| Region: | Western philosophy |
| Era: | Contemporary philosophy |
| Stephen Hicks | |
| Birth Name: | Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks |
| Birth Date: | 19 August 1960 |
| Birth Place: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| School Tradition: | Analytic Objectivism |
| Nationality: | Canadian and American |
| Institutions: | Rockford University |
| Main Interests: | Epistemology, business ethics |
| Notable Ideas: | Criticism of postmodernism, entrepreneurism |
Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks (born August 19, 1960) is a Canadian-American philosopher. He teaches at Rockford University, where he also directs the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.
Hicks earned his Bachelor of Arts (Honours, 1981) and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Guelph, and his Doctor of Philosophy (1991) from Indiana University Bloomington. His doctoral thesis was a defense of foundationalism.[1]
Hicks is the author of six books and a documentary. Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy, 2004) argues that postmodernism is best understood as a rhetorical strategy of the academic left developed in reaction to the failure of socialism, communism and liberalism.[2]
Additionally, Hicks has published articles and essays on a range of subjects, including entrepreneurism,[3] free speech in academia,[4] the history and development of modern art,[5] [6] Ayn Rand's Objectivism,[7] business ethics[8] and the philosophy of education, including a series of YouTube lectures.[9]
Hicks is also the co-editor, with David Kelley, of a critical thinking textbook, The Art of Reasoning: Readings for Logical Analysis (W. W. Norton & Co., second edition, 1998), Entrepreneurial Living with Jennifer Harrolle (CEEF, 2016), Liberalism Pro and Con (Connor Court, 2020), Art: Modern, Postmodern, and Beyond (with Michael Newberry, 2021) and Eight Philosophies of Education (with Andrew C. Colgan, forthcoming, 2023).
Hicks is best known for his documentary and book, Nietzsche and the Nazis, which is an examination of the ideological and philosophical roots of Nazism, particularly how Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas were used and misused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to justify their beliefs and practices.[10] [11] This was released in 2006 as a video documentary[12] and then in 2010 as a book.[13]
Hicks is also known for Explaining Postmodernism.[14] Steven M. Sanders, professor emeritus of Philosophy at Bridgewater State College, writes: On the other hand, Explaining Postmodernism was criticised by Matt McManus (lecturer in sociology at the University of Calgary and the author of The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism and A Critical Legal Examination of Liberalism and Liberal Rights amongst other books) as misrepresenting much of Western philosophy and being "full of misreadings, suppositions, rhetorical hyperbole and even flat out factual errors."[15] McManus also says,