I want to make the argument that Joseph Stalin is probably the greatest man who ever lived. There are three reasons for this. First, Joseph Stalin was a poor high school dropout from Georgia, which is on the fringes of the Russian Empire, and he led an extreme, fringe, and

The nation-state is composed of two words: nation and state. The state is easy to understand; it is the supreme executive authority sovereign to a territory. The nation is a new idea—the idea of a people with a shared identity, whether it's a language, a culture,

To understand Sigmund Freud, we must first place him in the context of the Western religious, intellectual, and literary tradition. In the beginning, the main religion for humans during the Ice Age was animism. The idea of animism is that we humans are no different from every other living, conscious

Karl Marx is one of the most influential thinkers in human history. His contribution to intellectual thought cannot be overstated. To begin, let's conduct a thought experiment. Let's pretend there are two scenarios. In scenario one, you get into a really good college and decide to

My main argument is that Immanuel Kant takes the main thesis of Dante—that imagination is the animating force of the universe and love is the unifying force—and uses his epistemology to clarify, rationalize, and systemize it. Epistemology simply means the theory of knowledge: how do we know what

We will now discuss Germany and conclude our examination of the four great civilizations fighting for global dominance. We previously covered Britain and America, and then Russia. Today, we focus on Germany. To recap, Russian civilization is very distinct from Anglo-American civilization, and German civilization is also distinct. We&

Let's simplify the differences between the three great modern civilizations that are struggling for world domination even today: Anglo-American, German, and Russian. Civilization Philosophy Conception of God Meaning of Life Anglo-American Utilitarianism: What is practical? What works? A force that elects. Only a worthy minority will

There's a very famous quote from Oscar Wilde, the English playwright, novelist, and humorist. He said: America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. He meant this as a joke, but what did he mean by it? This is a question

We will focus on William Shakespeare, but first, it is important to provide an overview of the framework for our discussion: the four great modern civilizations that have fought for global dominance these past 200 years. These four great civilizations are the Russians, the Germans, the British, and the Americans.

The question we are looking at is how England became the greatest empire in human history. This is about the 19th century when the British Empire was at its peak. As you can see, it really controlled most of the world. The question then is, how did this happen? Why