Open College Podcast

Do the gods exist? As mature and more sophisticated reasoned arguments for and against the idea of god have evolved, we can evaluate eighteen possible arguments, about seven are interesting. Argumentation about the natural world: time, causation, morality, beauty, logic, mathematical precision, and so on. Can they be explained in self-sufficient natural way or only by going beyond the natural? You...

Thomas Kuhn was professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a classic in the history and philosophy of science. Still relevant to our philosophical and cultural debates over science, for Kuhn challenges claims that science is or can be an objective process based upon observational facts that makes progress toward truth. YouTube https://...

EP #36 | Democratic Socialism for Beginners In contemporary times, most socialists have shifted away from overtly dictatorial socialism. Among the younger, there is some level of awareness of its terrible history but they still think of it as an ideal to be striven for despite obvious concerns. What are the aims of democratic socialist, what do they wish to achieve and how will they achieve their...

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. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/opencollegepodcast Bitchute http...

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 soci...

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? Come see Stephen Hicks live in Australia. Culture Wars 2.0 https://www.truearrowevents.com/dr-stephen-r-c-hicks YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/opencollegepodcast Bitchute http://www.bitchute.com/o...

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? Postmodern Monsters | Benjamin Boyce interviews Dr. Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEGMoQkgXf8 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/opencollegepodcast Bitchute http://www.bitchute.com/opencollegepodcast Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/po...

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...

We all know the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Or do we? At least 20 movie versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol have been produced, along with innumerable stage plays and live reading. Who was Ebenezer Scrooge? Was his character the Villain according to Socialism, the Homo Economicus and Savvy Investor, the hero of the Anti-Over-Commercialized-Christmas crowd? YouTube https://www.youtube.com/...

William James was a leading American philosopher who lived at the turn of the 20th century. In his essay the Moral Equivalent of War, James describes himself as a socialist and pacifist and is very disgusted with the human history of war and is looking for a solution. This essay, while thoughtful and well argued is to my mind, highly objectionable. Here is why. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/op...

Is Keynes to blame for everything? John Maynard Keynes was the most influential economist of the 20th century. In the 21st century his theories are institutionalized. But how close is current Keyesnian practice to original Keynesian theory? Join our email list - http://eepurl.com/dEEsTj Contact Dr. Hicks, on twitter @SRChicks or visit http://www. StephenHicks.org Twitter: @OpenCollegePod Minds: ww...

Money is one of the greatest inventions ever, just as books are one of the greatest inventions ever and for the same reasons. Books are collections of abstract symbols that represent abstract ideas. Writing enhances our thinking through portability, storage, precision and universality. Books enable everyone to communicate with one another. All of these points about books hold precisely for money....

Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/open-college-podcast/id1438324613?mt=2 SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/opencollegepodcast/ep-25-thales-revolution Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/possibly-correct/open-college-podcast-with-dr-stephen-rc-hicks Google Play https://play.google.com/music/m/Iuramibvl3n32ojiutoxhlba4gu?t=Open_College_Podcast Spotify https://open.spotify.com/...

The standard claim is that philosophy begins with Thales. Why did philosophy come into being in a clusters of cities on the coasts of Asia minor? Ascribed to Thales by Aristotle: “The first principle and basic nature of all things is water, ”and “All things are full of gods.” Why do historians of philosophy get worked up over these lines? To see their significance, let’s set a context by going bac...

Lord Acton said, “absolute power corrupts absolutely” but is this accurate? Abuses of social and political power are the ones we worry about the most. Social science data does seem too, on the surface, bare out Lord Acton’s claims. However, if you correlate the degrees of corruption with degrees of centralization the data suggests things are not quite so simple. Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple...

Professor Jordan B. Peterson is perhaps most famous for the neo-Marxist label “Postmodern Neo-Marxism.” Although Dr. Peterson recommends Explaining Postmodernism by Dr. Hicks, their analysis on this issue differs in some important ways. Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/open-college-podcast/id1438324613?mt=2 SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/opencollegepodcast Stitcher https://www...

As a contributing factor, coffee (and tea) certainly gets credit on physiological grounds. Also contributing was the development of European coffee house culture, the coffee houses bringing businessmen, artists, and scientists together for drinking and socializing. Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/open-college-podcast/id1438324613?mt=2 SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/opencolleg...

Extreme cases always test our commitment to a free society. A free society depends on our general confidence in the power of reason, that people have intelligence and good judgment enough to handle the cognitive demands of living freely. Yet now our current concerns with social unrest, triggers, and inflammatory language and images has led some social-media giants curating speech. Some history tea...

Sex Dolls, Artificial Intelligence, and the Real Thing. Newly-engineered materials and robotics have made the physical experiences closer to the real thing. Artificial intelligence has enabled robots to respond verbally and non-verbally more realistically. let's set aside the politics and focus on the ethics: Is sex with robots a good thing? a bad thing? Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/...

In this episode of the Open College podcast, Professor Stephen Hicks talks about the issue of slavery: its history and current implications. Even though slavery has been prohibited in Western countries, its stains such as racism and discrimination still can be seen in our society. During the last decades, people of the civilized world have been reflecting on the causes and consequences of this tra...

This is an excerpt from a conversation between Dr. Hicks and Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, recorded on March 27, 2019 on the Jordan B. Peterson podcast. Dr. Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, a clinical psychologist and the author of the multi-million copy bestseller 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. In this episode, the professors discuss the origins of Explainin...

Should Christians be socialist and was C.S. Lewis a socialist? What are the basic themes and commitments that are common to all forms of christianity? Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer and theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University He is best known for his works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles...

Open College with Dr. Stephen R.C. Hicks | #15 Training, Not Educating Activists Are reason and analysis under attack by scepticism? Why do post modernists focus on training and indoctrinating activist while ignoring some of the fundamental principals of education? If racial gender ethnic group conflict are the new principal of education what is the purpose of education? Apple Podcasts https://itu...

Did Steve Jobs fail to adapt himself to the system, or did the school system fail to fit Steve Jobs? A Japanese team of investigators recently came to the United States to study its school system. Japan is a successful nation, prosperous and dynamic in many areas. But the team had a question: Why does our country have so few innovators? Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/open-colle...

It can seem like entrepreneurs are a breed apart. But they’re not. All of us are born with the ability to take risks, think creatively and challenge the everyday way of doing things. That is to say, we’re all born with the entrepreneurial capacity. Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/open-college-podcast/id1438324613?mt=2 SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/opencollegepodcast Stitcher...