Mensch alert: @laywilliams.bsky.social sent my kid a copy of his book to encourage her senior high school thesis on Plato, Rousseau, and inequality.
She’s been told to add all kinds of pomo lit-crit stuff. His inscription got it exactly right: “Plato & Rousseau are more than enough!”
From learning about her works in @lefebvrealex.bsky.social's Philosophy of Human Rights course to now, Wollstonecraft has been a constant in my intellectual life. Had a great time talking through her brilliant ideas and writing with @sylvana-tomaselli.bsky.social. open.spotify.com/episode/2sgx...
Spring Term! (cc: @lkatfield.bsky.social, @lefebvrealex.bsky.social)
I spent two months in Hungary, based at a right-wing think tank, interviewing regime insiders and critics to understand a question liberals too often dodge: what if regimes like Orbán’s are driven by a moral project?
My new piece, for @noemamag.com:
www.noemamag.com/the-return-o...
“If positive discrimination is the regime’s modus operandi, the traditional family is its chosen object: the form of life it lavishly rewards, honors and holds up as exemplary.”
— @lefebvrealex.bsky.social
“When the leader of Hungary says that he is engaged in an anthropological revolution — or, more precisely, a counter-revolution — liberals would be wise to take him seriously, especially as he inspires imitators around the world.”
— @lefebvrealex.bsky.social
#hungary #rightwing #orban
My review of @emilyherring.bsky.social Herald of a Restless Age was selected as one of the top four pieces in “Theory & Criticism” for the LARB's 15-year anniversary edition.
It’s a love letter to my favorite philosopher, Henri Bergson.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/when... via
Sharing this review of my book by @alexandrelefebvre.bsky.social again because, in addition to saying lovely things about Herald of a Restless World, it is a really excellent article about Bergson lareviewofbooks.org/article/when...
John Rawls & Stanley Cavell were career-long frenemies.
To make sense of it, I went to the Rawls archive at Harvard and read Rawls’s private notes from their meetings: painstakingly earnest, frequently baffled.
doi.org/10.1177/1474...
Today is my last day as the inaugural director of The University of Sydney's PPE program.
It’s been a ride: four disciplines (politics, philosophy, economics, political economy) built into one coherent degree. Brilliant students, lots of fun.
With this mug, I rest.
May be of interest to: @lefebvrealex.bsky.social @mattpolprof.bsky.social @joshuatait.bsky.social @thomaszimmer.bsky.social @jamellebouie.net @samadlerbell.bsky.social @thebulwark.com @theunpopulist.net
My article, From Statecraft to Soulcraft, was selected by @noemamag.com as one of its Top Ten Reads of 2025.
I’m proud of this piece. It’s onto something big: post-liberal states today—from China to Hungary to MAGA—make the Good Life core state business.
www.noemamag.com/noemas-top-1...
New podcast alert: The Philosophy of Living Well
Happiness, art, politics, forgiveness, blame — philosophers at the University of Sydney dive into all of it.
Give it a listen here👇
open.spotify.com/show/1jUIb70...
This! The habit of liberals to dismiss the right as mere greed-driven vulgarians devoid of serious ideas is a weakness.
Haven’t read the book yet, but heard Field outline the argument on a couple of podcasts and she’s excellent.
Leon Craig and Heidi Studer she tells me (literally, on a group zoom call and she's on it)
“This is sociologically rich and intellectually precise political theory of and for the moment.“
Thanks Jeff, I hear you. Still, Snyder thinks the rulers are just animated by the goods of tyranny: power, money, sex, etc. I reviewed his book On Freedom in TLS on this point.
Applebaum strikes me as the anti-mole. Lived in Eastern Europe, but zero sympathy or even curiosity of these movements.
Maybe... but liberalism is kind of handcuffed, no, in that it wants to abstain on prescribing anything about the good life? Its opponents really don't have that scruple!
my sense is that it would be democratic, in the sense of majoritarian. but definitely not liberal or liberal democratic.
We've launched a new podcast called Ideology Unbound. Host @lkatfield.bsky.social will be interviewing guests on ideas and liberalism. This first episode is with @lefebvrealex.bsky.social. Check it out and subscribe!
www.illiberalism.org/ideology-unb...
"It takes a Straussian to catch a Straussian."
In case you missed it, here's my LARB review of @lkatfield.bsky.social terrific new book, Furious Minds, published by @princetonupress.bsky.social.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-mo...
Great piece but missing something, I feel: progressives need to better understand the MAGA mindset not primarily so we can "strategize" more effectively, but as a way to engage our own blind spots (our attachment to the institutions that gave rise to Trump).
lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-mo...
This review is SO fun to read and @lefebvrealex.bsky.social really gets it.
“Few books in political theory foreground the author’s biography this much. But it lands.”
My LARB review of Furious Minds by Laura Field. A terrific book. @princetonupress.bsky.social:
lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-mo...
Last response on this one, sorry: she's actually going to do White Lotus and the movie Triangle of Sadness. The latter is pure Rousseau (even got a state of nature). I bet you'd "enjoy" it (in the manner of white lotus).
Short and sweet review of Bergson's Lectures on Freedom
@bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
"This compilation of Henri Bergson's 1904–05 lectures at the Collège de France exemplifies the dynamic nature of philosophy as an evolving discourse delivered in an oral format."
muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/arti...
hahaha, I've read all three. Yours is best.
Big conference on the Dismissal and the Fraser Government, 12–13 Dec at Trinity College, Melbourne.
I’m speaking on a panel, “What Is Liberalism Today?”, with Senators James Paterson and Sarah Henderson.
Come on down! www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/whats-happen...
A talented student artist drew some of the authors we read this semester.
Name them from clockwise (no big points for 1 and 2):
hahah, my daughter can't believe you replied! You made her day.
Also, the same post on X did really well.
