Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 22

W. K. Clifford on an intellectual acquaintance who was writing a book about metaphysics

“He is writing a book on metaphysics, and is really cut out for it; the clearness with which he thinks he understands things and his total inability to express what little he knows will make his fortune as a philosopher.” (Quoted in Brand Blanshard, On Philosophical Style, Manchester U.P., 1954, p. 28)

More than half the world is middle class or higher now

“Something of enormous global significance is happening almost without notice. For the first time since agriculture-based civilization began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty. By our calculations, as of this month, just over 50 percent of the world’s population, or some 3.8 billion people, […]

World Cultural Map charting traditional/secular and survival/self-expression values

Relevant for: Politics is downstream from culture, Where innovation happens, Where the Enlightenment did and didn’t take hold, and more. Source. Related: The Enlightenment Vision flowchart.

The servile state — Belloc’s 1913 prediction

One hundred years ago, Hilaire Belloc published The Servile State, with this provocative claim about his mixed intellectual world: “the effect of Socialist doctrine on Capitalist society is to produce a third thing different from either of its two begetters — to wit, the Servile State.” The nineteenth century was largely capitalist in theory and […]

LIBERAL or ANTI-LIBERAL? J.S. MILL and FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE. Lecture 8 of Modern Philosophy [Peterson Academy course]

“The symbol of this struggle, inscribed in letters legible across all human history, is ‘Rome against Judea, Judea against Rome.’” Lecture Eight: Liberal or Anti-Liberal? John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche Themes: Darwinism. Utilitarianism versus Expressive Power. Liberty versus Slavery. Social philosophy as derived from basic philosophy. Continuing or rejecting the Enlightenment? Pasteur. Darwin, biology […]

Intellectual History page updated

Updated for the new year: My collected posts on key thinkers from Homer, Socrates, and Augustine to Descartes, Kant, and Rand. Related: My Philosophers, Explained series.

The difficulties of being/not being an artist

The cartoon reminds me of an earlier post about Rimsky-Korsakov on the “hardship” of the composer’s life. According to Shostakovich: “Rimsky-Korsakov used to say that he refused to acknowledge any complaints from composers about their hard lot in life. He explained his position thus: Talk to a bookkeeper and he’ll start complaining about life and […]

Human Creativity?: AI researchers Karthik Swarmy, Jason Miller, and Joe Megyari, and philosopher Stephen Hicks discuss AI’s potential

“We have a panel discussion with Stephen Hicks, Professor of Philosophy, on the impacts of GenAI on the human condition.”

RESURGENT COLLECTIVISM: GEORG HEGEL and KARL MARX. Lecture 7 of Modern Philosophy [Peterson Academy course]

“Our mode of treating the subject is a Theodicaea,—a justification of the ways of God,—so that the ill that is found in the World may be comprehended, and the thinking Spirit reconciled with the fact of the existence of evil.” Lecture Seven: Resurgent Collectivism. Georg Hegel and Karl Marx Themes: After Kant, reality or reason? […]

Prof. Hicks on the Enlightenment: The Age of Reason & Its Opposition, Objective Morality, Israel

Interviewed by Israel’s Harry Kaufmann: Related interview: “Rand, Kant, Israel v. Islamists, & Career integrity”—Stephen Hicks with Vinay Kolhatkar and Roger Bissell.