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We're better off materially, but did this come a the cost of social and community life? Did the modern world fail in this way?

We're better off materially, but did this come a the cost of social and community life? Did the modern world fail in this way?

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December 26, 2023

Question: We're better off materially, but did this come a the cost of social and community life? Did the modern world fail in this way?

Answer: Well, I would say let’s consider some social things: slavery, wife-beating, religious hatreds. Have those improved or worsened in the modern world? I think the record clearly shows that we’ve made great social improvements in all of those areas.

Or consider some other kinds of social events: family vacations, music concerts, sports events. Do we have more of those and better access to those, or fewer and worse? And again I think the record shows that we have a lot more of those things and they are a lot better, so the modern world has made great strides both materially and socially.

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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