Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 7

Professor Gary Jason on how the Nazis sold eugenics to the public

In its recent issue, Reason Papers published an informative review essay by philosopher Gary James Jason of Cal State University: “Selling Eugenic Killing: The Nazi Propaganda Campaign to Support the Liquidation of the Disabled.” Quote: “Positive eugenics means promoting breeding ‘superior individuals’ from ‘good stock.’ Negative eugenics refers to prohibiting the breeding of children of […]

Walter Donway’s *How Philosophers Change Civilizations: The Age of Enlightenment*

Walter Donway’s How Philosophers Change Civilizations: The Age of Enlightenment is a good survey of the major thinkers who contributed to the development of the Enlightenment — along with some important coverage of their Counter-Enlightenment detractors — as well as an argument about what causes historical change. Here’s his question: ‘How did the “new philosophers” […]

Racism — distinguishing Individual, Institutional, Structural [interview excerpt]

From a 2020 interview: Jennifer Grossman  [03:20]: What do people mean when they talk about structural racism? What is sort of the origin of that even terminology comes from and what is what’s your perspective on it? What does it mean? Stephen Hicks: Yes, well, we’ll start with the racism itself, which is an intellectual […]

The Importance of Philosophy to Education [Lecture 15 of Philosophy of Education course]

By Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University, USA Lecture 15: For educators, why is philosophy personally important to one’s professional mission? How has philosophy influenced education historically? And how much do changes in philosophical fashion and substance explain the current state of education? Other lectures in the series: Part One: “Philosophy” of “Education”: What is […]

DEBATE: Conservatism vs. Liberalism —James Orr (Cambridge U.) vs. Stephen R.C. Hicks (Rockford U.) — published in *Reason Papers* journal

Reason Papers is a peer-reviewed philosophy journal now in its 51st year of existence. The new issue features a three-round debate between Professor James Orr (University of Cambridge, UK), and Professor Stephen Hicks (Rockford University, USA). Dr. Orr advocates and defends Conservatism; Dr. Hicks does the same for Liberalism. The full debate also features an […]

News: Brazilian Portuguese translation of *Nietzsche and the Nazis*

I’m happy to announce that a Portuguese translation of my Nietzsche and the Nazis is in the works, to be published by LvM Editora out of São Paulo, Brazil. The contract has been signed; estimated date of publication is late 2025 or early 2026. Did the National Socialists misunderstand and/or misuse the philosophy of Nietzsche? […]

Real education — Katsenelsom example

From Vitaliy Katsenelson’s Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life: “I was in Israel with a group of friends. One of my friends offered to show us the biggest Yeshiva (orthodox Jewish college) in the center of Jerusalem, where he had studied years before. It’s called Mir Yeshiva. We went there at […]

Art: The Group of Seven and Lawren Harris’s account

The Group of Seven were an early 20th-century informal society of Canadian artists. The group formed in Toronto, Ontario, though expanded to include artists from Quebec and British Columbia, each of them focused on experiencing at the vast Canadian landscape, especially to the north, capturing and essentializing it with fresh eyes. Perhaps the most representative […]

Douglas Rasmussen on Philippa Foot

Douglas Rasmussen spoke at Rockford College on Philippa Foot’s Natural Goodness. Dr. Rasmussen was Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University in New York, and Dr. Foot (1920-2010) was a philosopher at Oxford and UCLA. Here is my interview with Dr. Rasmussen following his lecture: Dr. Rasmussen is the co-author (with Douglas J. Den Uyl) […]

Kant on imagination in education

Professor Kant first delivered a series of lectures on education in 1776/77. His views were influenced by and are often congruent with those of Johann Georg Sulzer, the leading (and scary) education theorist of the time in the German states. (Here’s an earlier post on Sulzer.) A re-reading of Kant’s On Education highlighted for me […]