Episodes

Nov 27

We discuss Streit's 1939 proposal for a international federation of democracies to avoid a new world war. We explore the limits of argumentation and the difference between making an argument and doing politics.

Sep 8

We discuss Friedrich List's many careers, his struggle for a German customs union, his belief that nationalism would lead to the "uniting of all nations under a common law of right", what happened instead, and why.

Jul 6

We discuss Vico's theory of nature, his unorthodox mix of stereotypically ancient and modern approaches, and how his "new science" seems to be going so far.

Jun 6

A whole episode of Political Theory 101 devoted to Thomas Hobbes' Behemoth. We discuss Hobbes' historical narrative and his theory of education, both of which receive little attention in Leviathan.

Apr 21

Michael Downs joins Benjamin to discuss the political thought of Nick Land, its relationship to the work of Deleuze and Guattari, and the degree to which it has influenced the contemporary left and right.

Mar 27

We discuss how Plato used dialectical thinking to deal with objections to the theory of the forms. Then we discuss how this kind of thinking enriches our ability to make use of all sorts of political concepts and abstractions.

Mar 5

We discuss the work of John Morley, a British viscount heavily involved in the government of Ireland and India during the late 19th and early 20th century. Morley was a liberal, but he was often in situations in which his liberalism was pushed to its limit. We discuss how he thought about liberty as a young man, and how he worked to put his beliefs into practice in difficult circumstances.

Dec 22, 2024

Daniel joins Benjamin to discuss Plato's Philebus. We traverse the dialectic of limit and unlimit and discuss the difference between memory and recollection, connecting all of this to Plato's political thought.

Nov 20, 2024

Elizabeth Dearden-Williams, a former student of mine from Cambridge who is currently pursuing a masters, comes on to discuss the work of the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz.

Oct 8, 2024

Chris Cutrone joins Benjamin for a discussion of political parties, focusing on the role pluralism plays in Chris' thinking about party structure.

Aug 2, 2024

John Milton isn't just the author of Paradise Lost! Raeffe Gibson makes a guest appearance to discuss his role in the English Civil War.

Jun 16, 2024

Alex and Benjamin discuss the work of Michael Pettis, putting him in conversation with older theorists of imperialism like J.A. Hobson and Vladimir Lenin.

May 25, 2024

Alex and Benjamin discuss Huntington's early emphasis on centralization and institutions, his turn toward civilizational thinking, and the position of religion - and particularly Catholicism - in his account.

May 2, 2024

Alex and Benjamin explore the history of political thought from the point of view of Bastiat - who threw many ancient and enlightenment thinkers together into the basket of plunderers. If we think we come from God whole and complete, the need for civic education falls away...

Apr 16, 2024

Alex and Benjamin discuss Terry Eagleton's work, focusing on interactions between religion and Marxism in the context of the "end of history" - the 1990s and beyond.

Mar 20, 2024

Alex and Benjamin discuss the Roman persecution of the Christians - why the Romans did it, how the Christians responded to it, and the ways the experience shaped Christian political thought going forward.

Feb 21, 2024

We explore the methodological contributions of the late historian of political thought, John Pocock. We talk about the role of language and context in interpreting texts, distinctions between "history" and "philosophy," and the implications of these methodological shifts for the political economy of the university.

Feb 6, 2024

Alex and Benjamin explore post-political themes in Haruki Murakami's rat tetralogy.

Jan 22, 2024

Alex and Benjamin delve into Habermas' notions of the public sphere, legitimacy, and communication. They also discuss postmetaphysical thinking.

Jan 9, 2024

Alex and Benjamin talk about 18th century German philosopher Christian Wolff. Wolff suggested that there are reasons behind our motivations. Even a soldier who deserts his post is motivated to desert for a reason. Does that mean that rebels are motivated to rebel for reasons? And when two states are motivated to war with one another, does that mean that they both have reasons to go to war?

Dec 1, 2023

Alex and Benjamin talk about the explosion of monasteries in late antiquity. As it turns out, withdrawing from politics can be yet another way of trying to do politics.

Nov 15, 2023

Alex and Benjamin explore a debate G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw had a century ago concerning political economy, then we dive into their political writings.

Oct 23, 2023

Alex and Benjamin discuss Laclau's socialist strategy, populism, empty signifiers, and the relationship between Laclau's socialism and Marxism.

Oct 6, 2023

Alex and Benjamin discuss Jean-François Lyotard's critique of Marxism, his "evil book," intersections between politics, art, and science, and how Lyotard answered the charge of relativism.

Sep 19, 2023

Alex and Benjamin explore the agonistic political thought of Deleuze and Guattari, focusing especially on their ideas about territory, change, and flow.

Aug 28, 2023

Alex and Benjamin kick off a series on French political thought in the second half of the 20th century with an episode on ideology and power.

Aug 14, 2023

Alex and Benjamin bring on Doug Lain to talk about free speech in the 21st century. Doug offers his take on why free speech matters, and we discuss the political economy of speech and the role the state and civil society play in shaping public discussion. They also discuss his critique of Noam Chomsky and his interest in the work of Guy Debord.

Jul 30, 2023

Alex and Benjamin discuss Nicole Oresme, a 14th century French bishop who took an interest in political economy. An advocate for limited monarchy, Oresme argued against the right of king to debase the currency and even to raise taxes. Yet, at the same time, he argued for major redistribution of wealth within the church. These seemingly conflicting positions were, for Oresme, reconciled by appeal to Aristotle.

Jun 29, 2023

Drawing on the work of G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Peter Temin, and Walter Scheidel, Alex and Benjamin dig into the economy of the Roman Empire. They explore the role of markets, the level of social mobility, whether a core/periphery model applies, and the influence of contemporary concerns on Roman historiography.

Jun 3, 2023

We discuss Mou Zongsan's effort to combine Confucianism with other traditions, his response to Kant, the line he draws between morality and politics, and his qualified embrace of democracy.

May 13, 2023

Alex and Benjamin discuss the state of Confucianism during the Ming Dynasty. Should "li" be understood as "principle" or "pattern"? What is the relationship between li and chi? While some theorists, like Zhu Xi, hold that studying the classics can help clear up your chi, Wang Yangming argues that the virtues are much easier to acquire, because for him li always already exists in the mind. He suggests there is a "unity of acting and knowing," so if a person acts in a virtuous way, that implies they have knowledge. This means that knowledge of the li can be found in the simple benevolent acts of ordinary people. While civil servants can quote classical texts, they may not act with the same benevolence, and if they act poorly they can't have the knowledge they purport to have. We therefore get a critique of civic education that comes from within Confucianism, without appeal to the legalist framework of someone like Lord Shang.

May 2, 2023

Alex and Benjamin discuss one is on Lord Shang, a Chinese political theorist and minister associated with the development of legalism. Unlike most ancient political theorists, Shang Yang denies the possibility of a politics based on virtue. He therefore denies the possibility that the state can be ruled by a virtuous elite. But this does not lead him to argue for democracy. On the contrary, he argues that sages, intellectuals, and other talkers encourage lawbreaking and spread disorder. He therefore recommends the state heavily disincentivize these activities.

Apr 3, 2023

Alex and Benjamin discuss The Ethics of Voting (Princeton UP, 2011) by Jason Brennan, a contemporary political philosopher with a right-libertarian bent. They explore the consequences of thinking about voting from the standpoint of the individual. They talk about "harm reduction," and explore the many reasons it is hard to predict the consequences of elections in a straightforward way.

Mar 13, 2023

Alex and Benjamin dive into the thought of Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. Ruler of a rump state that increasingly lacked the capacity to defend its territory, Manuel focused on trying to discern the things emperors could control from the things they couldn't. He tarries with some of the most frustrating issues in Christian ethics, all in the service of preparing his heir.

Feb 9, 2023

Alex and Benjamin explore the twilight of Athenian democracy, in which Aeschines and Demosthenes struggle viciously against one another as the Macedonian shadow looms.

Jan 30, 2023

Benjamin and Alex discuss Gandhi, the relationship between satyagraha and swaraj, his conceptualization of truth, anarchism, and so much more.

Jan 9, 2023

Expelled from France in 1303 after he sided with Pope Boniface VIII in a dispute with King Philip IV, John Duns Scotus advanced a theory of natural law that was much more limited in scope than that of the more famous Thomas Aquinas. Among other things, we explore his contention that property rights are based on positive law rather than natural law. Though he was extremely influential in the high middle ages, Scotus fell from favor in the early modern period as both the Protestants and the humanists rejected his position. They hated him so much, they even gave his name to the 'Dunce Cap.'

Dec 19, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss the ideas of Chrysippus, a Stoic philosopher from the 3rd century BC. They explore Chrysippus' account of free will, his distinction between things that are good and "preferred indifferents," and the influence of his thought on theorists like Rousseau and Kant.

Nov 25, 2022

Alex and Benjamin delve into the work of Jedrzej George Frynas, discussing interactions between states and corporations, especially in countries like Nigeria, where the state is in a frustratingly weak position.

Oct 17, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss Bartolus, a 14th century Italian jurist who used 6th century Roman law to legitimate the Italian city-states. Along the way, he develops the concept of "the city" as an abstraction, arguing that "the city is its own prince." This had substantial influence on later understandings of "the state."

Oct 2, 2022

Alex and Benjamin look at an ancient Indian political treatise, focusing especially on the interdependent relationship between householders and ascetics.

Sep 14, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss John Maynard Keynes through a political theory lens. They hone in on Keynes' strategy for saving capitalism, his impact on interwar Marxism, his use of J.A. Hobson's theory of imperialism, and more.

Sep 6, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss Persian political theorist and Seljuk Vizier Nizam al-Mulk, a talented administrator who nonetheless left behind quite a mess. We compare him to Michael Psellos (his contemporary). We discuss the Sassanid origins of his political thought. We also go into the deep, intractable problems he had with both women and heretics, making it difficult for the Seljuk Empire to replicate the long-term success of the enormous ancient Persian states.

Aug 25, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss the political thought of Confucius, moving past stale stereotypes and into a deeper discussion of the role of the gentleman and the sage in creating and sustaining an ideal customary community.

Jul 30, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss Slavoj Žižek's concept of ideology, his version of materialism, and the role ritual plays in his thought.

Jul 21, 2022

Alex and Benjamin talk about Michael Psellos, an 11th century Greek thinker who advised a series of Byzantine emperors. We compare Psellos with earlier Platonists and discuss some of the problems the Byzantine Empire faced throughout his career.

Jul 8, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss Pyrrho and the Pyrrhonists, the conflict between the skeptics and the stoics, and the influence of ancient skepticism on modern empiricists, positivists, and pragmatists, particularly David Hume.

Jun 18, 2022

We discuss John Locke's views on nature and the way they influence his theory of property and his approach to trade. We also discuss the role he played on the Board of Trade, and his "tough on crime" approach to pirates.

May 17, 2022

Alex and Benjamin read Thomas Aquinas' De Regno, focusing on what Aquinas does with Aristotle's regime typology.

Apr 24, 2022

Alex and Benjamin talk about Iamblichus, and the strand of neo-Platonism that gets interested in theurgy. They compare Iamblichus with Plotinus. Is part of the soul in the realm of the intelligibles, or has all of it descended? The answer matters, politically. There's also some discussion of the religious politics of Emperor Julian, whose philosophical views were heavily influenced by Iamblichan ideas.

Apr 10, 2022

Edmund Wilson joins Alex and Benjamin to discuss James Harrington. They compare Harrington with Hobbes, discuss Harrington's influence on Marxism, and think about how Harrington is positioned in various accounts of the history of thought.

Mar 27, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss Marsilius of Padua's argument for the supremacy of the Holy Roman Emperor over the church. They get into the Fraticelli, disputes about whether priests can own property, and ideas of imperial consensus and collective knowledge.

Feb 27, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss a couple Quentin Skinner lectures, focusing mainly on his genealogies of the state and liberty.

Feb 3, 2022

Alex and Benjamin discuss Dante's political thought. They delve into divine right of kings theory, comparing it with other monarchical legitimation stories. There's Pope Boniface VIII, the Byzantines, and more.

Jan 18, 2022

In Alex's inaugural episode, we discuss the Timaeus and the relationship between Plato's metaphysics and his politics.

Dec 14, 2021

In Edmund's farewell episode, we discuss the September Group, including G.A. Cohen, Jon Elster, and Philippe Van Parijs. We discuss theories of history, the influence of Darwinian evolution on Marx, the differences between analytic and continental political theory, and the possibility of bridging that divide. Edmund and Benjamin will do one last Patron Q&A episode, and then Political Theory 101 will continue with a new student co-host.

Nov 9, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss Tocqueville. They discuss his thoughts on both America and France, his contributions on civic education, civil society, equality, liberty, and so much more.

Oct 19, 2021

Andrew Osipov joins Benjamin and Edmund to discuss his thesis on the concept of representation. They discuss the many ways representation has been understood in recent decades.

Sep 9, 2021

Andrew Osipov returns to discuss Abbé Sieyès and the French Revolution. There's discussion of the evolution of the concept of representation and the nation, as well as comparisons with the American project.

Aug 1, 2021

Andrew Osipov joins Benjamin and Edmund to discuss Montesquieu's political thought. They focus on virtue & honor, monarchy and republicanism, and discuss some of the factors that led to the French Revolution.

Jul 14, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss states of different sizes and different distributions of power among states. There's lots of discussion of polarity, hegemony, and other big ticket international relations ideas.

Jun 29, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss more recent discussions of the relationship between politics and morality, positioning them in relation to some of the historical theories they've previously discussed.

Jun 3, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss the changing understanding of currency, from the gold standard to Bretton Woods and even quantitative easing. They also spend some time debunking myths about Roman money in the 4th century...

Apr 25, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss aesthetic theory and how it intersects with the political. Many Germans feature in this episode--Kant, Harder, Fichte, and so on.

Apr 4, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin are joined by Charlotte Newman for a discussion of the political potential of meditation and Buddhism. Charlotte has a YouTube Channel, 'Talking Calm', which you can find here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCeYZB54YTxPmDslkeMIg0xA

Mar 22, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss different conceptions of liberty. They go beyond Isaiah Berlin's positive/negative distinction, examining republicans ways of thinking about the concept, its relationship to 'freedom', and some of the reasons why the emphasis has shifted over the centuries.

Mar 7, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin discuss the very different ways equality can be understood, including different units of comparison, currencies of justice, and distributive principles. They also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of equality as a radical paradigm.

Feb 16, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin return to the Frankfurt School, discussing the evolution of the theory of history as theorists incorporated more and more thoughts from Weber, Freud, and Heidegger. In the hands of the Americans, this process culminates in Habermas-influenced liberal accounts of deliberative democracy...

Jan 31, 2021

Edmund & Benjamin return to Max Weber! This time, we're discussing Weber's thoughts on the "immaturity" of the German bourgeoisie, along with the way Weber connected capitalism to religion.

Jan 16, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin put Marx's theory of alienation into conversation with Durkheim's theory of anomie, examining how we can't live with social roles or without them. This leads to a discussion of how social roles are reified, via Lukacs.

Jan 3, 2021

Edmund and Benjamin run through the history of utilitarianism, focusing both on its radical and conservative aspects and running through some of the problems utilitarians have grappled with. Featuring Sidgwick, Moore, Singer, and Parfit, among others...

Dec 15, 2020

We discuss reactions to economic change in the 18th century, conflicts with traditional understandings of virtue, and how theorists thought about the problem before Smith & Bentham came on the scene. To skip the full reading of Fable of the Bees, go to 25:30

Dec 3, 2020

We discuss the influence of theories of human nature on political theory, comparing and contrasting Hobbes, Hume, and Spinoza.

Nov 22, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin delve into Marxist reactions to the rise of the interventionist state, both in the interwar and postwar periods. Featuring Adorno, Fraenkel, Habermas, Horkheimer, Kirchheimer, Marcuse, Pollock, Neumann

Nov 5, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss the trajectory of Marxism during the decades following Marx's death. They focus on the limitations of both democratic and revolutionary approaches, attempts to find a golden mean between the two, and why this mean was so elusive.

Oct 20, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss what happens when political theorists make struggling their primary objective, comparing Nietzsche and Arendt to the theorists who prioritise unity, order, or truth.

Sep 27, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss Marx's theory of history, positioning Marx in relation to his German predecessors and to some of the Marxists that follow him. The Greeks make an appearance, too.

Sep 14, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss Hegel's effort to bridge the gap between the individual and the collective with mediating institutions. They position Hegel in relation to the German theorists who came before and after him and discuss his critique of the Greeks.

Aug 27, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss Kant's autonomy-heavy moral theory, emphasising Kant's reluctance to apply his moral theory to politics. This, however, did not stop Fichte, who called for a "self-sufficient" German nation-state. By shifting the autonomous subject from the individual person to the individual nation, Fichte is able to turn Kant's liberal moral theory into a nationalist political theory. Featuring Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt

Aug 1, 2020

To escape the subordination of politics to theology under the church, Machiavelli creates a new kind of strictly political normativity, leaving morality behind. We examine why Machiavelli had to do this, and how this leads to new liberal moral theories, like the one Adam Smith describes in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. Featuring Augustine, Dante, and Kant

Jul 6, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin combine the last two episodes together to talk about "chronic legitimacy crises". They discuss how these crises work and how they end--through solving, settling, and sinking.

Jun 19, 2020

In our follow-up to our previous episode on "crisis", Edmund and Benjamin talk about how legitimacy works. They start with the disagreement between Bernard Williams and John Rawls over whether legitimacy is an "internal" or "external" concept. Then they use Benjamin's PhD thesis to delve into the different kinds of legitimation stories states tell.

May 31, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss theories of crisis, comparing Reinhart Koselleck's old-school theory to more recent contributions from Andrew Gamble and Wolfgang Streeck. They also chat about 20th century crises and how our crisis today is a bit different. This is the first in a three part series on "Legitimacy Crises". https://www.patreon.com/politicaltheory101

May 13, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin discuss the four schools of international relations theory--realism, liberalism, Marxism, and constructivism. They consider the influence of materialism and idealism on the schools, along with the role of domestic politics and international institutions. Featuring Benjamin's John Mearsheimer impression. https://www.patreon.com/politicaltheory101

Apr 30, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin dig into Roman history, focusing on shifts in the legitimation stories as the republic becomes an empire. They discuss the evolution of the Platonic academy in the Roman period and spend some time with Stoicism. https://www.patreon.com/politicaltheory101

Apr 15, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin explore rhetoric, drawing on a variety of Greek thinkers. The Greek theorists' attitudes to rhetoric stem from their attitudes to knowledge. Is the crowd wise? Can rhetoric share wisdom with the crowd? Or is rhetoric where wisdom comes to die? https://www.patreon.com/politicaltheory101

Feb 18, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin compare and contrast Edmund Burke and Frantz Fanon. Both theorists were critical of commercial society, but adopted very different strategies for opposing it based on entirely different theories of change.

Feb 4, 2020

Edmund and Benjamin return from the winter vac to talk about what happens when markets are depoliticised.

Dec 2, 2019

Edmund and Benjamin discuss the many different origin stories of inequality, drawing on Catharine MacKinnon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Edmund on power: https://edmundjwilson.com/2019/11/01/on-power-tech-the-state-and-class/ Benjamin on Yang: https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2019/08/14/andrew-yang-is-playing-hide-and-seek-with-the-left-press/

Nov 15, 2019

Raeffe Gibson joins Benjamin and Edmund to discuss the idea that states need to be unified around common values.

Nov 9, 2019

Edmund and Benjamin discuss the role of charismatic leaders in politics in the Roman Empire, interwar Germany, and more recently.

Oct 14, 2019

Benjamin and Edmund discuss the ancient zero-sum conception of liberty, attempts by later political theorists to universalise it, and some of the ways understandings of liberty have changed to accommodate that. Draws most heavily on Aristotle's "Politics" and Constant's "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared With That of the Moderns" and "Adolphe".

Oct 8, 2019

Benjamin and Edmund discuss why both Hobbes and Plato think the state is necessary, comparing and contrasting the two along the way.

Oct 3, 2019

Benjamin Studebaker and Edmund Wilson welcome you to a new series about the history of political thought and some of the people who have contributed to it.