Question: Are there absolute truths in morality, that is, can a scientific criterion be applied to morality?
Answer: Yes, philosophy is a science identifying facts of reality by observation and logic. And, one fact of reality is that human beings are living organisms and as living organisms some things are absolutely good and absolutely bad for us. For example, the fact that human beings have a big brain, and that our survival and our survival well depends on how we’re learning to use it. So, thinking and thinking rationally is a need for human beings just as swimming is a need for fish, flying is a need for birds, and photosynthesis is a need for plants. The difference is that human thinking is significantly volitional; it’s a matter of choice. And that also makes it a moral, scientific matter.
Stephen R. C. Hicks is a Senior Scholar for The Atlas Society and Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is also the Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford University.
Ele é autor de A Arte da Raciocínio: Leituras para Análise Lógica (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), Explicando o pós-modernismo: Cepticismo e Socialismo de Rousseau a Foucault (Scholargy, 2004), Nietzsche e os nazis (Ockham's Razor, 2010), Vida empresarial (CEEF, 2016), Liberalismo Pro e Con (Connor Court, 2020), Arte: Moderno, Pós-moderno e Mais Além (com Michael Newberry, 2021) e Oito Filosofias da Educação (2022). Publicou em Business Ethics Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, e The Wall Street Journal. Os seus escritos foram traduzidos em 20 línguas.
Tem sido Professor Visitante de Ética Empresarial na Universidade de Georgetown em Washington, D.C., Visiting Fellow no Centro de Filosofia e Política Social em Bowling Green, Ohio, Professor Visitante na Universidade de Kasimir the Great, Polónia, Visiting Fellow no Harris Manchester College da Universidade de Oxford, Inglaterra, e Professor Visitante na Universidade Jagiellonian, Polónia.
Os seus diplomas de licenciatura e mestrado são da Universidade de Guelph, Canadá. O seu doutoramento em Filosofia é da Universidade de Indiana, Bloomington, EUA.
Em 2010, ganhou o Prémio de Excelência em Ensino da sua universidade.
A sua série de podcasts Open College é publicada pela Possibly Correct Productions, Toronto. As suas palestras e entrevistas em vídeo estão online no CEE Video Channel, e o seu website é StephenHicks.org.
Instagram Takeover Questions:
Every week we solicit questions from our 100K followers on Instagram (a social media platform popular with young people. Once a month we feature Stephen Hicks' answers to select questions, transcripts below:
Também vários artigos, seleccionados pelo provável interesse do público objectivista: