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Amia Srinivasan and Philosophical Genealogy

Christopher Harding talks to Christoph Schuringa, Catarina Dutilh Novaes and Amia Srinivasam about philosophical genealogy, which investigates concepts by examining their origins

In Amia Srinivasan's book The Right To Sex she discusses some of the most hotly controversial topics of today: sex work, pornography, the nature of sexual liberation. What can and should a philosopher bring to these debates?
Also, we explore one of the philosophical techniques informing Srinivasan's work: genealogy. First named by Friedrich Nietzsche (although arguably practiced by philosophers before him) and developed by Michel Foucault and Bernard Williams, amongst others, genealogy seeks to investigate concepts and institutions by looking at the contingent historical situations in which they arose and that have shaped them over time.
Christopher Harding in conversation with Amia Srinivasan, Caterina Dutilh Vovaes and Christoph Schurinnga.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

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45 minutes

Podcast