Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 26

Jordan Peterson interviews Stephen Hicks: How to disagree, challenge, and revise [Excerpt]

First, here’s the full interview, with timestamps for sub-topics, filmed in Arizona in November 2024: In the following excerpt, Dr. Peterson sketches a hypothesis, Dr. Hicks objects to it, Dr. Peterson then rephrases, and Dr. Hicks suggests an alternative formulation. An example of how disagreement can be constructive when truth-seeking is one’s mutual goal: Related: […]

Jordan Peterson interviews Stephen Hicks: How to disagree, challenge, and revise

Here’s our full interview, with timestamps for sub-topics, filmed in Arizona in November 2024: In the following excerpt, Dr. Peterson sketches a hypothesis, Dr. Hicks objects to it, Dr. Peterson then rephrases, and Dr. Hicks suggests an alternative formulation. An example of how disagreement can be constructive when truth-seeking is one’s mutual goal: Related: Stephen […]

The Great Lover

A favorite poem, by Rupert Brooke, which I sometimes use in my Introduction to Philosophy course. The Great Loverby Rupert Brooke I have been so great a lover: filled my daysSo proudly with the splendour of Love’s praise,The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,Desire illimitable, and still content,And all dear names men use, to cheat […]

Thankful

On this day, I am thankful in a way that history puts in perspective. Three quotations: From William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, on life in medieval Europe: “Because most peasants lived and died without leaving their birthplace, there was seldom need for any tag beyond One-Eye, or Roussie (Redhead), or Bionda (Blondie), […]

Tariffs as tit-for-tat revenge

First, a healthy way to think about trade: Canada produces more and better maple syrup and high quality copper than the USA does. Yet the USA’s California wines are better than Canadian wines and the USA produces more hickory lumber than Canada does. So, Americans get more of their maple syrup and copper from Canada […]

Higher education: Self-development, Career preparation, or Social Activism as Priority Goal?

This documents a huge shift in one generation. HERI is the Higher Education Research Institute. It asks faculty what their top educational goals are. Candidates: Individual self-development, becoming a well-rounded person, learning to think and judge for oneself, career preparation, becoming a social-change agent, and so on. In 1990, only about 20% of faculty said […]

Jordan Peterson interviews Stephen Hicks — Reality & the Philosophical Framing of the Truth

(0:39) Intro (2:19) Lecturing for Peterson Academy (two course published, three in post-postproduction) (5:16) The giants in philosophy who shook the earth — learn why (10:54) The practical case for philosophy (14:24) Narrative, weighting facts, and how various philosophies reconcile perception versus reality (25:24) Epistemology (the theory of knowledge), how you know that you really […]

My INTELLECTUAL HISTORY page

Related: My Explaining Postmodernism page, with links to the various English editions and foreign translations. Related: My Nietzsche and the Nazis page with links to the various English editions and foreign translations.

Israel: demographics

2024 estimates. Worth comparing the demographics of other Middle Eastern nations and groups.

Mind-body dualism or physicalism? [Introduction to Philosophy]

In my Intro. course, we read Descartes’ Meditations, in part using it to introduce the complicated and important set of issues known as the mind-body problem. The most ancient account of the mind-body relation is dualism, the view that the mind and the body are two different types of stuff that are temporarily joined. The […]