The Social Contract Research Podcast

Oct 08 2024 34 ep. 76 mins 11
The Social Contract Research Podcast artwork

Featuring seminars and interviews about the contemporary social contract: what it is, how and why it breaks down, and how it can be strengthened. Some episodes discuss academic and philosophical approaches to social contract theory; others discuss practical, social and political issues related to the social contract. This podcast is made possible by funding from the Australian Resesarch Council Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". Project webpage: bit.ly/MonSCRN YouTube: bit.ly/YouTubeSCRN

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Of Contract and Covenant: Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, and Augustine on Social Agreement and Power, with Boleslaw Z. Kabala

Oct 08 2024 85 mins  
In this seminar Dr Bolek Kabala addresses the relationship between notions of contract and covenant in the work of Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza, with reflections on Augustine's two cities. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/0anw_nIfsXY The seminar took place over Zoom on 6 August 2024, a

Michel Serres, Porous Becomings, and the Social Contract Tradition, with Daniel M. Knight, Andreas Bandak and Chris Watkin

Sep 19 2024 94 mins  
In this roundtable, Daniel M Knight, Andreas Bandak and Chris Watkin discuss Michel Serres in the light of Bandak and Knight's recent co-edited book "Porous Becomings: Anthropological Engagements with Michel Serres" (https://www.dukeupress.edu/porous-becomings). The conversation ranges over the metaphor of porosity, the idea of a natural contract, and curiosity in the

From Natural Politics to Social Contract in the History of Ideas, with Simon Kennedy

Aug 06 2024 81 mins  
In this seminar Dr Simon Kennedy addresses the prehistory of ideas of the social contract. After sketching a genealogy running through Plato, Aritsotle, Cicero and the Hebrew Bible, he reflects on the extent to which Hobbes's and Locke's social contract accounts are continuing, or breaking with, the natural law tradition. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and d

States of nature as theories of normativity: Kant and his predecessors, with Macarena Marey

Jun 23 2024 93 mins  
In this seminar Dr Macarena Marey addresses Kant's understanding of normativity in relation to the ideas of the state of nature and the social contract. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/F5XMts5m3R8 The seminar took place over Zoom on 4 June 2024, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (M

Civilization and its Others: American Imaginaries, State of Nature, and Civility in Hobbes, with Stéphanie Martens

May 08 2024 95 mins  
Civilization and its Others: American Imaginaries, State of Nature, and Civility in Hobbes, with Stéphanie Martens In this seminar Dr Stéphanie Martens addresses how early modern imaginaries of the Americas, and in particular imaginaries of aboriginality, shaped early modern political thought, with a focus on Thomas Hobbes. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and disc

The Significance of the Individual and the Concept of the Social in the work of Carl, with Timothy Howles

Oct 31 2023 89 mins  
In this seminar Rev'd Dr Timothy Howles addresses the question of Carl Schmitt's social thought, with a particular focus on Schmitt's early essay "The Significance of the Individual". The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/YaEqGKosW9A The seminar took place over Zoom on 31

Modern Capitalism as Colonialism: Rethinking CB Macpherson's Theory of Possessive Individualism, with John Holmwood

Oct 16 2023 92 mins  
In this seminar Emeritus Professor John Holmwood addresses the question of CB Macpherson's account of possessive individualism, as it relates to neoliberalism and colonialism. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/qKLzA_GttYc The seminar took place over Zoom on 16 October 2023, and was ho

Spinoza and the Social Contract, with Sandra Leonie Field

Sep 11 2023 88 mins  
In this seminar Sandra Leonie Field (Lecturer in Philosophy, Monash University) addresses the question of Spinoza's relationship to the social contract, arguing that a case can be made for Spinoza both as a radical social contract thinker, adn as an anti-social contract thinker. The seminar is followed by a time of question and answer. A video version of the seminar is availabl

Slavery and the Social Contract, with John Protevi

Jun 07 2023 73 mins  
In this seminar John Protevi (Phyllis M. Taylor Professor of French Studies, Louisiana State University) addresses the question of the relationship between the social contract idea, slavery, and manumission. The seminar is followed by a time of question and answer. A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/ALJ8TvpwaHs The seminar took place over Zoom on 16 M

The Rhetoric of Science and the Science of Rhetoric in Hobbes's State of Nature, with Ioannis Evrigenis

May 30 2023 93 mins  
In this seminar Ioannis Evrigenis (Professor of Political Science and Professor of Classical Studies, Tufts University) addresses the question of the status of Hobbes's state of nature. Hobbes claims his account of the state of nature and the social contract are scientific insofar as they are geometrical; Professor Evrigenis argues that they are indeed scientific, but for quite