Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 5

Is conservatism a “middle course” between collectivism and self-elevation? James Orr (Cambridge Univ.) debates Stephen Hicks (Rockford Univ.)

Professor James Orr: “only conservatism charts the middle course between ideologies that elevate the self over the collective and ones that swallow up the self in the collective.” That is from Dr. Orr’s opening essay in this Reason Papers three-round debate with Dr. Stephen Hicks. Orr advocates and defends Conservatism; Hicks does the same for […]

On religious truth [Blackburn anecdote]

The philosopher Simon Blackburn tells an anecdote about a forum at which representatives of the major religions spoke. “First the Buddhist talked of the ways to calm, the mastery of desire, the path of enlightenment. The panellists all said ‘Wow, terrific, if that works for you that’s great.’ Then the Hindu talked of the cycles […]

The Pakistani intellectual scene — and *Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault*

A Pakistani intellectual, Khurshid Ali Singay, in correspondence with me wrote about the situation there: “I can assure you again that in this side of the world, being an intellectual—secular or religious—means reading Marx or some Postmodernist thinkers. Marx is the hero both for the commoners and the literate. British philosophers, Empiricism and Liberalism are either taken […]

*Explaining Postmodernism* and the Pakistani intellectual scene

A Pakistani intellectual, Khurshid Ali Singay, in correspondence with me wrote about the situation there: “I can assure you again that in this side of the world, being an intellectual—secular or religious—means reading Marx or some Postmodernist thinkers. Marx is the hero both for the commoners and the literate. British philosophers, Empiricism and Liberalism are either taken […]

Heidegger’s “Reunion Speech” of 1934

[Courtesy of the translator, W. H. F. Altman, here is the text of Martin Heidegger’s speech, delivered on the occasion of a 25th anniversary reunion in Konstanz, May 26-27, 1934.] Martin Heidegger, The Reunion Speech Twenty-five Years after Our Graduation, Reunion in Konstanz on May 26-27, 1934 Dear classmates! Our reunion—after twenty-five years and more—might […]

Pakistani edition of *Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault* published

I’m happy to announce that my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault has been published in Pakistan. An Urdu edition, translated by Dr. Nazir Azad, was published in India in 2023. Urdu is the first or second language of 230 million people in Pakistan and India, so I am happy that it […]

TRAC 2014 art panel on Nerdrum’s Kitsch and Scruton’s Beauty

Blast from the past: At the Representational Art Conference in Ventura, California, I participated in a panel focused on the aesthetic theories of Odd Nerdrum and Roger Scruton. My remarks are from the 42:30- to 58-minute mark or so. Also on the panel are editor Peter Trippi, painters Jan-Ove Tuv, Alan Lawson, and Julio Reyes, […]

Heidegger calling for a leader “capable of instilling terror”

From philosopher Martin Heidegger’s lectures in the winter semester of 1929-1930 on “The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics.” The Great War (1914-1918) had ended over a decade before but, Heidegger argued, its world-historical significance must not be lost. So the professor is explaining to his students what Germany needs: “We must first call for someone capable […]

What the pagan Lithuanians got right

I’ve always admired the Greeks — one must admire a culture that has a god for drinking and partying — but now the Lithuanians of old have risen in my affections. The Baltic pagans had not one but three deities devoted to beer and beer production: Raugutis, the god of beer; Raugutiene, Ragutis’s consort who […]

Kant and socialism, according to Cassirer

Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) was a leading neo-Kantian philosopher. He trained under Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), a founder and leader of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, which was perhaps the most dominant school of philosophy in the German academic world in the 19th century. Here is Cassirer’s assessment of why Kant matters to the history of socialism: […]