Beyond the Text: The Intellectual Historian's Podcast

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Was seventeenth-century England travelling inevitably towards constitutional liberty? Samuel Woodall explores a century in which monarchy, Parliament, religion and conscience repeatedly collided, from James VI and I to the Civil Wars and the Glorious Revolution. Drawing on Quentin Skinner, J. G. A. Pocock, Patrick Collinson, Johann Sommerville, John Morrill, Jonathan Scott, Mark Goldie and Steve Pincus, this solo episode examines how intellectual historians reconstruct arguments in their own historical settings. We consider divine right and the ancient constitution, Charles I and the crisis across the Stuart kingdoms, the Levellers and Putney Debates, Hobbes and Harrington, Restoration politics, Locke, and the contested settlement of 1688-89. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 01:23 Historians and method 03:45 James VI and I 06:02 Charles I and the Civil Wars 09:20 Cromwell, Hobbes and Harrington 10:33 Restoration and Locke 12:24 James II and the Glorious Revolution 14:29 Conclusion: who has the authority to judge? PRIMARY WORKS DISCUSSED James VI and I, The True Law of Free Monarchies and Basilikon Doron Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana Robert Filmer, Patriarcha John Locke, Two Treatises of Government STAY CONNECTED Essays and reading guides: https://theintellectualhistorian.com/ Free monthly newsletter: https://theintellectualhistorian.com/newsletter/ Beyond the Text: https://beyondthetext.co.uk/podcasts/ History of Ideas Reading Club: https://thehistoryofideasclub.co.uk/ Support the podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238237/support Hosted by Samuel Woodall. Theme: “Queens Arrival” by Red Planet, licensed through TakeTones.
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Why do thinkers think as they do? What can one neglected eighteenth-century clergyman teach us about commerce, Christianity and empire?

Samuel Woodall is joined by Dr Karim Ghorbal of Université Rennes 2 for a wide-ranging conversation about intellectual history and Josiah Tucker (1713–1799), the Anglican cleric, political economist and Dean of Gloucester.

Beginning with Ghorbal’s journey from philosophy to history, we explore how historians can reconstruct the reasons behind unfamiliar ideas. What can context explain, and how do we account for the distinctive choices made by an individual thinker? The discussion moves through the Cambridge School, sociology, evidence and the limits of interpreting political language in isolation.

Tucker provides a fascinating test case. Ghorbal challenges the familiar picture of an isolated, eccentric thinker, placing him within the religious, commercial and political worlds he inhabited. We discuss sermons, virtue and interest, Bristol’s merchants, the distinction between private profit and collective prosperity, and Tucker’s arguments about slavery, immigration and empire. We also consider faction, patriotism and the political commitments that shaped his writing.

The interview closes with a case for taking neglected thinkers seriously: recovering their reasoning without assuming that understanding them requires agreement.

Recorded on 25 October 2026.

CHAPTERS
00:00:00 Theme and introduction
00:01:28 From philosophy to intellectual history
00:08:52 Method, evidence and singular ideas
00:16:25 Who was Josiah Tucker?
00:22:09 Tucker, Pocock, virtue and interest
00:26:06 Political language and social context
00:31:43 Sermons and the transmission of ideas
00:36:16 Christianity, commerce and the common good
00:46:05 Bristol and the merchant interest
00:53:39 Faction, patriotism and political commitments
00:59:49 Empire and its critics
01:12:54 Taking neglected thinkers seriously

READING
Karim Ghorbal, Josiah Tucker, ou Dieu contre l’Empire. Biographie intellectuelle d’un économiste au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2024).
J. G. A. Pocock, “Josiah Tucker on Burke, Locke, and Price: A Study in the Varieties of Eighteenth-Century Conservatism,” in Virtue, Commerce, and History (Cambridge University Press, 1985), chapter 9.

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Beyond the Text: https://beyondthetext.co.uk
The Intellectual Historian: https://theintellectualhistorian.com
The History of Ideas Club: https://thehistoryofideasclub.co.uk

Music: “Queens Arrival” by Red Planet, licensed through TakeTones.
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Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uCtgzyOuY

How do we learn to judge well?

Samuel Woodall looks back over October across Beyond the Text, The Intellectual Historian and the History of Ideas Reading Club. This round-up introduces essays by Jasmine Starbuck on collective justice in Ann Radcliffe, Jack Thomson on Montaigne and independent learning, and Derek van Voorst on the prefix “neo”.

We revisit the Montaigne, Rousseau and Kant conversations, The World in Fall, current research, recent reviews and the Reading Club, before looking ahead to November.

October edition: Saturday 31 October 2026.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction: Judgement, Learning and Collective Life
01:30 The newsletter and featured essays
06:09 Montaigne, Rousseau and Kant
08:19 The World in Fall, guides and research
10:38 The Reading Club and staying connected
12:30 Looking ahead to November

READ THE OCTOBER EDITION
https://theintellectualhistorian.com/2026/10/31/intellectual-historian-newsletter-october-2026/

FEATURED ESSAYS
Jasmine Starbuck, A No-Man Jury:
https://theintellectualhistorian.com/2026/10/31/no-man-jury-collectivism-justice-radcliffe-italian/

Jack Thomson, Montaigne on Virtue, Learning and the Possession of One’s Mind:
https://theintellectualhistorian.com/2026/10/31/montaigne-virtue-learning-possession-mind/

Derek van Voorst, The Novelty of the New:
https://theintellectualhistorian.com/2026/10/31/the-novelty-of-the-new/

STAY CONNECTED
Free monthly newsletter: https://theintellectualhistorian.com/newsletter/
Episodes and reading guides: https://beyondthetext.co.uk/podcasts/
Reading Club: https://thehistoryofideasclub.co.uk/
Support Beyond the Text and access subscriber material: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238237/support

Hosted by Samuel Woodall.
Theme: “Queens Arrival” by Red Planet, licensed through TakeTones.
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How can a society preserve political stability without eliminating disagreement? In this conference presentation recorded at the University of Bristol, Samuel Woodall explores Paul de Rapin de Thoyras and the emergence of legitimate political opposition in early eighteenth-century Britain.

Responding to the conference theme of tension and fragmentation, the paper traces the movement from older fears of faction to Rapin's account of enduring Whig and Tory division. It places his political thought within the experience of Huguenot persecution, exile, the Glorious Revolution and the continuing struggle over England's constitution.

Through the Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories and the History of England, Samuel argues that Rapin sought to moderate political conflict rather than abolish it. The central distinction is between destructive factional excess and opposition contained within constitutional institutions.

A live presentation drawing on Samuel's doctoral research in intellectual history at the University of Buckingham. References to slides and a handout reflect the original conference setting.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Theme and introduction
00:34 Faction and the problem of disagreement
02:52 Civil war and the persistence of party
05:35 Rapin: persecution, exile and revolution
07:50 The Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories
10:29 Constitutional balance and legitimate opposition
11:11 The History of England
14:05 Moderation and liberty amid disagreement

READING
Paul de Rapin de Thoyras, Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys.
Paul de Rapin de Thoyras, Histoire d'Angleterre.
Miriam Franchina, Paul Rapin Thoyras and the Art of Eighteenth-Century Historiography.
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down.
Paul D. Halliday, Dismembering the Body Politic.

Explore Beyond the Text: https://beyondthetext.co.uk
The Intellectual Historian: https://theintellectualhistorian.com
History of Ideas Club: https://thehistoryofideasclub.co.uk

Presented by Samuel Woodall.
Music: Queens Arrival - Red Planet (TakeTones).
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What makes an action moral: its consequences, our feelings, or the principle on which we act? In the third episode of our Kant series, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson explore good will, duty and the categorical imperative.

Beginning with the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), we ask what it means to act from duty, why Kant distinguishes hypothetical from categorical imperatives, and how the requirement to treat humanity as an end connects freedom with dignity. Rousseau's influence opens a discussion of social pressure, the purity of the will and universal law.

We also test Kant's ethics against difficult cases: lying, competing obligations and the limits of formal rules. The Critique of Practical Reason (1788) then brings us to autonomy, the kingdom of ends, the moral law, and the postulates of freedom, immortality and God.

This concludes the main three-part Kant series. The closing preview looks ahead to a members' bonus on The Metaphysics of Morals and Perpetual Peace.

Hosted by Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson.

Explore Beyond the Text and the Reading Club: https://beyondthetext.co.uk
The Intellectual Historian: https://theintellectualhistorian.com

READING
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Sections I-III. Thomas Kingsmill Abbott translation: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5682
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788), Preface, Analytic and Conclusion. Thomas Kingsmill Abbott translation: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5683
Ernst Cassirer, Kant's Life and Thought (original German edition, 1918).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762).

CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome back to Kant
00:45 Good will and the foundations of morality
01:54 Nature, necessity and the moral will
04:06 Duty, inclination and moral worth
05:40 The categorical imperative and humanity as an end
07:42 Rousseau and the purity of the will
09:06 Universal law and the test of a maxim
11:02 Objections, lying and moral dilemmas
13:52 Autonomy and the kingdom of ends
18:04 Practical reason, freedom and hope
19:19 The moral law within
21:08 Subjectivity and the limits of natural explanation
24:21 The bonus episode and closing reflections
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