Open College Podcast with Prof. Stephan Hicks

EP #55 | Jordan Peterson’s Religion

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.

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EP #53 | Morality Without Gods

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?

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EP #51 | Would Immortality Be Worth It

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.

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EP #41 | PPP & the Soul of Free Market Liberalism

The Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) is a 2020 government program available to businesses and organizations, primarily in response to the economic damage done by Covid-19 slowdowns, shut-downs, and lock-downs. What are the moral arguments and principles one should consider when assessing the consequences of PPP and what is the context of decision-making with regards to PPP in a free-market liberal organization.

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EP #39 | God: The “Evil” Argument

The standard conception of God that is offered to us by theists suggest there are three major features of interest: God is said to be omnipotent or all-powerful, omnis­cient or all-knowing, and omnibenevolent or all-good. However, if the God who created the world is supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, why did he create a world in which so much evil exists? And not only why did he create a world with so much evil in it, why did he create a world with any evil in it at all? An all-powerful, all-knowing, completely good creator of the universe would not have created an imperfect world with evil in it or would he?

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EP #35 | Arguing Religion

We have all heard that in polite company we should not discuss sex, politics, business, or religion. Those topics are too troublesome, so we should stick to safer topics?

To be human is to grapple with the big questions and the crucial values of life. We must decide and we all need to make up our minds what our lives will be about.

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EP #34 | Eight Socialists Define Socialism

Who are the most important socialist intellectuals and politicians in history? We here offer quotations from eight prominent socialists, representing a wide geographical and temporal range. The quotations illustrate the author’s motivation for advocating socialism, the actions necessary to bring about socialism, and/or the expected results of socialism. What common characteristics best define socialism?

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EP #33 | Young People’s Socialism

Where are young socialists in their thinking? What expressions of socialism are meeting their mark rhetorically? What does socialism mean to them and what values do they think socialism is advocating?

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EP #32 | Bootleggers and Baptists or Snowflakes

A generation ago the slogan of campus activist was, speak truth to power. Why has there been such a dramatic change in just one generation?

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EP #31 | Hazony Attacks the Enlightenment

On December 30th 2019, the YouTube channel Prager University released a video narrated by bible scholar and political theorist Yoram Hazony discussing the Enlightenment. Hazony makes eight major claims about the Enlightenment and while there are some thoughtful arguments against the Enlightenment, Hazony has not made them. In this episode of Open College, Dr. Hicks points out the flaws in Hazony’s augments and shows why this video is an example of special-pleading history.

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