Montesquieu

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2018

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) whose works on liberty, monarchism, despotism, republicanism and the separation of powers were devoured by intellectuals across Europe and New England in the eighteenth century, transforming political philosophy and influencing the American Constitution. He argued that an individual's liberty needed protection from the arm of power, checking that by another power; where judicial, executive and legislative power were concentrated in the hands of one figure, there could be no personal liberty. With Richard Bourke Professor in the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary, University of London Rachel Hammersley Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History at Newcastle University And Richard Whatmore Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Director of the St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests.
0:08.8	Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.7	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing.
0:26.0	Julie, at your service.
0:28.0	Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales.
0:31.0	This is the BBC.
0:33.0	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:36.0	There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs
0:40.0	if you follow us on Twitter at BBC in our time. I hope you enjoy the programs.
0:45.0	Hello by the 18th century France was sinking under its son King Louis the 14th
0:50.5	who was too keen on wall and exercising its power over everything and everybody.
0:55.0	That at least was the view of the political philosopher Montezkye
0:58.0	who set about diagnosing the problem of the decline of France
1:02.0	and finding ways to reinvigorate the French
1:04.4	constitution. He looked to Britain for its example where he saw a long tradition of
1:08.5	liberty in which the powers were held by different groups who could check each other.
1:12.4	He set his theory out in 1748 in his
1:15.2	major work, the spirit of the laws, warning against despotism and the weakness of republics,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.