The Social Contract Research Podcast

In this seminar Associate Professor Karen Green (Melbourne University, philosophy) develops Catharine Macaulay's distinctive, anti-Hobbesian approach to the social contract, before exploring her own, Macaulay-inspired account of the co-evolution of language and morality.  Do stay around for the discussion time after the paper, when among other topics we discuss the question of objective rationality, and Macaulay's relationship to Hobbes and Rousseau. The seminar took place over Zoom on 7 September 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".   This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network    To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to this YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1 

Anyone living in Australia will have noticed that, over recent months, COVID policy has undergone a quiet revolution. With lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria now seemingly powerless to halt the spread of the Delta variant, we have entered the era of vaccination. This episode explores the social contract arguments used both for and against mass vaccination, asking what social contract language adds to the debate. Written version for Monash Lens: https://lens.monash.edu/2021/09/14/1383790/covid-19-is-getting-vaccinated-really-part-of-the-social-contract This episode is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network Video version: https://youtu.be/e_B05PhJrNw SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw

The "state of nature" is a term used in social contract theory to describe human life before the civil society inaugurated by the contract. The way we think about this pre-contractual life tells us a great deal about how we understand ourselves and our soceity. This audio essay by A/Prof. Christopher Watkin of the Social Contract Research Network explores how the state of nature idea functions as a tool of social critique, revealing the "myths we live by" (Mary Midgley) and showing us elements of our own "social imaginary" (Charles Taylor). The essay concludes by asking to what extent our state of nature discourse is an orientalism. This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". A video version of the essay is available on the social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGX9SvHj36Q). Written version: https://wp.me/p8nzID-p3r The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw

This episode is the audio version of a video essay on the state of nature by Dr Christopher Watkin. You can find the video on social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw). The essay discusses eight ways in which the state of nature idea shapes our thinking and outlook today: who we think we are, how we decide shat is good, how we treat other cultures, nations, and the natural world, how we think we can change society, how we run the economy, and how we understand the meaning of life. The first voice you hear is from a 1920s newsreel on research undertaken into aboriginal groups in Australia. This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw

This episode is a seminar by Professor Peter Hallward (Philosophy, Kingston University). Peter's paper discusses five quotations fundamental to an understanding of Rousseau, Rousseau's relationship to modern social movements, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee). Do stay around for the extended discussion time after Peter’s paper, in which we range over topics including religion and the general will, the figure of the legislator, Rousseau and women, the local and the global, and the relation between the social contract and Michel Serres’s natural contract. Peter now works as Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University in the UK, and his research is primarily in modern political philosophy. He has published monographs on Alain Badiou, Gilles Deleuze, the postcolonial and Haiti. He regularly writes for The Guardian and Radical Philosophy among other outlets, and he is currently working on a book entitled 'The Will of the People', alongside brief studies of Rousseau, Marx and Blanqui. The seminar took place on 1 June 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University) as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw 

This episode is a seminar by Associate Professor Janice Richardson from the faculty of Law at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Janice is the author of the book The classic social contractarians: Critical Perspectives From Contemporary Feminist Philosophy and Law, and her title for the seminar was “Feminist Perspectives on Social Contract Theory”. It’s well worth listening to the end of the presentation, for a fascinating exchange with A/Prof Karen Green who has also been working on these themes for many years. The seminar took place on 21 May 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw 

This episode is a conversation with Tim Wilson, Liberal MP for Goldstein in the Australian House of Representatives, and author of the book The New Social Contract: Renewing the Liberal Vision for Australia. Tim talks with host Christopher Watkin about trust in politics, house prices and home ownership, the importance of civil society, the generational contract, Michael Sandel’s book The Tyranny of Merit, and Minouche Shafik’s vision of the new social contract. The conversation was made possible by funding from the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw 

Internationally renowned Foucault scholars Stuart Elden (Warwick University, UK) and Mark Kelly (Western Sydney University, Australia) discuss Michel Foucault's relationship to the modern social contract idea. Followed by questions and discussion. The seminar took place on 15 April 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University, Australia), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network To find out more about the Social Contract Research Network, and to subscribe to SCRN email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw