Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

History of Ideas Q and A

Sat, 08 May 2021 23:00:00 GMT

A special episode in which David answers some of the audience's questions about the second series of History of Ideas. From how he chooses which writers and works to talk about, to whether Boris Johnson is the ultimate Benthamite and whether the idea of a pleasure machine isn't - in fact - totally rational. We really enjoyed making these podcasts for people to enjoy during lockdown. To support History of Ideas and Talking Politics, you can become a member by clicking here. For £3 a month, you can enjoy Talking Politics without adverts in the middle of the discussions. Thank you for listening!

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Shklar on Hypocrisy

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 07:50:00 GMT

Judith Shklar’s Ordinary Vices (1984) made the case that the worst of all the vices is cruelty. But that meant we needed to be more tolerant of some other common human failings, including snobbery, betrayal and hypocrisy. David explores what she had to say about some of the other authors in this series – including Bentham and Nietzsche – and asks what price we should be willing to pay for putting cruelty first among the vices.

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Nozick on Utopia

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 07:50:00 GMT

Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974) was designed as a rebuttal to Rawls but it was so much more than that. It offered a defence of the minimal state that appealed to the writers of The Sopranos and a vision of utopia that appealed to the founders of Silicon Valley. David explores what Nozick wanted to achieve and identifies the surprising radicalism behind his political minimalism.

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Going Deeper:

Robert Nozick, The Examined Life (1989)

Jonathan Wolff, Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State (1991)

Stephen Metcalf, ‘The Liberty Scam’, Slate (2011)

[Video] Shelly Kagan, 'Hedonism and Nozick's Experience Machine' (from Open Yale Courses)

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Rawls on Justice

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 07:50:00 GMT

John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971) changed the face of modern political philosophy by reinventing the question of what constitutes fairness. From ‘the veil of ignorance’ to ‘reflective equilibrium’ it introduced new ways of thinking about the problem of justice along with new problems for thinking about politics. David discusses Rawls’s influence on what happened next.

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De Beauvoir on the Other

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 07:50:00 GMT

Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) is one of the founding texts of modern feminism and one of the most important books of the twentieth century. It covers everything from ancient myth to modern psychoanalysis to ask what the relations between men and women have in common with other kinds of oppression, from slavery to colonialism. It also offers some radical suggestions for how both women and men can be liberated from their condition.

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Schumpeter on Democracy

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 08:50:00 GMT

Joseph Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) contains a famous, and minimal, definition of democracy as the competition between political elites to sell themselves to the electorate. Schumpeter wanted to debunk more elevated ideas of the common good and the popular will. Why then has his theory proved so influential for people who want to rescue democracy as much as those who want to diminish it?

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Schmitt on Friend vs Enemy

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 08:50:00 GMT

Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political (1932) has been hugely influential on the left as well as the right of political debate despite the fact that its author joined the Nazi Party shortly after its publication. David explores the origins of Schmitt’s ideas in the debates about the Weimar Republic and examines his critique of liberal democracy. He asks what Schmitt’s distinction between friend and enemy has to teach us about democratic politics today.

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Luxemburg on Revolution

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 08:45:11 GMT

Rosa Luxemburg wrote ‘The Russian Revolution’ (1918) from a jail cell in Germany. In it she described how the Bolshevik revolution was going to change the world but also explained how and why it was already going badly wrong. David explores the origins of Luxemburg’s insights, from her experiences in Poland to her love/hate relationship with Lenin. Plus he tells the story of her terrible end.

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Nietzsche on Morality

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:45:00 GMT

Friedrich Nietzsche’s masterpiece The Genealogy of Morality (1887) sets out to explain where ideas of good and evil come from and why they have left human beings worse off. He traces their origins in what he calls the slave revolt in morality. David examines the ways Nietzsche’s story unsettles almost everything about modern social conventions and leaves us with the troubling question: what can possibly come next?

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Butler on Machines

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 08:45:35 GMT

Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) is a strange and unsettling book about a world turned upside down. Usually classified as utopian or dystopian fiction, it also contains an eerie prophecy about the coming of intelligent machines. David explores the origins of Butler’s ideas and asks what they have to teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies, both then and now.

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Douglass on Slavery

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 08:40:48 GMT

My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) by the former slave Frederick Douglass was the second of his three autobiographies and the one that contained his most radical ideas. In this episode David explores how Douglass used his life story not only to expose the horror of slavery but to champion a new approach to abolishing it. The name for this approach: politics.

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Bentham on Pleasure

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 08:30:00 GMT

Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a definitive early statement of the basis of utilitarianism: how do we achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number? David looks at Bentham’s rationale for this approach and the many criticisms it has faced. Bentham has often been accused of reducing politics to mechanical calculation and missing what really matters. But given the time in which he was writing, wasn’t the prioritisation of pleasure the most radical idea of all?

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Rousseau on Inequality

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 08:30:00 GMT

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (also known as the Second Discourse) tells the story of all human history to answer one simple question: how did we end up in such an unequal world? David explores the steps Rousseau traces in the fall of humankind and asks whether this is a radical alternative to the vision offered by Hobbes or just a variant on it. Is Rousseau really such a nice philosopher?

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Q & A with David

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 07:50:00 GMT

We got lots and lots of excellent questions from listeners about the themes and ideas in this series of talks. In this extra episode

David will do his best to answer some of them, from Hobbes to Weber, and from Gandhi to feminism. Plus he talks about what's missing from this series and where we might start next time.

Go to https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/history-of-ideas for the full collection of reading lists.

Quentin Skinner on the state:

(Video) Quentin Skinner, ‘What is the state? The question that will not go away’

Orwell on Gandhi:

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/reflections-on-gandhi/

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Fukuyama on History

Mon, 25 May 2020 07:50:00 GMT

Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History (1992) became associated with the triumph of liberal democracy at the end of the twentieth century. But was Fukuyama really a triumphalist? David explores what Fukuyama had to say about the strengths and weaknesses of liberal democracy and asks whether his analysis still holds true today. What have we learned about the modern state from its history? And can it, and we, really change now?

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/133/13399/the-end-of-history-and-the-last-man/9780241960240.html

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MacKinnon on Patriarchy

Fri, 22 May 2020 07:45:00 GMT

Catharine MacKinnon’s Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1989) challenges two dominant ways of thinking about politics: liberalism, which wants to protect us from the power of the state, and Marxism, which wants to liberate us through the power of the state. What if neither is good enough to emancipate women? Mackinnon explains why patriarchal power permeates all forms of modern politics. David

discusses what she thinks we can do about it.

Recommended version to purchase:

Catharine A. MacKinnon, Toward a feminist theory of the state (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989).

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Fanon on Colonialism

Mon, 18 May 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist who both experienced and analysed the impact of colonial violence. In The Wretched of the Earth (1961) he developed an account of politics that sought to channel violent resistance to colonialism as a force for change. It is a deliberately shocking book. David explores what Fanon’s argument says about the possibility of moving beyond the power of the modern state.

Free online version of the text:

http://abahlali.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Frantz-Fanon-The-Wretched-of-the-Earth-1965.pdf

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/573/57385/the-wretched-of-the-earth/9780141186542.html

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Arendt on Action

Fri, 15 May 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958) is a remarkably prophetic book. At its heart is an analysis of the relationship between labour, work and action, set against a time of rapid technological change. Arendt worried about the power of computers, believed in the capacity of people to reinvent themselves through politics and despaired of the influence of Thomas Hobbes. Was she right?

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https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo29137972.html

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Hayek on the Market

Mon, 11 May 2020 10:04:49 GMT

Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944) was written during the Second World War but Hayek was really worried about what would come next. He feared that wartime planning would spill over into the peacetime economy and destroy hard won freedoms. David explores where Hayek’s fears came from and asks why he worried that democracy would only make the problem worse. He also considers what makes Hayek such a politically influential and divisive figure to this day.

Free online version of the text:

https://archive.org/details/TheRoadToSerfdom/page/n7/mode/2up

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-road-to-serfdom/f-a-hayek/9780415253895

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Weber on Leadership

Fri, 08 May 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Max Weber’s The Profession and Vocation of Politics (1919) was a lecture that became one of the defining texts of twentieth century political thought. In it, Weber explores the perils and paradoxes of leadership in a modern state. Is it possible to do bad in order to do good? Can violence ever be virtuous? Does political responsibility send politicians mad? David discusses the legacy of Weber’s ideas and asks: who is the true Weberian politician?

Free online version of the text:

http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/class%20readings/weber/politicsasavocation.pdf

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weber-Political-Writings-Cambridge-History/dp/0521397197

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Gandhi on self-rule

Mon, 04 May 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (1909) was a defining text of the movement for Indian independence from British colonial rule. It also articulated a radical new idea of politics in a modern context – peaceful protest or non-violent resistance. David explores the wider legacy of Gandhi’s ideas and asks what Gandhi’s withering attack on ‘machine’ politics means for the politics we have today.

Free online version of the text:

https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_swaraj.pdf

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/gandhi-hind-swaraj-and-other-writings-2nd-edition?format=PB

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Marx and Engels on Revolution

Fri, 01 May 2020 08:00:00 GMT

The Communist Manifesto (1848) remains the most famous revolutionary text of all. But what was the problem with politics that only a revolution could solve? And why were the working class the only people who could solve it? David explores what Marx and Engels really had to say about capitalism, crisis and class and he asks what still resonates from that message today.

Free online version of the text:

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61-images.html

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/marx-later-political-writings?format=PB

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Tocqueville on Democracy

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835/40) can claim to be the best book ever written about democracy and the best book ever written about America. David discusses what Tocqueville was expecting when he went to see American democracy for himself and what he actually found. Tocqueville was amazed and impressed by the American way of doing politics, but his fears about how its democracy might go wrong remain as prescient as ever.

Free online version of the text:

Volume 1 and Volume 2

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Democracy-America-Essays-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447601

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Constant on Liberty

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Benjamin Constant’s ‘The Liberty of the Ancients Compared to the Liberty of the Moderns’ (1819) examines what it means to be free in the modern world. Are we at liberty to follow our hearts? Do we have an obligation to take an interest in politics? What happens if we don’t? David explores the lessons Constant drew from the failures of the French Revolution and his timeless message about the perils of political indifference.

Free online version of the text:

https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/constant-the-liberty-of-ancients-compared-with-that-of-moderns-1819

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/constant-political-writings?format=PB

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Wollstonecraft on Sexual Politics

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the most remarkable books in the history of ideas. A classic of early feminism, it uses what’s wrong with the relationship between men and women to illustrate what’s gone wrong with politics. It’s a story of lust and power, education and revolution. David explores how Wollstonecraft’s radical challenge to the basic ideas of modern politics continues to resonate today.

Free online version of the text:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3420

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/wollstonecraft-vindication-rights-men-and-vindication-rights-woman-and-hints?format=PB

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Hobbes on the State

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) reimagined how we could do politics. It redefined many of the ideas that continue to shape modern politics: representation, sovereignty, the state. But in Leviathan these ideas have a strange and puzzling power. David explores what Hobbes was trying to achieve and how a vision of politics that came out of the English civil war, can still illuminate the world we live in.

Free online version of the text:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm

Recommended version to purchase:

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/hobbes-leviathan-revised-student-edition?format=PB

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Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 09:18:14 GMT

A short trailer to introduce a new series of talks by David Runciman. In a series of twelve podcasts, he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today.

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