Melissa Lane
Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University
10 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: A. C. Grayling
Covers topics in categories such as:
Solon the Lawgiver
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the statesman and poet whose political and legal reforms transformed Athens in the 6th century BC.
23 March 2023
Also featuring: Hans van Wees, William Allan
Cicero
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Cicero's political ideas on laws, duty, tyrants and the republic, which he developed as the Roman Republic was threatened by Caesar and civil wars.
25 January 2018
Also featuring: Catherine Steel, Valentina Arena
PhilosophyNatural law ethicistsGolden Age Latin writersExecuted philosophersTrope theoristsExecuted writersClassical humanistsPhilosophers of Roman ItalyLetter writers in LatinRoman-era students in AthensRoman quaestors1st-century BC writers in LatinDeaths by blade weaponsRoman Republican praetorsPeople of the War of Mutina1st-century BC Roman consuls, 1st-century BC Roman augursAncient Roman equites, Ancient Roman exilesAncient Roman rhetoricians, Ancient Roman juristsSovereignty
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea of sovereignty, from ancient Greece and Rome to wars in France in the 1500s, to Thomas Hobbes and the revolutionary era.
30 June 2016
Also featuring: Richard Bourke, Tim Stanton
Utilitarianism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss utilitarianism, a moral theory that assesses acts by their tendency to increase pleasure in the world and decrease the amount of pain.
11 June 2015
Also featuring: Janet Radcliffe Richards, Brad Hooker
The Philosophy of Solitude
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of solitude, from religious hermits to those exiled from their homeland.
19 June 2014
Also featuring: Simon Blackburn, John Haldane
Scepticism
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of philosophical scepticism.
5 July 2012
Also featuring: Peter Millican, Jill Kraye
The Consolations of Philosophy
Melvyn Bragg discusses Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and asks whether philosophy should lead us toward consolation or lead us from it.
1 January 2009
Also featuring: A. C. Grayling, Roger Scruton
The Social Contract
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Social Contract. A key idea in political philosophy, it states that political authority is held through a contract with those to be ruled.
7 February 2008
Also featuring: Susan James, Karen O'Brien
Common Sense Philosophy
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 18th century common sense philosophy which involves the most profound questions about human knowledge we are capable of asking.
21 June 2007
Also featuring: A. C. Grayling, Alexander Broadie
Democracy
Melvyn Bragg discusses the origins of democracy, across cultures and centuries of Europe and the Middle East.
18 October 2001
Also featuring: David Wootton, Tim Winter