Can becoming a better liberal really increase your wellbeing? That is the argument made by today's guest, Alexandre Lefebvre, in his latest book: Liberalism as a Way of Life (2024). Liberalism is the hegemonic morality of our times. Rather than despairing at this fact, as many on the post-liberal right do, we should double down on our ideals and strive to become better liberals. A fairer, more playful and fun world awaits us if we do.

Lefebvre is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Sydney. Find out more about his work here.

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Kickstarting a new era of Ideas Matter, Louis interviews Canadian-born political theorist Daniel Bell about his latest book, The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University (2023).

Bell is currently Chair Professor of Political Theory at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to that, he served as the Dean of Shandong University's Department of Political Science and Public Administration - the first non-Chinese to ever hold such a position.

Bell's academic work focusses on Confucianism and how it can be applied to contemporary Chinese politics. He makes a number of controversial but interesting claims, including that Western-style liberal democracy may not be the best way forward for China. Instead, he favours what he calls 'Confucian Political Meritocracy'.

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Enjoy!

Sex. The Ego. Repression. Sublimation. The Death Drive. That's right, we're reading Freud. Specifically we are reading two essays by Freud, "Civilised Sexuality Morality and Modern Nervous Illness" (1908) and "Civilisation and its Discontents" (1930). These works provide a brief introduction to core Freudian concepts such as repression and sublimation. Join us for a critical reading of one of the twentieth century's most important thinkers.

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Some call him "The First Teacher", others simply refer to him as "The Philosopher" - but you probably know him as Aristotle. If all philosophy is a footnote to Plato, then Aristotle is footnote number one. Join us as we discuss the most influential work of moral philosophy in the whole world, The Nicomachean Ethics.

The mentioned essay by Quentin Skinner is called "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas".

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Ideas Matter discusses its first non-Western text: the Dao De Jing by Lao Tzu. Daoism is one of the three major religions/philosophies in China, alongside Confucianism and Buddhism. Unlike most other cultures however, these religions are not mutually exclusive. Confucianism is deeply informed by Daoist cosmology, which was in turn informed by the introduction of Buddhism into China from India. The result is a fascinatingly rich and complicated philosophical school of thought with huge contemporary resonance. In this episode we primarily discuss the ideas of 'the Way' (Dao 道) and 'effortless action' (Wu Wei 无为).

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Alex makes his long-awaited return to the Ideas Matter studio, just in time for a special guest appearance by Dan Crowley. Dan is a man of many talents, a true renaissance man. Most relevant for our purposes is his day job as a scholar of Ancient Greece, particularly of the historian Herodotus. We interview Dan about his research which seeks to reinvigorate Herodotus' approach to historical story-telling by drawing on postmodern theories of history.

We both really enjoyed recording this episode and have no doubt that you will love listening to Dan. Please subscribe to his newsletter, Some Writing.

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"All political action has then in itself a directedness towards knowledge of the good: of the good life, or of the good society", writes Leo Strauss in his well-known essay 'What is Political Philosophy?', published in 1957. For Strauss, political philosophy is essentially normative. We do not understand political things unless we take them as phenomena which cry out to be evaluated as good or bad, just or unjust.

Today's episode is a brief recapitulation of Strauss' essay, which includes his thoughts on the nature of political philosophy and the difference between classical and modern approaches to the discipline. This episode forms a nice contrast to our episode on Raymond Geuss and his approach of political realism.

Do you agree with Strauss that political philosophy is always normative? Or do value-judgements also fall prey to criticism by positivists and historicists? As always, we would love to hear what you think.

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What is Political Philosophy? By Leo Strauss: https://amzn.to/424WAjT
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What does it mean to be realistic about politics? Why does Raymond Geuss, a Cambridge political theorist, describe himself as a "neo-Leninist"?  

In this episode, Louis gives a run-down of Geuss' hugely influential text Philosophy and Real Politics (2008), which revives the longstanding tradition of political realism in Western philosophy. Political realism is a way of studying politics which treats the political realm as distinct or seperate from the realm of ethics or morality. In this sense, realists treat political philosophy as distinct from moral philosophy. Notable realists throughout history include Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and Lenin.   

This is such an excellent book. Geuss writes clearly and to the point. Best of all, it's only 100 pages. I could not recommend it highly enough.  

Purchase 'Philosophy and Real Politics' (2008): https://amzn.to/3F2XFi7 (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)  

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