The Social Contract Research Podcast: Recent Episodes
Social Contract Research Network
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
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 discussion.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/yKquDGXUPws
The seminar took place over Zoom on 7 May 2024, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
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 October 2023, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
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 hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
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 available at https://youtu.be/Qwqe62bQzCo
The seminar took place over Zoom on 11 September 2023, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
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 May 2023, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
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 another reason. Ioannis Evrigenis is author of "Images of Anarchy: The Rhetoric and Science in Hobbes's State of Nature"(Cambridge University Press, 2014). The seminar is followed by a time of question and answer.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/NBtO0e9cKp8
The seminar took place over Zoom on 9 May 2023, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Barbara Arneil (Professor of Political Science, The University of British Columbia) addresses the fascinating question of how the notions of "waste", "empty" and "uncultivated" land were used by John Locke and Jeremy Bentham in relation to British colonialism. The seminar is followed by a time of question and answer.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N22qfbKxrRA&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 21 March 2023, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Philip Pettit (Laurence S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University; Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University) addresses some of the details and complexities of Thomas Hobbes's distinctive account of the social contract. The seminar is followed by a time of question and answer.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE9PFqtissA&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 20 March 2023, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Christopher Kelly (Professor in the Political Science Faculty at Boston College) addresses Rousseau's complex account of the state of nature in his Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (1755). He discusses the relationship between the different states of nature in Rousseau's Second Discourse and his notions of perfectibility and natural goodness, arguing that the notions are very closely related. The talk is followed by Q&A which touches on questions of the coherence of Rousseau's state of nature idea in the Second Discourse, the importance of much state of nature material being located in the Discourse's paratextual material, Rousseau's Aristotelianism and the extent to which Rousseau had read the writers to whom he alludes in his discussion of the state of nature, including Buffon.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnbGiWXCT0k&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 26 October 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Sarah Winter (Professor of English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut, and Co-Director of the Research Program on Humanitarianism at the UConn Human Rights Institute) addresses the use of the state of nature motif by opponents of slavery and the slave trade including Ottobah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson. The talk provides a crucial corrective to the common assumption that the state of nature motif is an overwhelmingly conservative and imperial tool, serving only to justify colonisation and slavery. The talk is followed by Q&A which touches on questions of the emancipatory potential of the state of nature motif, the contribution of female authors to the state of nature literature, animality as a locus of freedom and equality, and Professor Winter's current and future work in the area of state of nature theories.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jdM3i3kHCs&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 13 September 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Mark Somos (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow and Senior Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, @msomos) the status of the state of nature idea, arguing that it is neither straightforwardly historical nor merely hypothetical, but a legal fiction. The talk engages both his monograph American States of Nature: The Origins of Independence, 1761–1775 (Oxford, 2019) and the volume, co-edited with Anne Peters, The State of Nature: Histories of an Idea (Brill, 2021). The talk is followed by Q&A which ranges over issues including the ideological uses of the state of nature and its rhetorical power.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJJkakNU4JQ&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 26 July 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Doctor Alan Levinovitz (Associate Professor of Religion at James Madison University, @AlanLevinovitz) explores how nature has taken over from God as the foundation and justification of ethical commitments in our thinking, and how an unthinking commitment to the goodness of the "natural" can lead to very problematic conclusions. The talk is followed by Q&A which ranges over the place of theology in early modern thought, the "naturalness" of the COVID-19 pandemic, absolutism as a natural phenomenon and the platforms of both the Republican and Democrat parties in the 2016 U.S. election.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAK-o7Htvkc&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 13 July 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Professor Peter Gratton (History and Political Science, Southeastern Louisiana University) explores the uses and abuses of the social contract idea, reflecting in particular on the ways in which the social contract can be considered a con. The talk is followed by Q&A.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qilCZ99h0z0&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 22 March 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Associate Professor Jessica Whyte (Scientia Fellow in the School of Humanities and Languages (Philosophy) and the School of Law, University of New South Wales) explores neoliberal ideas of freedom in relation to the notion of sovereignty: the sovereignty of consumers and the sovereignty of the market. The talk is followed by Q&A.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxg0IRj3qIc&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 17 March 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Professor Gerald Moore (Acting Director, Centre for Culture and Ecology, Durham University, UK; Chair, Collège scientifique et industriel, Institut de Recherche et d'Innovation) explores the role of addiction and intoxication in the founding and maintenance of human societies. The talk is followed by Q&A.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iEm6DwTw9w&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
The seminar took place over Zoom on 8 March 2022, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this episode Chris is joined by Andrew Lacenere, Founder and CEO of Albatross Designs and the brains behind a new website naturalcontract.com, the aim of which is to create "a more fair and just society by acknowledging the meaning and power of the world’s natural assets, and specifically identifying the minimum level of respect and protection these assets deserve".
Chris and Andrew talk about Andrew's personal journey and the vision of naturalcontract.com, the natural contract and capitalism, the zero waste movement, civil disobedience and the prescience of Michel Serres.
A video version of this conversation is available at Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uixRkqM2D_g&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
https://www.naturalcontract.com/ - "Negotiating a lasting agreement between Society & Nature"
Albatross Designs
Homepage: https://albatrossdesigns.it/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlbatrossSailing/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/albatross_sailing/?hl=en
The Social Contract Research Observatory:
multilingual desktop version: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vTQQmn-VCUJAZIga4yJMKKhMa2Qgmq_3e5dOraX_AdeMQH_ywbRHZuOns-xgRDqStvE_8maXHYumN29/pubhtml?gid=375695677&single=true
mobile version (English only): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vTodRjiCvel0XwgV2A8sg_RpgNUIA8HLfZur54-MAVP5ttnZTLqFH4zgSzCKou4ACN7Wh6lwzjK35EK/pubhtml?gid=375695677&single=true
A conversation with Wayne Swan, former Treasurer of Australia (2007-2013), Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (2010-2013), and currently National President of the Australian Labor Party.
In this interview Wayne Swan draws together his reflections on the social contract over the years, from his 2012 article "The 0.01 Per Cent: The Rising Influence of Vested Interests in Australia" (https://www.themonthly.com.au/rising-influence-vested-interests-australia-001-wayne-swan-4670#mtr) and his book "The Good Fight" (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/current-affairs-politics/The-Good-Fight-Wayne-Swan-9781743319352) to his latest concerns about Australia's post-COVID recovery.
Topics of conversation include: What is Australia's social contract? The social contract, vested interests and big money. The Americanization of Australian politics. News Limited and media vested interests in Australia. Trust, civility and the social contract. A social contract that transcends party politics? Capitalism and the social contract. COVID and the social contract What's at stake for the social contract at the next election?
The conversation took place on 4 November, 2021, as part of the Social Contract Research Network's "Rewriting the Social Contract" project. To find out more about the Social Contract Research Network, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
A video version of the conversation is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_51Pbli7Q&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
What is Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's idea of the "social contract"? This episode compares his use of the term in publically available speeches (https://www.pm.gov.au/media) to an answer he gave to a question about the social contract asked by SCRN chief investigator A/Prof Christopher Watkin in February 2021. The episode offers an analysis of the dominant metaphors and assumptions in the PM's concept of the social contract.
A video version of the episode is available on the social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8t-O46DMn0&ab_channel=SocialContractResearchNetwork).
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
In this seminar Professor David Lyon (Principal Investigator of the Big Data Surveillance Project, Former Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre and Queen's Research Chair in Surveillance Studies, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Law, Queen’s University, Canada) explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for surveillance.
The talk and following Q&A cover themes including vaccine passports, surveillance and the common good, the future of surveillance and global inequalities in the impact of surveillance.
A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U87VVMwHrkM
The seminar took place over Zoom on 12 October 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
This symposium explores the ways in which world crime fiction exemplifies and interrogates the social contract idea. The symposium featured the following papers:
Andrew Pepper (Queen's University Belfast), "Crime Fiction and the Unravelling of the Social Contract: Generic Breakdown at the End of Days"
Barbara Bezzotti, (Monash University), "How the social contract has failed women"
Carlos Uxo (Monash University), "Maintaining the Revolutionary social contract: the role of Cuban television police shows"
Do stay around for the discussion time after the papers for the lively discussion time which lasts for an hour and includes questions from participants on three continents.
The seminar took place on Zoom on 28 September 2021, and was hosted by Sewart King (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
This seminar is an initiative of the Monash Crime Fiction Project and the Social Contract Research Network. For more information about the Monash Crime Fiction Project, please see here: https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/monash-crime-fiction-project
To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to the SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
In this seminar Associate Professor Justin Clemens (Melbourne University, School of Culture and Communication) explores Alain Badiou's reading of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract. Do stay around for the discussion time after the paper, when among other topics we discuss Rousseau’s universalism as a shelter, the nature of the general will, the relationship between the social contract and an event, and Rousseau, atheism and God. The seminar took place over Zoom on 20 September 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the work of the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
A video version of the seminar is available over at the SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
In this third episode in the State of Nature series we look in detail at Rousseau's account of the "pure state of nature" from the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (1755). We pay special attention to Jean-Luc Nancy's reading of the transition from the state of nature to the social contract.
A copy of the diagram used in the video can be found here: https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/image/0004/2686018/Rousseaus-state-of-nature-table.png
A video version of the episode is available on the social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgNR0pMw_VQ).
Written version: https://wp.me/p8nzID-p3A
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
In this seminar Associate Professor Karen Green (Melbourne University, philosophy) develops Catharine Macaulay's distinctive, anti-Hobbesian approach to the social contract, before exploring her own, Macaulay-inspired account of the co-evolution of language and morality.
Do stay around for the discussion time after the paper, when among other topics we discuss the question of objective rationality, and Macaulay's relationship to Hobbes and Rousseau.
The seminar took place over Zoom on 7 September 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1
Anyone living in Australia will have noticed that, over recent months, COVID policy has undergone a quiet revolution. With lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria now seemingly powerless to halt the spread of the Delta variant, we have entered the era of vaccination. This episode explores the social contract arguments used both for and against mass vaccination, asking what social contract language adds to the debate.
Written version for Monash Lens: https://lens.monash.edu/2021/09/14/1383790/covid-19-is-getting-vaccinated-really-part-of-the-social-contract
This episode is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
Video version: https://youtu.be/e_B05PhJrNw
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
The "state of nature" is a term used in social contract theory to describe human life before the civil society inaugurated by the contract. The way we think about this pre-contractual life tells us a great deal about how we understand ourselves and our soceity. This audio essay by A/Prof. Christopher Watkin of the Social Contract Research Network explores how the state of nature idea functions as a tool of social critique, revealing the "myths we live by" (Mary Midgley) and showing us elements of our own "social imaginary" (Charles Taylor). The essay concludes by asking to what extent our state of nature discourse is an orientalism.
This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
A video version of the essay is available on the social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGX9SvHj36Q).
Written version: https://wp.me/p8nzID-p3r
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
This episode is the audio version of a video essay on the state of nature by Dr Christopher Watkin. You can find the video on social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw).
The essay discusses eight ways in which the state of nature idea shapes our thinking and outlook today: who we think we are, how we decide shat is good, how we treat other cultures, nations, and the natural world, how we think we can change society, how we run the economy, and how we understand the meaning of life.
The first voice you hear is from a 1920s newsreel on research undertaken into aboriginal groups in Australia.
This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
This episode is a seminar by Professor Peter Hallward (Philosophy, Kingston University). Peter's paper discusses five quotations fundamental to an understanding of Rousseau, Rousseau's relationship to modern social movements, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee).
Do stay around for the extended discussion time after Peter’s paper, in which we range over topics including religion and the general will, the figure of the legislator, Rousseau and women, the local and the global, and the relation between the social contract and Michel Serres’s natural contract.
Peter now works as Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University in the UK, and his research is primarily in modern political philosophy. He has published monographs on Alain Badiou, Gilles Deleuze, the postcolonial and Haiti. He regularly writes for The Guardian and Radical Philosophy among other outlets, and he is currently working on a book entitled 'The Will of the People', alongside brief studies of Rousseau, Marx and Blanqui.
The seminar took place on 1 June 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University) as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
This episode is a seminar by Associate Professor Janice Richardson from the faculty of Law at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Janice is the author of the book The classic social contractarians: Critical Perspectives From Contemporary Feminist Philosophy and Law, and her title for the seminar was “Feminist Perspectives on Social Contract Theory”. It’s well worth listening to the end of the presentation, for a fascinating exchange with A/Prof Karen Green who has also been working on these themes for many years.
The seminar took place on 21 May 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
This episode is a conversation with Tim Wilson, Liberal MP for Goldstein in the Australian House of Representatives, and author of the book The New Social Contract: Renewing the Liberal Vision for Australia. Tim talks with host Christopher Watkin about trust in politics, house prices and home ownership, the importance of civil society, the generational contract, Michael Sandel’s book The Tyranny of Merit, and Minouche Shafik’s vision of the new social contract.
The conversation was made possible by funding from the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw
Internationally renowned Foucault scholars Stuart Elden (Warwick University, UK) and Mark Kelly (Western Sydney University, Australia) discuss Michel Foucault's relationship to the modern social contract idea. Followed by questions and discussion.
The seminar took place on 15 April 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University, Australia), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".
The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network
To find out more about the Social Contract Research Network, and to subscribe to SCRN email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network
SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw