Interventions | The Intellectual History Podcast Interventions

How can we understand thinkers in their own terms? Why is such an approach particularly fruitful to understanding Hume? What can philosophy and the history of political thought learn from one another? What can Hobbes's conception of the people teach us about populism? James Harris, professor of the history of philosophy at the University of St Andrews, joins us to discuss these questions and more in this episode.



This episode's hosts: Zack Rauwald & Elena Yi-Jia Zeng.

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.

How does skepticism serve history? What lessons does Hegel hold for the modern historian? Why is an understanding of historical consciousness so important across the humanities? These are some of the questions we asked Richard Bourke, Professor of the History of Political Thought at the University of Cambridge. 

Publications mentioned in this episode include: 

István Hont and Michael Ignatieff, Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (CUP: 1983)

Richard Bourke, Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas (Pimlico: 2003)

Richard Bourke, Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke (Princeton University Press: 2015)

Richard Bourke and Quentin Skinner, eds. History in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CUP: 2002)

Richard Bourke, Hegel’s World Revolutions (Princeton University Press: forthcoming, 2023)

What makes the seventeenth century such a fascinating period in the history of philosophy? In what ways does Spinoza speak to contemporary philosophical problems? And in what sense is philosophy an inherently historical discipline? These are some of the questions that we asked  Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College London. 



Some books and papers mentioned in this episode are:

- Augustine of Hippo: A Biography by Peter Brown

- The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt 

- Spinoza on philosophy, religion, and politics: the Theologico-political treatise by Susan James

- 'Responding Emotionally to Fiction: A Spinozist Approach' by Susan James

- Early Modern French Thought by Michael Moriarty

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 can history contribute to the pursuits of contemporary political theory? What does the notion of the Anthropocene have to do with the history of political thought? And what exactly is the legacy of the political thought produced during the First World War?  These are some of the questions discussed in this episode with Duncan Kelly, professor of political thought and intellectual history at the University of Cambridge, and the author of Politics and the Anthropocene (2019).