Dr. Stephen R.C. Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher who teaches at Rockford University, Illinois. He has had visiting positions at Oxford University (England), Kasimir the Great University (Poland), and has lectured at universities across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He specializes in modern European philosophy and politics, and has written extensively on Kant, Marx, including his two books, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault and Nietzsche and the Nazis.
About Prof. Stephen Hicks, host of Open College:
Stephen R. Hicks is a tenured Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University in Illinois, U.S.A., and prolific author of philosophical criticism, chief among them his 2004 work, ‘Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault.’
‘Explaining Postmodernism,’ has earned Hicks some of his highest acclaim received thus far in his career, and has received praise from such prestigious figures as Prof. Jordan Peterson, who recommended ‘Explaining Postmodernism’ to anyone wanting to learn about the school of thought.
Hicks’ other works include ‘The Art of Reasoning: Readings for Logical Analysis,’ ‘Entrepreneurial Living,’ ‘Liberalism Pro and Con,’ and ‘Nietzsche and the Nazis,’ for which book he also received noteworthy acclaim. Also Forthcoming in 2021, ‘Eight Philosophies of Education,’ was co authored by Hicks.
On top of his work as an educator & author, Hicks is the Executive Director at the Center for Ethic and Entrepreneurship, and is a scholar with the Atlas Society.
Hicks began his ‘Open College’ podcast with The Possibly Correct Podcast Network in early 2018 to discuss and debate philosophical matters, economics and to discuss postmodernism and the impacts of that school of thought on contemporary society.
While Hicks sees postmodernism as a mostly expired ideology, he has become perturbed as he sees the ideology becoming more prominent in society in the last half-decade especially.
Where do we find the meaning of life? In answering that question, we look to Professor Jordan Peterson a man with a foot in two worlds. He is a man of science, proficient in the biological bases of psychology and the developments of psychology as an applied science.
While communist/socialist/social democratic have always had a scientific-pseudoscientific verneer about it, time has worn away much of this verneer, exposing much of the ideology as hyper-idealistic/proto-religiousist in many regards. Despite this verneer being largely washed away, many if not the vast majority of communists/socialists refuse or cannot see their views as anything except entirely rational. In this podcast, Professor Stephen Hicks delves deep into this phenomenon.
In this episode Dr. Stephen Hicks addressed the philosophical question, does morality require the existence of the gods or a God or is morality part of our human nature?
Even though we humans have lots of knowledge, we do not necessarily have a good and full theory of knowledge. Yet we should not let the lack of a good theory, deny the existence of what the theory should be explaining.
Humans have cognitive faculties with limitations. One can form snap judgments, but one can also recognize and pursue the objective principle of viewing as many perspectives as is necessary. One learns about one’s cognitive limitations over time, so one learns that to make a judgment about something beyond one’s immediate cognitive limitation, one needs to do extra work.
Even though we humans have lots of knowledge, we do not necessarily have a good and full theory of knowledge. Yet we should not let the lack of a good theory, deny the existence of what the theory should be explaining.
Humans have cognitive faculties with limitations. One can form snap judgments, but one can also recognize and pursue the objective principle of viewing as many perspectives as is necessary. One learns about one’s cognitive limitations over time, so one learns that to make a judgment about something beyond one’s immediate cognitive limitation, one needs to do extra work.
Michael Rectenwald and Stephen Hicks on postmodernism, postmodern politics, the contemporary Left, and the state of education, culture, society, the media, and politics.
We say we want children to grow to be self-reliant, creative problem-solving adults. But in schooling kids, do we follow through on that? Do schools teach independence of mind and action or do students learn compliance? Do students learn that life is about solving new problems or are they instructed that authorities have the answers? Do students learn experimentalism and that success typically comes after much failure or do they learn that failure is a source of shame? Does our education system stunt kid’s potential?
The impact from the development of automation and artificial intelligence technologies will be significant and perhaps more significant than any previous technological revolutions. What are the business and economic impacts of these evolving technologies? What will be their impact on our work lives? Will they free humanity, enslave us all or perhaps there is another outcome to consider?
Let me tell you a little bed time story. A story that involves humans and gods and present a human philosophical question dating back a few thousand of years ago. The story or Arachne and Athena.
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