Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 33

Rousseau’s five children

In an earlier post I asked, Who is the most loathsome philosopher in history? I suggested that Rousseau and Heidegger be considered top candidates. Some more data relevant to Rousseau: He made his common-law wife leave all five of their infants at foundling hospitals, on the grounds that they’d be better off there and that […]

Liberal versus gender feminism: McElroy’s *Sexual Correctness*

In my Ethics course, we cover the arguments for and against banning pornography. One of our readings is from Wendy McElroy’s Sexual Correctness: The Gender-Feminist Attack on Women. McElroy takes up the gender-feminist arguments against porn and contrasts them with liberal individualist forms of feminism. The following updated* chart of contrasts is a work in […]

Estonian translation of *Explaining Postmodernism* published

I’m happy to announce that the Estonian translation of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault has been published by Postimees Kirjastus out of Tallinn, Estonia. Here’s the cover: I’ll post the publisher’s link soon. For other editions and translations, please see the Explaining Postmodernism page.

The Mongols and modern European history

Did the death of one man in Mongolia affect the entire course of European history since the 1200s? Here’s the context: In 1227, Genghis Khan’s son Ogedai became head of the Mongolian empire, which at that time included much of northern China, southeastern Russia, and Persia. Ogedai sent one of his generals, Tsubodai (or Subotai), […]

Mises as socialist hero

Ludwig von Mises was, of course, one of the great advocates of a liberal society, including its free-market economy. But here is Oskar Lange, a champion of socialist central planning, suggesting that socialists erect a monument in Mises’s honor: “Socialists have certainly good reason to be grateful to Professor Mises, the great advocatus diaboli [devil’s […]

4.99 million views, and counting

When the audio-book edition hit 1 million views at YouTube, I was astounded. “That many people will listen to a philosophy book??” When it hit 2 million, amazed. Then 3 million …. So I’m happy and continuingly surprised as Nietzsche and the Nazis has passed 4.99 million views and is closing on 5 million. Description: […]

The Rise of Woke | Talk in Washington, DC

Last month in Washington I gave this talk — on how the Woke activist movement developed (in large part) out of two related theory movements, Critical Theory and Postmodernism — at TAS “Galt’s Gulch” event. It was a full-house international event with professionals as well as students from a surprising range of countries: USA, Morocco, […]

Francis Bacon on marriage versus the single life

The opening of Bacon’s essay “Of Marriage and Single Life”: “He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly, the best works, and of the greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men.” Bacon was […]

The Migrant Crisis and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables

1/3: On cities taking in migrants, many of rough and uncertain character, at high cost & safety risk to themselves. Hypothesis: Think of the priest in the powerful early scene of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and the Broadway play and Hollywood movie. … 2/3: The priest takes in a debased and unknown-to-him Jean Valjean, recently escaped […]

What students learn at university: Hayek’s observation

In The Road to Serfdom, Hayek noticed the many students who went to Europe (especially to France and Germany) to study in the 1920s and 30s: “Many a university teacher during the 1930’s has seen English and American students return from the Continent uncertain whether they were communists or Nazis and certain only that they […]