here is to identify the topics and not to make arguments for or against. 1. Real estate: Donald Trump is a real-estate-guy-now-become-President and thinking expansion: Greenland, Canada 2. […]

Hamas and philosopher-theologian Sayyid Qutb

The ideological roots of Hamas are the Islamic religion as updated and politicized. The most influential thinker in this tradition is Sayyid Qutb, who was executed by the Egyptian government. Qutb’s thought was incorporated into Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s theocratic Iran, and, among others, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. […]