Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 53

Entrepreneurs’ family background and motivation

What makes entrepreneurs tick? An interesting paper: “Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation”, by Vivek Wadhwa et al., part of the Kauffman Foundation Small Research Projects. The paper’s abstract: “Entrepreneurs are among the most celebrated people in our culture. Celebrity entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, often […]

Derrida, Deconstruction, Insanity

What is Deconstruction? Is reason a tyranny? Did Foucault go far enough? Can insanity be liberating? Jacques Derrida’s classic essay “Cogito and the History of Madness,” in the Philosophers, Explained series.

My full course on Philosophy of Education — new playlist

My 15-lecture series on the Philosophy of Education in a dedicated playlist at YouTube. The videos are still also available at my site here. The series covers key issues in philosophy and their implications for education and how the major philosophers in history — Plato, Locke, Kant, Sartre, Rand, Foucault, and others — have influenced […]

Salvage Postmodernism? Meta-Modernism? Brendan Graham Dempsey interviews Stephen Hicks

What is Pre-Modernism? What was the Modern revolution? How does Postmodernism reject both? Are some elements of the Postmodern critique worth preserving? What would an after-Postmodernism movement look like? Related: Explaining Postmodernism.

Entrepreneurial Living: 15 Stories of Innovation, Risk, and Achievement (and One Story of Abject Failure)

Entrepreneurial Living, edited by Stephen R. C. Hicks and Jennifer Harrolle. In this volume of interviews with entrepreneurs from six countries and seven U.S. states, we explore the adventure—and the hard-headedness—of business. What makes for entrepreneurial success—and failure? To what extent is flourishing a matter of ideas, or of key decisions, or of persistent action, […]

*How to Be a Billionaire*

I enjoyed Martin Fridson‘s book of that title — with the subtitle Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth. Fridson’s method is to study those who’ve become billionaires to isolate common traits and actions. Ross Perot, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, H. L. Hunt, Warren Buffett, John D. Rockefeller, Wayne Huizenga, and others get careful (and […]

Is sculpture the best art form?

Carrying on the fun Renaissance debate about which art form is the best. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, revenge-killer, likely a rapist, and party animal. Check out his Autobiography for all the energetic and sordid true-confessions details. It was he who did the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, now in the […]

A modest proposal — Let’s ban women from the workplace and make everyone happy

[Humor alert.] I’ve taken to heart all the left-leaning outrage at the unequal distribution of wealth — 1% versus 99% !!! — as well as all the social conservative angst over the breakdown of the traditional family. Sobering stuff. In all modesty, however, I believe that I’ve hit upon a totally awesome solution that will […]

The dangers of exploration — medieval version

Why some cultures become great explorers and others stay home: the role of metaphysics. “And as for trying to sail down the west African coast, everyone knew that as soon as you passed the Canary Islands you would be in the Mare Tenebroso, the Sea of Darkness: ‘In the medieval imagination [writes Peter Forbath], this […]

Socrates’ two bad arguments for not escaping

In the Crito, Socrates is in prison awaiting execution for impiety and corrupting the youth. His impiety was judged to be a matter of questioning and possibly disbelieving the traditional gods, and his corrupting the youth was a matter of his teaching them to do the same. Crito arrives at the prison having arranged an […]