The History of Ideas

As ever Machiavelli proved popular and a lot of time was spent exploring the context in which Machiavelli was writing and the potential conflict between material in his most famous work The Prince and the lesser known Discoursi. An interesting discussion about whether Machiavelli might have been an atheist was had in which we explored wider questions of whether or not it was possible for someone to conceive of themselves as an atheist in this period. Once again Hobbes provided a useful comparison and the student was able to get to grips very quickly with the differing nature of their aims in writing. We had a long discussion about Hobbes conception of liberty and what possible objections one might raise to his ideas; followed by a discussion of ideas of some of those who reacted to him: in particular Rousseau.

The day concluded with a challenging examination of conceptions of freedom in socialist thought. Through a brief examination of Owen, Proudhon and Fourier we were able to trace some of the earlier influences within socialist thought; this was followed by an more detailed examination of Marx’s thoughts on the subject and finally a look at how Luxembourg and Kautsky reacted to Marx’s ideas. The whole session seemed to fit well within the time we had whilst still having ample opportunity to explore particular areas of interest.

You can find out more about our History Tutorials here.

Ben Jasper, History Tutor