LECTURES 2

Welcome to the Science and Policy Seminars Podcast, brought to you by the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge. 
The Seminar series brings together different perspectives and new thinking on the relationship between scientific expertise, policy and politics.
To learn more about the Centre for Science and Policy, and our work in promoting engagement between researchers and policy professionals, please visit www.csap.cam.ac.uk.  


Science and Policy Seminars

The French philosopher Michel Foucault set about his task rather like a historian. After painstaking research, he concluded that knowledge and power were intimately related throughout history. He illustrated this central idea of his philosophy through studies of madness, sexuality, and discipline and punishment, arguing that there is no such thing as absolute truth, only different truths about reality at particular moments – truths that fulfil the needs of power.

This audiobook is an expert account of Foucault’s life and philosophical ideas – entertainingly written and is above all easy listening. Also included are selections from Foucault’s work, suggested further reading, and chronologies that place Foucault in the context of the broader scheme of philosophy.

Foucault: Philosophy in an Hour by Paul Strathern, read by Jonathan Keeble

"Is Democracy Conspiratorial?: Koselleck, Furet, and the Debate on the French Revolution"

Since the time of the abbé Barruel, the French Revolution - the source of democratic claims eventually the world over - has been unmasked as the outcome of a dark conspiracy. This talk will examine some of the contemporary legacies of this claim about the secret agenda of democratic self-rule, with a focus on some famous main twentieth-century commentators like Reinhart Koselleck and François Furet who were insufficiently critical of the old allegation even in renovating our sense of where the Revolution fits in modern politics. Dwelling on some of the intellectual origins of Furet's "Interpreting the French Revolution," in which the conspiracy claim figured, the talk will distinguish that strand of the book from other and more valuable impulses, which had other sources, notably the view that democracy is the rule of no one, so that it is very hard to justify or even securely locate its legitimate authorities at any given time.

Samuel Moyn is James Bryce Professor of European Legal History at Columbia University, where he has been teaching since 2001. He is author of "The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History" (2010) and a new collection of essays entitled "Human Rights and the Uses of History" (2014). From July 1, 2014, he will take up a new position as professor of law and history at Harvard University. 

Is Democracy Conspiratorial?

Welcome to the Science and Policy Seminars Podcast, brought to you by the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge. 
The Seminar series brings together different perspectives and new thinking on the relationship between scientific expertise, policy and politics.
To learn more about the Centre for Science and Policy and our work in promoting engagement between researchers and policy professionals please visit www.csap.cam.ac.uk.  


Nick Pearce - Political leadership and public administration in a post-democratic and populist age

Prof David Hart - Assessing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Prof Michael Kenny - Changing ideas of statecraft in an ever loosening Union

The news tends to focus on the antagonism between India and Pakistan. A distinguished panel of academics – Dr Kamal Munir, Dr Ornit Shani, Dr  Bhaskar Vira and Professor Joya Chatterji –
look at the common ground between the two countries. 


India-Pakistan: the common ground at Hay Festival

Ideas about states of emergency go back to Ancient Rome in which it was said that necessity knows no law. This idea took on different meanings during the early modern period and was employed again in 1848 to justify emergency rule in Paris. The idea was inverted by Marx. It was no longer emergency that justified dictatorship—dictatorship was posited as a desirable outcome in a transition to new forms of society.

The genesis of 20th C political authoritarianism by Prof Gareth Stedman Jones

In 1815, two large armies faced each other at Waterloo. Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington, the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops.

Did the Germans win the battle of Waterloo? by Professor Brendan Simms

In the age of Charlemagne, Rome was not just associated with the glory of classical and late antique empire, but above all with an authentic Christianity. North of the Alps, rulers and aristocrats created a virtual Rome by importing relics as well as liturgical practices that were thought of as typically Roman.

Charlemagne, Rome and the management of sacred space by Professor Rosamond McKitterick

Despite recent assertions to the contrary, Prof Matthew Kramer argues that there can never be any moral justification for torture.

Torture, morality and law by Professor Matthew Kramer

Track 2 from Friedrich Kittler's spoken-word album, "Musen, Nymphen und Sirenen"
