Russia, China & The Future | Prof. John Gray

John is joined by Professor John Gray, probably the world’s foremost political philosopher. They discuss the state of the world today. Russia, Ukraine, Europe, China, America; Putin, Macron, Biden. His knowledge of history is deep and wide and so his perspective on current events is imposing. We learn about the history of ideas, geo-politics, trans-humanism and more. This is an episode not to be missed.

John Gray is an English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. He retired as School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gray contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer.

Gray has written several influential books, including False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998), Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2003), and Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (2007). False Dawn has been translated into sixteen languages.

A singularly original thinker, his books are widely acclaimed as seminal, significant and even prophetic.
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00:00 Intro
00:30 Introducing (Guest)
01:49 What is political philosophy
04:28 Thatcher & Communism
06:57 Will China liberalise?
11:46 Putin’s war
18:32 Does Ukraine war mark end of international order?
25:18 Will the Ukraine war be a long war?
30:38 Are Russia and China rational actors?
34:07 What role must Europe take in defending Ukraine?
40:00 Is there genocide in Ukraine?
44:00 Are meta-narratives really dead?
19:11 Is history cyclical?
01:02:53 What is trans-humanism?
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Conversations feature John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, interviewing the world’s foremost thought leaders about today’s pressing social, cultural and political issues.

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