Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks

Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks was born in 1960 in Toronto, Canada. He completed his undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Guelph in Canada and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Indiana University in Bloomington. Hicks was a professor of philosophy for many years at Rockford University in Illinois, USA, and has worked in areas such as ethics, political philosophy, the history of philosophy, entrepreneurship, and philosophy education.

Hicks's primary fame stems from his book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, a work first published in 2004 and later released in an expanded edition. In this book, he interprets postmodernism in connection with epistemological skepticism, the critique of Enlightenment reason, and certain socialist and collectivist tendencies. This reading of postmodernism has attracted many supporters and critics, making Hicks one of the recognized figures in contemporary debates about postmodernism.

Among his other works are Nietzsche and the Nazis, Liberalism Pro and Con, Entrepreneurial Living, Art: Modern, Postmodern, and Beyond, and Eight Philosophies of Education. Part of his work concerns the relationship of philosophy with individual freedom, the market, entrepreneurship, professional ethics, and the institutions of a free society.

In Hicks's thought, the defense of reason, objective reality, individualism, freedom, and the Enlightenment tradition holds a central place. He views postmodernism not merely as a cultural style, but as a philosophical and political reaction to modernity and rationalism, and he seeks to trace its roots in the history of modern and contemporary philosophy.