Ideas Matter
Louis Devine and Alex B.
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What Post-Liberals Get Right (and Wrong) About Liberalism
What is post-liberalism, that strange ideology which unites figures as disparate as JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, Maurice Glasman, and Adrian Vermeule? Political theorist Paul Kelly joins Ideas Matter to…
Chinese Cosmopolitanism | An Interview with Shuchen Xiang
The Western world has had a catastrophic experience with difference. Colonialism, racism and imperialism are all uniquely Western phenomena, at least according to today's guest, Professor Shuchen…
A History of Trade Unionism in Australia, feat. Dr Liam Byrne
Dr Liam Byrne is a political biographer and historian. He is author of several books, both published by Melbourne University Press: "Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: The Making of the Modern…
Liberal Socialism: Oxymoron or Overdue Ideology? Feat. Matt McManus
What do John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, and Chantal Mouffe all have in common? They are all representatives of a distinct liberal socialist tradition, according to today's guest, Matthew McManus. Matt…
Incels, Masculinities and the Manosphere: A Conversation with Claudia Young
What are the ideologies of the Manosphere, and how are they being mainstreamed? Claudia Young, a PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne, is researching these very questions. In this…
Liberalism as a Way of Life | An Interview with Professor Alexandre Lefebvre
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…
What Can Chinese Academia Teach Us About Chinese Politics? An Interview with Professor Daniel A. Bell
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…
Civilisation and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
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"…
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
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…
The Dao De Jing by Lao Tzu
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…
Herodotus, Postmodernism and the Philosophy of History, featuring Dan Crowley
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…
'What is Political Philosophy?' by Leo Strauss
"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…
What is Political Realism? Philosophy and Real Politics by Raymond Geuss
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'…
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
In this video Louis gives a run through of John Rawls' seminal text "A Theory of Justice" published in 1971. A Theory of Justice is a must-read for anyone interested in Anglo-American political…
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche (Part Two)
In part two of our episode on Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy we discuss the importance of myth, Nietzsche’s critique of “theoretical man” and why he sees Socrates as the birth of science, as well as…
The Birth of Tragedy (Part One) by Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy. Thinkers diverse as Martin Heidegger, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault all count Nietzsche as one of their…
A Pragmatic Theory of Truth: William James' Lectures on Pragmatism
William James was an American philosopher and psychologist, most known for expounding the philosophy of pragmatism. In episode sixteen of Ideas Matter, Louis and Alex read a series of lectures James…
A Philosophical Discussion on Love: Reading Plato's Symposium
Plato’s ‘Symposium’ is a Socratic dialogue about love. Situated in the home of the famous Athenian poet Agathon, Symposium presents a series of speeches by prominent Athenians who expound on the…
Confessions by Saint Augustine
Ideas Matter takes a trip back to the fourth century AD to read St Augustine of Hippo, a famed Christian theologian from Thagaste, North Africa. Augustine’s writings have proved tremendously…
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
As per listener request, today we delve into Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘The Social Contract’. Published in 1762, Rousseau sets himself the ambitious task of reconciling individual freedoms with the…
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Ideas Matter has published 32 episodes since July 2021, covering topics in Philosophy, Society & Culture.
Ideas Matter is currently declining with new episodes every 2 months. Average episode length is 1h 1m.
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