Researching Peace - a podcast by Uppsala University

Philosophy Tea - Mahatma Gandhi

In this Philosophy Tea we scrutinize the life, achievements and legacy of the icon of nonviolent action Mohandas K. Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948). His work began with Asian resistance against White rule in South Africa and led to a number of campaigns for India’s self-determination in the 1920s and 1930s, contributing to the country’s independence in 1947. In his book My life is My Message he summarised his thinking about nonviolence and its role in social change. Undoubtedly he is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century but at the same time remains enigmatic: not easy to follow or. We will attempt to illuminate some aspects of his life as well as his contribution to providing a role for the marginalised around the globe.

This episode of the Philosophy Tea, focusing on Mahatma Gandhi, was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 5 October 2021.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - John Maynard Keynes

This episode discusses John Maynard Keynes’ important work of political economy, The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Critical of the harsh reparation payments imposed on Germany after World War I by the Treaty of Versailles (1919), Keynes argues that these will lead to increased suffering by the German people and to economic and political instability. He instead proposes financial assistance to rebuild Germany and war-ravaged Europe, much like the Marshall Plan would do after WW II. Throughout his long and distinguished career Keynes challenged conventional economic thinking, including leaving the gold standard and advocating state intervention to end the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Keynes’ unique ability to sense how the world economy was changing and to develop new economic policies to deal with it speaks to us today as we gradually emerge from the Corona pandemic that has radically altered our world.

This episode of the Philosophy Tea, focusing on John Maynard Keynes, was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 19 May 2017.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Fredrika Bremer

This episode of the Philosophy Tea, focusing on Fredrika Bremer, was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 9 March 2021.

Producer: Paul Kessel

 

Author Fredrika Bremer (1801-1864) is discussed in this pod, recorded at the Regina Theatre March 9, 2021 (producer: Paul Kessel) in front of a live audience, as part of the Theatre’s series of Philosophy Teas  in cooperation with Uppsala University. It is a dialogue between Peter Wallensteen, Senior Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, and Literature Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both at Uppsala University. Their readings of Bremer provide contrasting perspectives. In the discussion they note that she did not go to the historical Seneca Falls meeting in 1848 that set the direction for the struggle for women’s voting rights. She did, however, present a unique proposal for a women’s peace convention in 1854, receiving international attention. The talk also goes into the importance of Bremer for women’s rights in Sweden.

 

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Martha Nussbaum

This episode of the Philosophy Tea, focusing on Martha Nussbaum, was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 2 February 2021.

Producer: Paul Kessel

 

In their discussion on American philosopher Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) Peter Wallensteen and Daniel Ogden focuses on Nussbaum’s book The Monarchy of Fear that was published in 2018. It was recorded in the Regina Theatre on February 2, 2021, for an audience on Zoom (Producer: Paul Kessel). Nussbaum emphasizes fear and anger as the most important human emotion and that can, for instance, explain outcomes of elections (such as the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections of 2016). The pod goes into recent research on emotion in psychology that questions Nussbaum’s conclusion. Wallensteen and Ogden also discuss anger and what type of action is can or should lead to.

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Albert Camus

In this Philosophy Tea we discuss Camus’ highly topical, The Plague (La Peste). Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. The Plague has often been seen as an allegory of the Nazi Occupation of France during World War II. But it is also part of a longer tradition of plague literature, a genre pioneered by Daniel Defoe in his A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), a work that Camus quotes in the epigraph to his own novel. In a more general sense it is about the human condition and our vulnerability to life threatening circumstances, be they caused by viruses or the actions of our fellow humans. How we respond to these circumstances defines us as human beings.

This episode was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 1 December 2020.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Alva Myrdal

Disarmament negotiator Alva Myrdal (1902-1986) was the focus in the Regina Theatre Philosophy Tea discussion on November 17, 2020 between Peter Wallensteen and Daniel Ogden and produced by Paul Kessel. Their discussion focuses on nuclear weapons, their impact on society (including Harry Martinsson’s Aniara) and the attempts to eliminate them. Alva Myrdal was the Swedish chief negotiator in the talks that were held in Geneva during the 1960s (following her position as Swedish Ambassador to India). Her book The Game of Disarmament was published in the 1970s and constitutes a classic in this particular field. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 together with Mexican ambassador Alfonso Garcia Robles (1911-1991) for their joint efforts to reach agreements on a nuclear weapons test ban and on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Margaret Atwood

Inspired by George Orwell’s iconic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-four, Margaret Atwood set about in 1984 to write a dystopia from, as she has said, “the female point of view”. That such a dystopia was needed can be seen by the popularity of the novel itself and the HBO TV series by the same name (2017-). In our first Philosophy Tea of autumn 2020, we focus on Atwood’s novel and how it treats a number of highly relevant issues, not least among these being what happens when authoritarian governments use the suppression of women’s rights to help maintain their hold on power.

This episode of the Philosophy Tea, focusing on Margaret Atwood, was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 12 September 2020.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Nathan Söderblom

 

Nathan Söderblom and World Peace.

In this episode we take up the Uppsala-based theologian, Archbishop Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931). We examine his ideas for forging cooperation between different Christian denominations and for using religion to promote peace. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930. We discuss why he received the award and how the impact of his work has shifted since then.

This episode  was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 12 February 2020.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - John Locke

John Locke and Natural Law

Our second philosophy tea discusses the groundbreaking ideas of the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) on natural law in his Two Treatises of Government (1689) and the impact they had on the formulation of human rights in the American Declaration of Independence (1776), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Locke’s ideas continue to inform debates on human rights and how they can be applied in the world today

This episode was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 30 January 2020.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.

Philosophy Tea - Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

This season’s first philosophy tea discusses Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) and the role she played in creating the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In chairing the committee that drafted the Declaration, Roosevelt drew upon her long involvement in human rights and social justice issues. We also discuss the impact of the Declaration on later statements, legal conventions as well as for national and international politics.

This was recorded and edited at Reginateatern, which also served as the host venue for the event on 23 January 2020.

Producer: Paul Kessel

The Philosophy Tea talks were held regularly at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala from 2014 to 2021. During these well attended events – where tea, scones and jam were served – Professor Peter Wallensteen and Guest Lecturer Daniel Ogden, both of Uppsala University, discussed thinkers who have contributed to our understanding of peace and justice. In all, 40 sessions were held, of which 31 are recorded. The session were also supported by Uppsala University as part of its outreach activities.