Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 17

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917) | The ‘Father’ of Conceptual Art

“With his Fountain (1917), Duchamp made the quintessential statement about the history and future of art. Duchamp of course knew the history of art and, given recent trends, where art was going. He knew what had been achieved — how over the centuries art had been a powerful vehicle that called upon the highest development […]

Why did Roger Scruton say Kant is key for Modern Art?

In his book on Kant, philosopher Roger Scruton writes that without Kant’s Critique of Judgment, writes “aesthetics would not exist in its modern form.”* While it’s initially shocking to think that the priggish and uptight Kant has anything to do with the often-nihilistic modern art world—Kant is arguably the most influential philosopher in the last […]

Talk for MIT Free Speech Alliance

I’ll be speaking on philosophy’s role in the free-speech battles to this MIT organization on Monday, February 3, 2025. It’s an open meeting, so any interested party can listen in. Link to register here. Related: The MIT FSA’s coverage of the Dorian Abbot cancelation. Related: John Stuart Mill on the social requirements of free speech […]

Movement in-fighting and schisms — psychology

Here is an example of a phenomenon that has long puzzled me: Nasty in-group fighting. In The Rise of Neo-Kantianism, Klaus Christian Köhnke asks: What can “explain one of the most distressing features of the neo-Kantians: the fierceness and bitterness of their polemics, the nastiness of their ad hominem arguments, which destroyed personal friendships and […]

“Philosophy” of “Education” [Lecture 1 of Philosophy of Education course]

By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA Lecture 1: What is the purpose of education? Why is philosophy of fundamental importance to deciding one’s educational mission, curriculum, teaching and assessment methods, and even the location and architecture of one’s school? Other lectures in the series: Part Two: Reality: Metaphysics and Education: The Creation Story, […]

You Are the Entrepreneur of Your Life — video of my talk at Francisco Marroquin University

This lecture was given to UFM’s Psychology Faculty in October 2024. Themes: two anecdotes from the history of medicine, why we live in revolutionary times, what an entrepreneurial mindset is, why it’s essential for careers in this new era of robotics and AI, how entrepreneurism can re-focus one’s self-education and formal education. Related: “The Entrepreneurial […]

Text of Milei’s WEF speech translated into English

Javier Milei, President of Argentina, World Economic Forum Speech, January 2025 [Key concepts: wokeism, Leviathan State, Atlas Shrugged, Western values (Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian), freedom, creativity, capitalism, liberalism ] Good morning, everyone. How much has changed in such a short time. A year ago, I stood here before you alone and told some truths about the […]

Heidegger and World War One — Altman’s good book

The “Heidegger Wars” are an academic battle about the significance of Martin Heidegger’s commitment to Natonal Socialism as an ideology and to the Nazi Party in particular. William H. F. Altman’s important book, Martin Heidegger and the First World War: Being and Time as Funeral Oration, opens with this question: “Was Martin Heidegger an apolitical […]

Were the Nazis socialist? The 1933 Fire Decree

Enacted on February 28, 1933, less than one month after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor: § 1. Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom [habeas corpus], freedom of (opinion) expression, […]

My Philosophy of Education course on video

15 lectures: “Philosophy” of “Education.” Metaphysics & Education. Epistemology & Education. Human Nature. Ethics. Integration & Transition. Idealism. Realism. Pragmatism. Behaviorism. Existentialism. Objectivism and Montessori. Marxism. Postmodernism. Conclusion. (Good news for online viewers: You don’t have to take the final exam.) Full Playlist: