Saturday 24 July 2010
Listen Now - 2010-07-24 | Download Audio - 24072010
A philosophical history of Russia
This year marks the centenary of the death of the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy wrote works of fiction that had considerable philosophical depth. In fact he thought his most famous book, War and Peace, was not a novel at all but an examination of social and political ideas. This week we take a look at Russian philosophical thinking, mainly in the 19th and early 20th century. Read Transcript
According to some commentators, there was a mysterious, dark presence lurking behind the Bush administration. He was, said his critics, elitist, illiberal and anti-democratic. He encouraged American's leaders in imperialist militarism, neo-conservatism, Christian fundamentalism and the deliberate deception of those they led. And he did all this despite having died in 1973. He was Leo Strauss, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. But was this passionate student of classical philosophy really as dark a figure as all that?
0.30am AEST