This site exists to preserve the teachings of Dr. Rick Roderick. The lectures are transcribed, annotated and accompanied by embedded youtube videos and download links.

Rick Roderick Interviewed by Anne Buttimer (1987)



About Rick Roderick

Rick Roderick was born in Abilene, Texas on June 16, 1949, and received his bachelor’s degree at University of Texas, Austin, Texas. He did post-graduate work at Baylor University, and earned his Ph. D. at University of Texas, Austin, Texas. From 1977 to 1978, he was the editor of the Baylor Philosophy Journal, and from 1977 to 1979 he was a member of the Phi Sigma Tau National Honor Society of Philosophy. He was the recipient of the Oldright Fellowship at the University of Texas and served as associate editor to The Pawn Review, and Current Perspectives in Social Theory. He was the undergraduate director of the Duke Marxism and Society Program. He is the author of the book Habermas and the Foundation of Critical Theory (1986), as well as numerous articles in professional journals. He has presented over 24 papers, and published 13 reviews and literary criticisms. From 1977 to 1993, he taught Philosophy, first at Baylor, then University of Texas and then at Duke University.

His areas of specialization were Marx and Marxism, Social and Political philosophy, Critical Theory (Habermas and the Frankfurt School), 19th Century Philosophy, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. He also taught Ethics, Logic, History of Modern Philosophy, Aesthetics and Existentialism.

He was a four-time nominee for the Alumni Undergraduate Distinguished Professor Teaching Award and has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institute as the best teacher in his field. His “The Philosophy of Human Values” lecture series has been the best selling videotape in the history of academia. He has been published in five countries. His “Habermas and the Foundations of Critical Theory” is an internationally recognized standard in the field. His work has been studied and reviewed worldwide–India, China, Denmark, Germany, etc.

Rick was controversially denied tenure at Duke University in 1993. Very little is known about the circumstances or what happened next. He died on January 18, 2002 of congestive heart failure.

I hope you enjoy these lectures as much as I do… I have listened to them countless times. As the years go by they only become more poignant and eerily prophetic. Bear in mind that the internet and smart phones did not exist when these lectures were recorded.

Guidebook: Philosophy and Human Values (1990)

Lecture One: Socrates and the Life of Inquiry

Lecture Two: Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics

Lecture Three: Kant and the Path to Enlightenment

Lecture Four: Mill on Liberty

Lecture Five: Hegel and Modern Life

Lecture Six: Nietzsche: Knowledge and Belief

Lecture Seven: Kierkegaard and the Contemporary Spirit

Lecture Eight: Philosophy and Postmodern Culture

Guidebook: Nietzsche and the Postmodern Condition (1991)

Lecture One: Nietzsche as Myth and Mythmaker

Lecture Two: Nietzsche on Truth and Lie

Lecture Three: Nietzsche as Master of Suspicion and Immoralist

Lecture Four: The Death of God

Lecture Five: The Eternal Recurrence

Lecture Six: The Will to Power

Lecture Seven: Nietzsche as Artist

Lecture Eight: Nietzsche’s Progeny

Guidebook: The Self Under Siege – Philosophy in the 20th Century (1993)

Lecture One: The Masters of Suspicion

Lecture Two: Heidegger and the Rejection of Humanism

Lecture Three: Sartre and the Roads to Freedom

Lecture Four: Marcuse and One-Dimensional Man

Lecture Five: Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity

Lecture Six: Foucault and the Disappearance of the Human

Lecture Seven: Derrida and the Ends of Man

Lecture Eight: Fatal Strategies