Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 37

Žižek on pleasure and three types of leftists

I usually think of Slavoj Žižek as a performance-artist-of-philosophy-sometimes-shading-into-clownishness, but he can be perceptive, especially when diagnosing the internal dynamics of his fellow leftists. Here is his taxonomy of left thinkers in terms of where they stand on the issue of enjoyment: “Leftist libertarians see enjoyment as an emancipatory power: every oppressive power has to […]

Texts in Philosophy — mid-2024 additions

For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture (1934). Auguste Comte, Catechism of Positive Religion, Conversations I-V (1852). G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820). Excerpt from Philosophy of History (1822). Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals (1785). Søren Kierkegaard, excerpts from Either-Or (1843). John […]

Is modern art too complicated for us?

Wall Street Journal art critic Terry Teachout asks: “Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” As examples, Teachout quotes one of thousands of sentences from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake like this one: “It is the circumconversioning of antelithual paganelles by a huggerknut cramwell energuman, or the caecodedition of an absquelitteris puttagonnianne to the […]

Nietzsche’s poem “From High Mountains”

Friedrich Nietzsche“From High Mountains: Aftersong” O noon of life! O time to celebrate!O summer garden!Restlessly happy and expectant, standing,Watching all day and night, for friends I wait: Where are you, friends? Come! It is time! It’s late! The glacier’s gray adorned itself for youToday with roses,The brook seeks you, and full of longing risesThe wind, […]

Garrett Hardin bemoaning India’s 600 million population in 1974

Hardin is one of the most widely-read twentieth-century intellectuals, most known for his two pieces “The Tragedy of the Commons” and “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor.” The two are intimately related, as one diagnoses a fundamental problem with resources and the other draws policy conclusions. A key quotation, in which Hardin states […]

Let me now teach the British what their culture is

I posted a comment about British culture, saying that it’s 80% based on Greco-Roman values – in response to a line from Nigel Farage saying “everything in our country and culture is based on Judeo-Christian values.” I got pushback. Even from Britons. So let’s plunge into a spot of cultural anthropology and history: One knows […]

John Gray’s anti-Enlightenment [Stephen Hicks’s Pope Lecture]

In this invited lecture, Dr. Hicks surveys key educational ideas from pre-modern times, the modern era, and our post-modern times. Ancient education often stressed discipline, obedience and rule following, while modern thinkers such as Galileo, Locke, and Montaigne stressed independent judgment and the power of reason. He then examines a series postmodern (and fellow-traveler) thinkers […]

Are we declining from our decline?

Following up on “The constant decline of civilization?” — a series of quotations from across the centuries of intellectuals from Plato to Wordsworth to T.S. Eliot bemoaning the sorry state of their generation’s intellectual and moral life. Here, from a review of Mark Lilla’s The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics and Richard Wolin’s Heidegger’s Children: […]

Evaluating Javier Milei’s presidency at six months

Tomorrow: My webinar evaluating Javier Milei’s presidency at six months. Registration link.

Philosophy humor — The nature of wisdom

At a meeting of the college faculty, an angel suddenly appears and tells the head of the philosophy department, “I will grant you whichever of three blessings you choose: Wisdom, Beauty — or ten million dollars.” Immediately, the professor chooses Wisdom. There is a flash of lightning, and the professor appears transformed — but he […]