Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 4

Must Liberalism Fail? James Orr (Cambridge Univ.) debates Stephen Hicks (Rockford Univ.)

Professor James Orr: “The atomisation of modern society, the tectonic contradictions of identitarianism, the shattering of civic and economic harmony, are not puzzling aberrations of liberalism but the outworking of its inner logic.” That is from Dr. Orr’s second essay, “A Conservative Critique of Liberalism,” in this Reason Papers three-round debate with Dr. Stephen Hicks. […]

Lewis Thomas’s classic-fun “Notes on Punctuation”

Notes on Punctuation By Lewis Thomas There are no precise rules about punctuation (Fowler lays out some general advice (as best he can under the complex circumstances of English prose (he points out, for example, that we possess only four stops (the comma, the semicolon, the colon and the period (the question mark and exclamation […]

Juneteenth is day of honor

Juneteenth celebrates a great achievement. Slavery had existed for thousands of year in pretty much every culture in the world. But a few brave and lonely voices began to challenge it in the 1700s and within a century—almost a blink of an eye in historical time—it had been eliminated in the civilized parts of the […]

Studio audience invitation for live recording of two new courses

I’m delighted to announce my return to Peterson Academy. I will be teaching two separate courses, Philosophy of Education, on how major thinkers—from Socrates and Plato to Montessori and Foucault—shaped teaching and schooling, and Logic, on how to analyze arguments, spot fallacies, avoid bias, and understand reasoning. Filming in person in Phoenix, AZ. Spaces are limited. Apply […]

How great artists become great — Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky

From Igor Stravinky’s Autobiography: “For me, as a creative musician, composition is a daily function that I feel compelled to discharge. I compose because I am made for that and cannot do otherwise. Just as any organ atrophies unless kept in a state of constant activity, so the faculty of composition becomes enfeebled and dulled […]

Does ‘freedom first’ lead to tyranny? James Orr (Cambridge Univ.) debates Stephen Hicks (Rockford Univ.)

Professor James Orr: “a society that prizes freedom above all else is a society that will, in time, descend into tyranny.” That is from Dr. Orr’s second essay, “A Conservative Critique of Liberalism,” in this Reason Papers three-round debate with Dr. Stephen Hicks. Orr advocates and defends Conservatism; Hicks does the same for Liberalism. Links […]

Announcement: New courses forthcoming

Next month, I’ll be recording two new courses for Peterson Academy in their Arizona studio. Details forthcoming. Meanwhile, I was pleased to receive from the team this screen capture from the Academy’s discussion forum on my Modern Philosophy course. Thank you for the praise, Salvatore and Allan! More information about my other courses at PA—Modern […]

Capitalism and Anti-Racism [interview excerpt]

From a 2020 interview: Jennifer Grossman [11:59]: What is your perspective from now, particularly looking at it through historical time when we could point to … slavery, things like that, it would seem to me that it’s improved. The other question is: Is capitalism an institution and as an institution (if it is an institution) is […]

“Post-postmodern Art”: slide show and reprint

Chris Vaughan created a self-guided PowerPoint slide-show version of my short essay on modern and postmodern art: “Post-postmodern Art” slide show [downloadable PowerPoint]. Also here is a PDF version of the text with the relevant, illustrative images. Related: My more-fully developed talk at ESEADE University, Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Poland’s president-elect Karol Nawrocki (and his interview of me in Gdańsk)

Poland’s new president is historian Karol Nawrocki, who was director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and head of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. Dr. Nawrocki did this interview with me (in English with Polish translation) on the ideas behind the rise of totalitarian movements such as National Socialism. […]