HomeWould you say that European liberalism failed to provide an alternative to tradition and religion, and that created demand for ugly substitutes like woke?EducationAtlas University
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Would you say that European liberalism failed to provide an alternative to tradition and religion, and that created demand for ugly substitutes like woke?

Would you say that European liberalism failed to provide an alternative to tradition and religion, and that created demand for ugly substitutes like woke?

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December 26, 2023

Question: Would you say that European liberalism failed to provide an alternative to tradition and religion, and that created demand for ugly substitutes like woke?

Answer: That’s an interesting question. I would say first, I’m not convinced that most traditions and most religions have done a very good job except in limited ways in providing meaning and significance for people’s lives. So, one of the great achievements of modern liberalism is giving people the freedom and resources to start putting together meaningful lives for themselves.

Now, it is true that there are a number of people in broadly liberal society who are failing terribly at doing so, and I would say that that is coming, not from liberalism, but rather from counter-liberal, counter-Enlightenment philosophies that have become successful in the modern world. And these have been successful at undercutting, not only traditions and not only modern liberalism, but undercutting people’s capacities; intellectual, morally, psychologically, to put together meaningful lives for their own. That’s where the 'woke' come from.

Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.
About the author:
Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

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.

He is author of The Art of Reasoning: Readings for Logical Analysis (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy, 2004), Nietzsche and the Nazis (Ockham’s Razor, 2010),  Entrepreneurial Living (CEEF, 2016), Liberalism Pro and Con (Connor Court, 2020), Art: Modern, Postmodern, and Beyond (with Michael Newberry, 2021) and Eight Philosophies of Education (2022). He has published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, and The Wall Street Journal. His writings have been translated into 20 languages.

He has been Visiting Professor of Business Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Visiting Fellow at the Social Philosophy & Policy Center in Bowling Green, Ohio, Visiting Professor at the University of Kasimir the Great, Poland, Visiting Fellow at Harris Manchester College of Oxford University, England, and Visiting Professor at Jagiellonian University, Poland.

His B.A. and M.A. degrees are from the University of Guelph, Canada. His Ph.D. in Philosophy is from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.

In 2010, he won his university’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

His Open College podcast series is published by Possibly Correct Productions, Toronto. His video lectures and interviews are online at CEE Video Channel, and his website is 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:

Also several articles, selected for likely interest to Objectivist audiences:

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