Shklar on Hypocrisy

Shklar on Hypocrisy

Author: Talking Politics April 20, 2021 Duration: 46:11

Judith Shklar’s Ordinary Vices (1984) made the case that the worst of all the vices is cruelty. But that meant we needed to be more tolerant of some other common human failings, including snobbery, betrayal and hypocrisy. David explores what she had to say about some of the other authors in this series – including Bentham and Nietzsche – and asks what price we should be willing to pay for putting cruelty first among the vices.


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A new series of talks by David Runciman, in which he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus, he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 27

Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS
Podcast Episodes
Bentham on Pleasure [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:35
Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a definitive early statement of the basis of utilitarianism: how do we achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number? David looks at Be…
Rousseau on Inequality [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:55
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (also known as the Second Discourse) tells the story of all human history to answer one simple question: how did we end up in such an unequal world? David explores the step…
Q & A with David [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:55
We got lots and lots of excellent questions from listeners about the themes and ideas in this series of talks. In this extra episodeDavid will do his best to answer some of them, from Hobbes to Weber, and from Gandhi to…
Fukuyama on History [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:36
Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History (1992) became associated with the triumph of liberal democracy at the end of the twentieth century. But was Fukuyama really a triumphalist? David explores what Fukuyama had to say ab…
MacKinnon on Patriarchy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:52
Catharine MacKinnon’s Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1989) challenges two dominant ways of thinking about politics: liberalism, which wants to protect us from the power of the state, and Marxism, which wants to l…
Fanon on Colonialism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:03
Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist who both experienced and analysed the impact of colonial violence. In The Wretched of the Earth (1961) he developed an account of politics that sought to channel violent resistance to colo…
Arendt on Action [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:18
Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958) is a remarkably prophetic book. At its heart is an analysis of the relationship between labour, work and action, set against a time of rapid technological change. Arendt worried…
Hayek on the Market [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:45
Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944) was written during the Second World War but Hayek was really worried about what would come next. He feared that wartime planning would spill over into the peacetime economy an…
Weber on Leadership [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:13
Max Weber’s The Profession and Vocation of Politics (1919) was a lecture that became one of the defining texts of twentieth century political thought. In it, Weber explores the perils and paradoxes of leadership in a mod…
Gandhi on self-rule [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:34
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (1909) was a defining text of the movement for Indian independence from British colonial rule. It also articulated a radical new idea of politics in a modern context – peaceful pro…