Revolutions: History of Ideas and Political Thought (Series Launch 1st Dec)

DETAILS

A bi-weekly seminar convened in the heart of London exploring various themes within the history of ideas and political thought.

This is an academic event. In-person participants must sign up with their institutional email address and/or bring their student or academic staff card. If you are unable to do this but are very interested in joining us -- for example, if you were recently but are no longer a student -- please contact us directly. Otherwise we will refund your ticket and refuse admission.

These restrictions are due to the practicalities of running an in-person club in a university environment. They do no apply to online viewings -- all are free to join us online.

Dress code smart-casual.

Check our website for each seminar's reading materials -- not mandatory but encouraged!

Events are typically Mondays fortnightly.

Address for these events is 51 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6HJ. The entrance to the building is not the front door facing Gower Street, but to the lefthand side at the start of Chenies Street. Arrive by 6.55pm for a prompt 7pm start.

Tickets £7.50 plus Eventbrite charges. Online tickets free.

Donations accepted: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=UJ5WYST99SB5G

ABOUT US

Led by passionate and accomplished postgraduates in the humanities, we strive to catalyse enriching and informative dialogues around each set text. Set texts can be downloaded in advance at https://www.historyofideasnlc.co.uk/events

Each text is situated in the broader context of the history of ideas, helping us to better understand the significance of their content for today.

‘Revolutions’ is a twelve-part series exploring not just political but also cultural, intellectual, and scientific revolutions. Check out the full list of semiars below.

JOIN ONLINE

[Online participants can join from 7pm until 8pm. They will have the opportunity to contribute questions via the messaging option and these will be read out at the end for further discussion. The link to join is below:

Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 324 394 797 895

Passcode: zs933NS7]

SEMINAR DATES FULL LIST

Monday 1st December - Parmenides and the Philosophical Revolution in Greece

We commence our Winter/Spring Seminar Series on Revolution with the birth of philosophy in Greece. Parmenides' writings survive only as fragments, and what we have can be read in 30 minutes. Yet they are a window into a mind on the cusp of an intellectual revolution, one foot in myth, another in reason. We dissect Parmenides' famous claim that 'All is One' and how it set the stage for subsequent Greek philosophy and, perhaps, all of philosophy.

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Monday 15th December - 'And the word became flesh...': Christianity's emergence and impact [NOW ONLINE]

Christian thought presents in many respects a synthesis of Jewish and Greek ideas. Yet it stands out as arguably the most radical concept of the human person and his purpose, deriving especially on its insistence on the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. From this radical assertion stem a variety of doctrines and cultural possibilities, including iconography, the visible Church, a 'personal' God, and the foundation of ethics on 'faith' and interior transformation to its incisive critique of 'law'. We discuss the significance of these ideas and their immediate impact on the Roman world.

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Monday 12th January - Rome: From Empire to Republic (and back again) [NOW ONLINE]

Cicero famously presented an account of the evolution of forms of state following Plato. Rome indeed went through several iterations of its constitution: the original kingdom, presiding over the whole of the Italian peninsula, collapsed following civil strife between the Plebian and Patrician classes. The subsequent Republic -- a mixed constitution -- saw the dawn of Rome's imperial might, though it eventually collapsed due to warfare among the ruling families. Augustus emerged victorious and crowned Emperor. We explore the political conditions that gave rise to the birth of the Roman Republic in particular and its decline.

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Monday 26th January - The Gregorian Reforms and the Protestant Reformation: Changing Concepts of Law and State

The Gregorian Reforms of the C11th were an attempt to give coherent unity to Ecclesial (Canon) law and determine the nature and extent of the State's subordination to the Church. 400 Years later, this arrangement proved dissatisfactory, and a combination of peasants' revolts and resistance from several universities and rulers across the Holy Roman Empire catalysed a complete reformation of our concepts of law and state. Luther argued that no human authority could mediate between man's conscience and God, but this left doubt about the place and purpose of civil law. Phillip Melanchthon, a disciple of Luther, attempted the first complete systematisation of law as such, uniting all jurisdictions of law under common principles of 'natural law', concerned with the regulation of the civil community of fallen men and disposing them towards Godly living. We examine the effectiveness of the Reformers' solution to the conflict of civil and ecclesial law.

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Monday 9th February - The English Civil War

[FURTHER EVENT DESCRIPTIONS FORTHCOMING]

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Monday 23rd February - The Copernican Revolution in Astronomy

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Monday 9th March - Revolution of Modernity: Descartes, Kant, Hegel

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Monday 23rd March - The Birth of the Modern Republic: France, America, Haiti

Monday 6th April - Industrialisation and Karl Marx

Monday 20th April - Physics and Philosophy after Quantum Mechanics

Monday 4th May - The Phenomenological 'Eopche' of Edmund Husserl

Monday 18th May - Speices of Totalitarianism in the C20th

Monday 25th May - The Intellectual Origins of the Culture Wars

You can find previous discussions and other topics on my Youtube page at this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGvIPnklkmnz1GeAnMWzjSg

Also, I post regular updates of Jack and I's intellectual activities and everything in between at the name @theintellectualhistorian on instagram, facebook, tiktok and twitter/X. So take a look there if interested.