Interventions | The Intellectual History Podcast

According to some, Francis Bacon accomplished nothing less than a scientific revolution. Some even say he was the founder of modern science itself. Born into a world where natural magic, astrology, alchemy, and the wisdom of the Ancients were all accepted as authentic sciences, he left behind a body of work expressing a new and strange idea. In this radical vision, humanity was destined to free itself from its mundane misery by investigating nature and discovering its laws. It was a vision of collective action and incremental progress that sustains scientific practice to this day. Yet Bacon was also a deeply paradoxical figure. A lover of humanity and believer in progress, he was also a Machiavellian statesman committed to advancing the interests of the English state, as well as a self-seeking loner who married for money and disinherited his wife. Richard Serjeantson, Cambridge’s foremost authority on Bacon’s life and legacy, tells us the intellectually exhilarating story of the man who ushered in our modern age of science. This episode is hosted by Sam Tchorek-Bentall

What can the seventeenth century teach us about equality? Why do philosophers construct intellectual traditions and how do we use them? In what ways is political theory an educative endeavour? These are some of the questions we asked Teresa Bejan, Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford. Publications mentioned in this episode include: First Among Equals: The Practice and Theory of Early Modern Equality. Under contract with Harvard University Press. Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration (Harvard University Press, 2017) “The Historical Rawls,” Special Forum for Modern Intellectual History, co-edited with Sophie Smith and Annette Zimmermann (2021). “Rawls’s Teaching and the ‘Tradition’ of Political Philosophy,” Modern Intellectual History (2021). “‘Since all the World is Mad, Why should not I be so?’ Equality, Hierarchy, and Ambition in the Thought of Mary Astell.” Political Theory (online first May 2019). “The Two Clashing Meanings of Free Speech,” The Atlantic (2 Dec. 2017). “Teaching the Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Education,” Oxford Review of Education 36:5 (2010).

What is the relationship between war and representation? Why can't we understand the French Revolution without thinking about the political management of public debt? And what does the future have to do with how we write history? These are some of the questions answered by Michael Sonenscher, Fellow of King's College, University of Cambridge. This episode's hosts: Michael Kretowicz & Charlotte Johann.

What can decolonisation in twentieth century Africa tell us about the history of political thought? How might African intellectual history shed light on new methods and modes of inquiry? And what does it mean to ‘decolonise’ intellectual history? Emma Hunter, professor of global and African history at the University of Edinburgh and the 2018/19 Quentin Skinner Fellow, joins us to discuss these questions and more in this episode. 

What is the place of history in the study of law? How do historians of international law conceive of emergent actors on the global stage? To what extent do legal histories shape the expectations and commitments of today’s international institutions? Dr Megan Donaldson, recently appointed to a lectureship in Public International Law at University College London, addresses these questions and shares her experience of a complex intersection between law, legal history and the history of political thought. #Globalgovernance #legalhistory #internationallaw #deliberativedemocracy #publicity #interwarperiod 

How do we write the history of both the theory and the practice of socialism and welfarism? How do historians negotiate the relationship between their politics and their scholarship? And in what way is Karl Marx's political thinking relevant for us today? Gareth Stedman Jones, Professor of the History of Ideas at Queen Mary, University of London, talked to us about the history of poverty in nineteenth century Europe, his recent biography of Karl Marx, and what Dickens can teach us about writing history.  #welfare state #poverty #socialism #nineteenth century #Marx #Marxism #New Left

What's the relationship between ideas and life experiences, politics and scholarship? How does our methodological self-consciousness evolve? What is the interaction between different schools of intellectual history? Martin Jay reflects on his life and career as an intellectual historian.