New Books in Critical Theory

Michael Sonenscher, "After Kant: The Romans, the Germans, and the Moderns in the History of Political Thought" (Princeton UP, 2023)

Jan 26, 2025

Michael Sonenscher, a Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, explores the evolution of modern political thought in light of Kant's philosophy. He reveals how Kant's questions about human lives and history reshaped ideologies, connecting ancient Roman and modern German perspectives. The discussion delves into Kant's legacy, the interplay of autonomy and perfectibility between Kant and Rousseau, and the rich historical ties of humanitarianism. Sonenscher's insights uncover the profound impact of these philosophical debates on contemporary political discourse.

01:10:22

Episode guests

Michael Sonenscher

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Kant's questioning of the relationship between individual lives and human history reshapes our understanding of modern political ideologies and their evolution.

The concept of palingenesis illustrates that societal decline can coexist with potential rejuvenation, emphasizing cyclical historical progress rather than linearity.

Deep dives

Chronological Understanding of Kant's Influence

The episode emphasizes the need to reassess the chronological understanding of Immanuel Kant's contributions to political thought. It highlights that many ideas commonly attributed to later thinkers, such as Marx’s idea of history repeating as tragedy and then as farce, actually originated with Kant much earlier. In particular, Kant's thoughts on the nature of historical progression and the relationship between history and justice challenge the dominant narratives in historiography. This reexamination posits that notions like the 'death of God' and ideas about liberty existed within the intellectual milieu long before they became mainstream.

Intro

2min

Exploring Kant's Legacy in Political Thought

1min

Chronological Reassessment of Political Thought and Philosophy

5min

Kant's Unsocial Sociability: A Critical Examination

15min

The Coppé Group and Intellectual Legacies

8min

Exploring Autonomy and Perfectibility: The Philosophical Dialogue Between Kant and Rousseau

4min

The Evolution of Political Humanitarianism

29min

In this wide-ranging work, Michael Sonenscher traces the origins of modern political thought and ideologies to a question, raised by Immanuel Kant, about what is involved in comparing individual human lives to the whole of human history. How can we compare them, or understand the results of the comparison? Kant’s question injected a new, future-oriented dimension into existing discussions of prevailing norms, challenging their orientation toward the past. This reversal made Kant’s question a bridge between three successive sets of arguments: between the supporters of the ancients and moderns, the classics and romantics, and the Romans and the Germans. Sonenscher argues that the genealogy of modern political ideologies—from liberalism to nationalism to communism—can be connected to the resulting discussions of time, history, and values, mainly in France but also in Germany, Switzerland, and Britain, in the period straddling the French and Industrial revolutions.

What is the genuinely human content of human history? Everything begins somewhere—democracy with the Greeks, or the idea of a res publica with the Romans—but these local arrangements have become vectors of values that are, apparently, universal. The intellectual upheaval that Sonenscher describes involved a struggle to close the gap, highlighted by Kant, between individual lives and human history. After Kant is an examination of that struggle’s enduring impact on the history and the historiography of political thought.

Michael Sonenscher is a fellow of King’s College at the University of Cambridge. His many books include Before the Deluge (Princeton), Sans-Culottes (Princeton), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter.

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