Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Undergraduate

• U23120: Political Thought 1
• U23131: Political Thought 2
• U23170: Freedom, Justice and Political Theory

Postgraduate

• Global Theory From Kant to Hardt and Negri

Supervision

Gary has supervised ten research students to successful completions on a variety of subjects in the history of political thought, current political theory and international political theory. These subjects include Marx, French Political Thought, Disability and Citizenship, Global History and International Security.

He has examined 23 doctoral theses

Gary has wide-ranging research interests in political thought, notably in the history of political thought. He has published on a variety of theorists, including Plato, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Hobbes, Lyotard, Collingwood, Hardt and Negri, Stirner and Murdoch as well as writing on the nature of the subject. His book A History of Modern Political Thought- The Question of Interpretation (Oxford University Press, 2016) presents a new reading of the nature of the history of political thought. He is also interested in current political theory, including Post-Rawlsian analytic political theory, continental and radical theory and specific subject areas including political economy and global theory. He has received grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Social Science Research Council, the British Academy, the Political Studies Association and the German Academic Exchange Service.

Research group membership

Gary is a member of the Council of the Hegel Society of Great Britain and is also member of the Executive of the UK and Irish Political Thought Association. He is a member of the Collingwood and British Idealist Society and the UK Political Studies Association. He has also served on the Executive of the UK Political Studies Association (1996-2001). He serves on the Committee of the Global Politics, Economy and Society Research Centre at Oxford Brookes. He has been a member of the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2010-2017). He is co-organiser of the Political Thought Conference (Oxford) (2011-Present) and a member of the Brookes-Brunel Research Cluster in Political Thought

Research grants and awards

Gary has received grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Social Science Research Council, the British Academy, the Political Studies Association, the 'Political Thought' Specialist Group of the PSA, the Shanghai Academy of the Social Sciences and the German Academic Exchange Service. He has been invited to speak at a number of Universities and Conferences. He delivered the Alan Milne Memorial Address at the University of Durham (2017) and was a plenary speaker at the Iris Murdoch Society Conference (2017) 

Research projects

Gary has recently completed a monograph on Iris Murdoch, Why Iris Murdoch Matters- Making Sense of Experience in Modern Times (Bloomsbury, 2018) and has also completed editing a volume, Murdoch On Truth and Love (Macmillan, 2018). His research project on Murdoch continues. It is inter-disciplinary as it embraces Murdoch's interests in Politics, Philosophy, Art and Literature.

He has a long-standing interest in Hegel, publishing a monograph and an edited volume as well as numerous articles on Hegel. He has affiliated interests in theorists in the Hegelian tradition, including Marx, Collingwood and Oakeshott. His research on Hegel and Marx runs alongside his interest in post-structuralism and he has published on Lyotard, Foucault, Derrida and Hardt and Negri. His interest in particular historic thinkers is linked to his wider engagement with the nature of the history of political thought, and he has published on the identity of influence in and the methodology of the history of political thought. 

Books

• Browning G, Why Iris Murdoch Matters: Making Sense of Experience in Modern Times, Bloomsbury (2018)
  ISBN: 9781472574480 eISBN: 9781472574503
  Abstract In Why Iris Murdoch Matters Gary Browning draws on as yet unpublished archival material to present an unrivalled overview of Murdoch's work and thought. Browning argues for Murdoch's position amongst the key theorists of modern life, and discusses in detail her engagement with the notion of late modernity. Her multiple perspectives on art, philosophy, religion, politics and the self all relate to how she understands the nature of late modernity. Browning lucidly illustrates that through both her thought and fiction we can grasp the significance of issues that remain or paramount importance today: the possibilities of a moral life without foundations, the meaning of philosophy in a post-metaphysical age, the prospects of politics without ideological certainties and the significance of art after realism. A totally original work arguing persuasively that Iris Murdoch not only matters but is absolutely central to how we think through the contemporary age.Website 
• Browning G (ed), Ed., Murdoch on Truth and Love, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
  ISBN: 9783319762159 eISBN: 9783319762166
  Abstract

  This book reviews Iris Murdoch’s thought as a whole. It surveys the breadth of her thinking, taking account of her philosophical works, her novels and her letters. It shows how she explored many aspects of experience and brought together apparently contradictory concepts such as truth and love. The volume deals with her notions of truth, love, language, morality, politics and her life. It shows how she offers a challenging provocative way of seeing things which is related to but distinct from standard forms of analytical philosophy and Continental thought. Unlike so many philosophers she does offer a philosophy to live by and unlike many novelists she has reflected deeply on the kind of novels she aimed to write. The upshot is that her novels and her philosophy can be read together productively as contributions to how we can see others and the world. 
  

  Website 
• Browning G, A History of Modern Political Thought : The Question of Interpretation, Oxford University Press (2016)
  ISBN: 9780199682294 eISBN: 9780191833311
  Abstract How are we to understand past political thinkers? Is it a matter simply of reading their texts again and again? Do we have to relate past texts of political thought to the contexts in which ideas were composed and in which the aims of past thinkers were formulated? Or should past political theories be deconstructed so as to uncover not what their authors maintain, but what the texts reveal? In this book, theories of interpreting past political thinkers are examined and the interpretive methods of a range of theories are reviewed, including those of Hegel, Marx, Oakeshott, Collingwood, the Cambridge School, Foucault, Derrida, and Gadamer. The application of these theories of interpretation to notable modern political theorists, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Bentham, Mill, Nietzsche, and Beauvoir is then used as a way of understanding modern political thought and of assessing interpretive theories of past political thought. The result is a book which sees the history of modern political thought as more than a procession of political theories but rather as a reflection on the meaning of past political thought and its interpretation. It provides a way of reading the history of modern political thought, in which the question of interpretation matters both for understanding how we interpret the past but also for considering what it means to undertake political thinking.--Supplied by publisher.Website 
• Browning G, Plato and Hegel: Two modes of philosophizing about politics, Routledge (2013)
  ISBN: 9780415623995 eISBN: 9781136236235
  Abstract Hegel and Plato are united as political theorists by the convergence of their philosophical aspirations. But their political writings manifest the general disparities involved in their particular ways of seeking to fulfil these aspirations. Professor Browning compares the political thought of Plato and Hegel by locating their political theorizing within the context of their divergent modes of philosophizing.
• Browning G, Prokhovnik R, Dimova-Cookson M, Ed., Dialogues with contemporary political theorists, Palgrave Macmillan (2012)
  ISBN: 9781137271297 eISBN: 9781137271297
  Abstract Dialogues with Contemporary Political Theorists consists of a series of dialogues with pre-eminent contemporary political theorists that are undertaken by political theorists, who are currently interested in and engaged by their work. The dialogues deal with the influences upon and significant works of these major theorists as well as their views on the current state of political theory and the significant issues of contemporary politics. The political theorists who are the focus of these dialogues represent all major aspects of contemporary political theory, and are drawn from several areas of the globe. What they have in common and reveal in these interviews are fascinating backgrounds and influences and highly individual perspectives on theory and politics. The upshot is a multi-faceted introduction to political theory today.Website 
• Browning G, Global Theory from Kant to Hardt and Negri, Palgrave Macmillan (2011)
  ISBN: 9781349357161 eISBN: 9780230308541
  Abstract In the 21st Century, global theory provides an influential and popular way of understanding contemporary social and political phenomena. This book observes the links between contemporary global ideas and preceding modern theories. Contemporary perspectives are shown to reflect distinctive and shared aspects of the ideas of Kant, Hegel and Marx. ; Global theory represents an influential and popular means of understanding contemporary social and political phenomena. Human identity and social responsibilities are considered in a global context and in the light of a global human condition. A global perspective is assumed to be new and to supersede preceding social theory. However, if contemporary global theory is influential, its identity, assumptions and novelty are controversial. Global Theory from Kant to Hardt and Negri scrutinises global theory by examining how contemporary global theorists simultaneously draw upon and critique preceding modern theories. It re-thinks contemporary global ideas by relating them to the social thought of Kant, Hegel and Marx, and in so doing highlights divergent ambiguous aspects of contemporary global theories, as well as the continuing impact of the ideas of Kant, Hegel and Marx.Website 
• Boucher D, Browning G, Ed., The political art of Bob Dylan, Imprint Academic (2009)
  ISBN: 9781845401207
  Abstract Bob Dylan is one of the most significant figures in popular culture. In this book, the authors provide a multi-faceted analysis of his political art. They address Dylan's career as a whole, dealing with such themes as alienation, protest, non-conformity, the American Dream, modernity and postmodernism and pivotal moments of Dylan's career such as the 'Judas’ accusation at the 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall concert and Dylan’s comments on the need to aid American farmers at Live Aid, 1985. Dylan’s songs are analysed for their political meaning and for the songs in contemporary American political and popular culture. As notable specialists in the fields of political theory, literary criticism and popular culture the authors examine Dylan’s work from a variety of perspectives―aesthetic theory, Kant, Adorno, Lyotard, Lorca and Collingwood. Collectively, they question how Dylan’s work relates to the theory and practice of politics. In this second revised and expanded edition, the chapters have been revised and rewritten, with a new introduction exploring the enigma of Bob Dylan throughout the whole of his career and with a completely new Bob Dylan Timeline integrating Dylan’s life, songs and actions into the historical events that shaped his views. Two new chapters have been added, one focusing on the late Dylan, Masked and Anonymous and Love and Theft and another on Dylan at Live Aid and his stance on Farm Aid. This book is a must for anyone seriously interested in the legendary Bob Dylan.
• Browning G, Kilmister A., Critical and Post-Critical Political Economy, Palgrave Macmillan (2006)
  ISBN: 9780333963555 eISBN: 9780230501522
  Abstract This book is original in focusing on critical political economy, identifying its character and reviewing its continuing legacy. In doing so it throws new light on Hegel and Marx and a range of subsequent theorist. It also develops a perspective on topics such as postmodernism, globalization, identity politics and the cultural turn.Website 
• Browning G, Rethinking R.G. Collingwood: Philosophy, Politics and the Unity of Theory and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan (2004)
  ISBN: 9780333998724 eISBN: 9780230005754
  Abstract Rethinking R.G. Collingwood reviews Collingwood's thought via his own rethinking of Hegel. It establishes the revisionary character of Collingwood's defence of liberal civilization in theory and practice. Collingwood is seen as avoiding the pitfalls of Hegel's teleological historicism by developing an open and contestable reading of the rationality of liberal civilization, which neither reduces practice to theory nor philosophy to history. The contemporary relevance of Collingwood's standpoint is demonstrated by comparing it with those of recent defenders and critics of liberalism Rawls, Lyotard and MacIntyre.Website 
• Browning G, Halcli A, Webster F (editors), Ed., Understanding Contemporary Society: Theories of the Present, Sage (2000)
  ISBN: 0761959254 eISBN: 9780761959250
  Abstract Understanding Contemporary Society: Theories of the Present is a comprehensive textbook to guide students through the complexities of social theory today. Over 30 chapters, written by an international team of contributors, demonstrate clearly the practical applications of social theory in making sense of the modern world. Students are both introduced to the most significant theories and guided through the major social developments which shape our lives. Key features of the book are: clearly structured and readable prose; bullet pointed summaries and annotated further reading for each topic; makes complex issues accessible to undergraduates; focuses on relevance and practicality; chapter lay-out which is ideal for teaching and seminar readings.Website 
• Browning G, Lyotard and the End of Grand Narratives, University of Wales Press (2000)
  ISBN: 9780708314791
  Abstract Lyotard's work challenges the presumption and orientation of modern political philosophy. In particular, he repudiates attempts to justify knowledge and society in terms of "grand" narratives of, for example, the liberation of mankind or the immanence of science. He argues that the totalising perspective of these meta-narratives is superseded by a post-modern acceptance of difference and variety and a scepticism towards unifying meta-theories. This study considers Lyotard's notion of a "grand" narraative and analyzes his critique of modernity. In the light of Lyotard's views, it goes on to examine the work of seven political thinkers whose ideas represent different stands of a distinctively modern perspective. The author concludes that, while their theories conform to Lyotard's conept of a metanarrative, they generate insights into the modern world which cannot be dismissed as lightly as their universalistic assumptions. Finally he comments on the plausibility and viability of Lyotard's repudiation of modernity.
• Browning G, Hegel and the History of Political Philosophy, Macmillan Press (1999)
  ISBN: 9780333670859;033367085X eISBN: 9786610248346
  Abstract This book relates Hegel to preceding and succeeding political philosophers. The Hegelian notion of the interdependence of political philosophy and its history is demonstrated by the links established between Hegel and his predecessors and successors. Hegel's political theory is illuminated by essays showing its critical assimilation of Plato and Hobbes, and by studies reviewing subsequent critiques of its standpoint by Stirner, Marx and Collingwood. The relevance of Hegel to contemporary political philosophy is highlighted in essays which compare Hegel to Lyotard and Rawls.Website 
• Browning G, Ed., Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A reappraisal, Kluwer (1997)
  ISBN: 9789401589178 eISBN: 9789401589178
  Abstract This book consists of a significant and valuable reappraisal of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit by a number of outstanding, international Hegel scholars. Key questions and issues are discussed. No other book on the Phenomenology brings together penetrating articles by renowned Hegel scholars, and no previous book has included responses to articles by equally celebrated scholars. The result is that this book is unique in providing a wealth of insights into the Phenomenology of Spirit from a variety of perspectives. Among the crucial issues of interpretation which are tackled in this book are Hegel's concept of truth (the focus of Professor H.S. Harris's incisive opening article), the relationship between the Phenomenology and Hegel's system (discussed by Professor Rüdiger Bubner), the master-slave dialectic, the unhappy consciousness and conscience. Experienced Hegel scholars and students new to Hegel will benefit from the format of the book in which distinguished scholars comment upon the key and contentious aspects of the main articles. Crucial issues of interpretation are highlighted clearly.Website 
• Axford B, Browning G, Huggins R, Rosamond B, Grant A, Turner J, Politics: An Introduction, Routledge (1997)
  ISBN: 9780415251815
  Abstract The authors emphasize the role of the individual in politics, and the interplay between the personal, the national and the global. This interactive text includes think points, exercises and extracts as well as illustrative material.
  The second edition of this user-friendly text for students taking introductory courses in politics builds on the success of the first edition. It provides completely updated and stimulating coverage of topics essential to the understanding of contemporary politics. Ideal for students taking combined degrees at introductory level in politics and the social sciences, it emphasises the individual and social dimension of politics and covers theories and concepts in an accessible way. New features in the second edition include: new examples drawn from Western democracies and other political systems; expanded sections on nationalism, religion, alternative politics, globalisation and ethnic conflict; updated examples from the most contemporary political events; biographies of key political thinkers and figures.

Journal articles

• Browning G, 'Brief lives: Iris Murdoch'
  Philosophy Now 139 (2020) pp.51-53
  ISSN: 0961-5970 eISSN: 2044-9992
  Website 
• Browning G, 'Iris Murdoch: History Woman'
  Iris Murdoch Review 9 (2018) pp.17-22
  ISSN: 1756-7572
  Website 
• Browning GK, 'The Politics of Recognition: Life and Death Struggles in Hobbes and Hegel'
  Hobbes Studies 28 (1) (2015) pp.3-17
  ISSN: 0921-5891 eISSN: 1875-0257
  Abstract Hobbes and Hegel are standardly taken to be contrasting political theorists, who maintain contrasting views on philosophy, individualism, and society. However, Oakeshott’s reading of Hobbes is a reminder that Hobbes can be read in ways that reduce antagonisms between Hobbes and Hegel. Hobbes’s state of nature is an artificial device that is internally related to the significance of political artifice in rendering the social world a reasonable context for interaction just as the struggle for recognition in Hegel shows the need for a political context in which individuals can interact with one another in ways that are productive and equilibrated. Both Hobbes and Hegel invoke notions of mortality, conflict and sociality in their imaginative depictions of life and death struggles. They also share a notion of the sovereignty of nation-states and were doubtful over the viability of international treaties and organisations.
   Website 
• Browning GK, 'Bob Dylan: the politics of influence'
  Popular Music and Society 8 (2) (2014) pp.222-239
  ISSN: 0300-7766 eISSN: 1743-1646
  Abstract

  To talk of the influences on or the influence of Bob Dylan is to talk of what is manifestly significant. However, the notion of influence is controversial. Dylan himself appreciates its complexities. He has admitted his influences and praised past figures, and yet he has fashioned an identity of the ever-changing individualist who resists labelling. In this article, theorists of influence are reviewed so as to appraise how influence might be taken. Subsequently Dylan’s unacknowledged use of others’ material and the impact of musical traditions and popular movements on his work are reviewed. Influence is seen to be a key to opening up the complex identities within Dylan’s work.

  Website 
• Browning G, 'Iris Murdoch and the Political: From Bohemia to the Nice and the Good'
  Iris Murdoch Review 4 (2013) (2013) pp.31-
  ISSN: 1756-7572
  
• Browning G, 'Review Article: Interpreting Hegel'
  History of Political Thought 33 (1) (2012) pp.169-173
  ISSN: 0143-781X
  Abstract

  Thom Brooks, Hegel's Political Philosophy: A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right (Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 2007), xvii + 204 pp., $55.00, ISBN 978 07486 2574 1. William E. Conklin, Hegel's Laws: The Legitimacy of a Modern Legal Order (Stanford University Press: Stanford CA, 2008), xii + 381 pp., $65.00, ISBN 978 08047 5030 1. Ido Geiger, The Founding Act of Modern Ethical Life: Hegel's Critique of Kant's Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford University Press: Stanford CA, 2007), xiii + 173 pp., £50.00, ISBN 978 08047 5424 8.

  Website 
• Browning G, 'Agency and influence in the history of political thought: The agency of influence and the influence of agency'
  History of Political Thought 31 (2) (2010) pp.345-366
  ISSN: 0143-781X
  Abstract The use of the category of influence in the history of ideas has been criticized by Skinner for its failure to provide explanatory links between the ideas and theorists it purports to connect and by Condren for its failure to respect the agency of thinkers. Bevir and Collingwood support the notion of influence and argue that it does accommodate the agency of thinkers. The arguments of Condren and Skinner point to significant issues and problems in the practice of the history of ideas but it is argued that these points do not count decisively against employing the notion of influence. The defence of influence by Collingwood and Bevir is seen to need qualification in the light of post-structuralist arguments that challenge the monopoly of meaning that is claimed for authors of texts in the history of ideas. The article concludes by urging that the category of influence is compatible with a nuanced account of agency.Website 
• Browning G, 'Dialogues in political theory: Scholarly interview with Bonnie Honig'
  Contemporary Political Theory 7 (4) (2008) pp.434-443
  ISSN: 1470-8914 eISSN: 1476-9336
  Website 
• Browning G, 'Collingwood and the logic of continuity and discontinuity'
  Collingwood and British Idealism Studies 13 (2) (2007) pp.71-92
  ISSN: 1744-9413
  Abstract In his early writings on logic Collingwood offered a powerful critique of contemporary theories, including subjective idealism and realism to which he continued to be opposed throughout his career. Simultaneously these same early writings present a sustained attack on dichotomous forms of thought, which are also carried through to his later writings. Throughout Collingwood maintains a critical respect for Hegel. Subjectivity and objectivity are not to be severed from each other, nor are identities to be excluded from one another. Continuity is not to be understood apart from discontinuity. Collingwood's early critiques inspire a variety of later doctrines such as the scale of forms, the logic of question and answer, metaphysics as a science of absolute presuppositions, and his conception of the relation between mind and civilisation. The later theories are to be understood as continuous with the earlier doctrines, but not deducible from, nor reducible to them.Website 
• Browning G, 'A globalist ideology of post-Marxism? : Hardt and Negri’s empire'
  Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 8 (2) (2005) pp.193-208
  ISSN: 1369-8230 eISSN: 1743-8772
  Abstract Hardt and Negri interpret contemporary sovereignty and politics in the light of a theory of contemporary globalization that is taken to supersede Marxism and former ideological standpoints of the Left. In particular, Hardt and Negri highlight how their reading of empire and multitude breaks with the teleology of Marxism and accepts the openness of events. They advertise the novelty, which is held to consist in their recognition of a thoroughly socialized and globalized world in which there exists no predetermined historical subject of liberation. Hardt and Negri, however, exemplify the continuity between Marxist and post‐Marxist ideological standpoints. The continuity between classical Marxism and Hardt and Negri's notion of empire and its supersession resides in the affinity between the normative values that shape Marx's reading of history and the emancipatory character of the multitude, which frames the notion of empire. Hardt and Negri offer a radical Leftist reading of globalization that contrasts with alternative ideological notions that inform more orthodox interpretations of globalization, and thereby points to the ideological character of theories of globalization.Website 
• Browning G, 'Lyotard and Hegel: What is wrong with modernity and what is right with the philosophy of right'
  History of European Ideas 29 (2) (2003) pp.223-239
  ISSN: 0191-6599 eISSN: 1873-541X
  Abstract Lyotard's critique of Hegel is shown to be problematic. It purports to show that Hegel's philosophical absolutism is a dated example of modern absolutist social theory, but it succumbs itself to univocalism in its reading of Hegel. While Hegel's absolutist rhetoric disguises the contestability of his theorising, his subtle, nuanced reading of modernity and social theory offers a more constructive and powerful approach to the continuing problems of modernity and the contemporary world than is acknowledged by Lyotard.Website 
• Browning G (translated by Ulrike Hirschhauser), 'Stirners Egoism und Hegels Gespenst'
  Der Einzige : Jahrbuch der Max Stirner Gesellschaft 21 (2003) pp.27-36
  ISSN: 1435-0432
  Website 
• Browning G, 'Rethinking Collingwood, Rethinking Hegel'
  Hegel Bulletin 24 (1-2 (47/48)) (2003) pp.17-33
  ISSN: 2051-5367
  Abstract The idea of rethinking plays a central role in the philosophy of R.G.Collingwood. In undertaking his philosophical analysis of history, Collingwood conceives of the study of past actions to consist in their rethinking by means of the historian's scrutiny of the evidence that he or she assembles in the present. Rethinking, for Collingwood, is also an apposite term to capture the reflective activity of philosophy insofar as it analyses the conditions and practices of human conduct and thought, and in so doing explains them by rehearsing their interconnections in systematic fashion. Throughout his career, Collingwood takes these two modes of rethinking to be interconnected. Notably, Collingwood conceives of his own practice of analysing the fundamental concepts of history as, in turn, presupposing the prior development of a tradition of historical thinking and analytical reflection upon the methods of history. He himself draws upon this tradition in his self-conscious process of rethinking it, which is exemplified in the main body of The Idea of History. Collingwood also understands the practice of rethinking as implying a critical perspective on preceding modes of thought, hi his formulaic notion of historical explanation as consisting in the re-enactment of past thought and in his affiliated notions of rethinking, Collingwood does not assume that the act of rethinking is to be regarded as the same act as the original piece of thinking that is to be understood. Thought is universal so that the same thought can be the object of different particular acts of thought. The differences between acts of thought remain, however, so that rethinking a previous thought is to rethink in a significantly new context in which the thinker is aware of the pastness of the thought rethought. This contextual awareness, for Collingwood, underlies the critical interrogation of past thinkers and thought and provides for the possibility of progress.Website 
• Browning G, 'Lyotard: After and with Marx, within and against capital'
  Contemporary Politics 8 (2) (2002) pp.87-101
  ISSN: 1356-9775
  Abstract

  This article examines Lyotard's thought by means of a review of his conceptions of Marx and capital. Lyotard is taken to hold ambiguous views on both Marx and capital throughout his career. These ambiguities reflect his development of a post-Marxist standpoint. The ambiguous character of Lyotard's reading of Marx and capital is heightened by the fact that the ways in which they are formulated vary in the course of his career. In criticizing Marx, Lyotard tends to assume an absolutist form of Marxism that abstracts from the variety of ways in which Marx can and has been interpreted. Likewise, Lyotard tends to misrecognize how he retains aspects of Marx's critique of capital, and hence does not explore the critical connections between his own standpoint and that of Marx.

  Website 
• Browning G, 'Sweet's Bosanquet: Rights and society'
  Collingwood and British Idealism Studies 9 (2002)
  ISSN: 1744-9413
  
• Browning G, 'The German Ideology: The Theory of History and the History of Theory'
  History of Political Thought 14 (3) (1993) pp.455-473
  ISSN: 0143-781X
  Abstract

  The central concern of this paper is to argue that The German Ideology should be analysed and interpreted as an integral whole. Its various sections are intimately related to one another and share a community of purpose and character. In design and practice, The German Ideology is a work devoted to the history of theory. The character of the project upon which Marx and Engels are engaged in The German Ideology is clearly conveyed in the subtitles of its two volumes, ‘Critique of Modern German Philosophy according to its representatives, Feuerbach, B. Bauer and Stirner’ and ‘Critique of German Socialism according to its various prophets’. The sections on Feuerbach, Bauer and Stirner which constitute Volume 1 explain and criticize the respective philosophical positions of these Young Hegelian Theorists by relating them to one another and tracing their source in Hegel's absolute idealism. The second volume, dealing with German socialism, is concerned to identify and criticize the attachment of German socialists to the language and concepts of philosophers in the Hegelian tradition analysed in the first volume. The central concern of The German Ideology to criticize contemporary theories shapes its well-known statements on materialism, historical method and alienation.
  

  Website 
• Browning G, 'New Leviathans for Old'
  Collingwood and British Idealism Studies (1985)
  ISSN: 1744-9413
  

Book chapters

• Browning G, 'Oakeshott on the State: Between History and Philosophy' in Eric Kos (ed.), Michael Oakeshott on Governance, Authority and the State, Palgrave Macmillan (2019)
  Abstract

  Oakeshott sets out philosophical and historical views of the state. They are distinct, and their distinctiveness harmonizes with his notion of the exclusivity of philosophical and historical perspectives. The modal distinctness of philosophy, history, and practice is established in Experience and Its Modes and is then rehearsed in subsequent publications, notably in essays in Rationalism and Politics. History is a way of seeing the past that is at odds with practical thought and philosophy. It is the sign of ideology, and its misperceptions of the relations between philosophy and practice that ideologists such as Lenin and Thatcher invoke abstractions of communism and the market to frame practical political decision-making. However, in considering art in the essay “The Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Mankind,” Oakeshott imagines art to be independent of other activities and yet to maintain a conversational relationship between the modes of experience. What is meant by a conversation? For Oakeshott, a conversation does not preclude the independence of modes of experience from one another. The closeness between philosophy, practice, and history is also assumed and yet underplayed by the argument of On Human Conduct, which imagines theory to be separate from history and practice. In this paper, it is argued that the connections between practical, historical, and philosophical modes of understanding the state in Oakeshott’s work are closer than is suggested by the metaphor of conversation and at odds with the separation that is maintained in Experience and its Modes.
  

  Website 
• Browning G, 'The Metaphysics of Morals and Poliics' in Nora Hamalainen and Gillian Dooley (ed.), Reading Iris Murdoch's Metaphysics as a Guide to Politics, Palgrave Macmillan (2019)
  ISBN: 9783030189662 eISBN: 9783030189679
  Abstract

  Murdoch’s metaphysics attends to different forms of thought and practice, showing connections and differences. She recognises the sheer refractoriness of aspects of experience while tracing intimations of order and aspirations to goodness and moral perfection. In her review of politics and morality in Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals she separates and relates the two spheres. She perceives how in personal morality individuals can develop perfectionist goals, but in doing so they rely upon the security that is provided by political order. Politics, for Murdoch, in the wake of the collapse of Marxist regimes in Eastern Europe, is not to be utopian, but rather is to avoid repression and injustice and secure order and justice to safeguard individuals, who, in their personal lives can pursue perfection.
  

  Website 
• Browning G, 'The Metaphysics of Morals and Politics' in Nora Hamalainen and Gillian Dooley (ed.), Reading Iris Murdoch's Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, Palgrave Macmillan (2019)
  ISBN: 9783030189662 eISBN: 9783030189679
  Abstract

  Murdoch’s metaphysics attends to different forms of thought and practice, showing connections and differences. She recognises the sheer refractoriness of aspects of experience while tracing intimations of order and aspirations to goodness and moral perfection. In her review of politics and morality in Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals she separates and relates the two spheres. She perceives how in personal morality individuals can develop perfectionist goals, but in doing so they rely upon the security that is provided by political order. Politics, for Murdoch, in the wake of the collapse of Marxist regimes in Eastern Europe, is not to be utopian, but rather is to avoid repression and injustice and secure order and justice to safeguard individuals, who, in their personal lives can pursue perfection.
  

  Website 
• Browning G, 'Murdoch and the End of Ideology' in Gary Browning (ed.), Murdoch on Truth and Love, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
  ISBN: 9783319762159 eISBN: 9783319762166
  Abstract

  This book reviews Iris Murdoch’s thought as a whole. It surveys the breadth of her thinking, taking account of her philosophical works, her novels and her letters. It shows how she explored many aspects of experience and brought together apparently contradictory concepts such as truth and love. The volume deals with her notions of truth, love, language, morality, politics and her life. It shows how she offers a challenging provocative way of seeing things which is related to but distinct from standard forms of analytical philosophy and Continental thought. Unlike so many philosophers she does offer a philosophy to live by and unlike many novelists she has reflected deeply on the kind of novels she aimed to write. The upshot is that her novels and her philosophy can be read together productively as contributions to how we can see others and the world. 
  

  Website 
• Browning G, 'Introduction: Interpreting Murdoch - Truth and Love Revisited' in Gary Browning (ed.), Murdoch on Truth and Love, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
  ISBN: 978-3-319-76215-9
  
• Browning G, 'Preface to Paperback edition: Global Theory Revisited' in Global Theory From Kant to Hardt and Negri, Palgrave Macmillan (2016)
  ISBN: 978-1-349-36716-1
  Website 
• Browning G, 'The recognition of globalization and the globalization of recognition' in Global justice and the politics of recognition, Palgrave Macmillan (2013)
  ISBN: 9780230205970
  
• Browning G, 'Hegel on war, recognition and justice' in Hegel and global justice, Springer (2012)
  ISBN: 9789048189960 eISBN: 978-90-481-8996-0
  Abstract Hegel's account of war in the Philosophy of Right is a significant expression of Hegel's understanding of the importance of mutual recognition in social and political life. Its deployment evokes and relates to Hegel's account of the struggle for recognition in the Phenomenology of Spirit. Just as the account in the Phenomenology of Spirit invokes an imagined emergency situation in the life and death struggle to highlight the existential importance of recognition, so war serves to underline the life and death issues at stake in the commitments of citizenship. War exhibits the fragility of social and political order and points to the overwhelming need of individuals to recognize the duties of citizenship. War, however, is only one mode in which citizens recognize themselves to be citizens, just as social recognition underpins the entire development of knowledge that is charted in the Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel's emphasis upon recognition in his remarks on war and on institutional maintenance underpins his rejection of internationalism and his repudiation of cosmopolitan norms of justice. Justice, for Hegel, is about the maintenance and development of conditions of right in particular ethical communities. Look Inside Share Share this content on Facebook Share this content on Twitter Share this content on LinkedIn Within this Chapter Introduction The Phenomenology of Spirit Recognition in the Philosophy of Right Conclusion References References Other actions Export citations About this Book Reprints and PermissionsWebsite 

Areas of expertise

History of Political Thought

Contemporary Political Theory

International Political Theory

Philosophy of History

Philosophy of the Social Sciences

Membership of professional bodies

Hegel Society of Great Britain

Association for Political Thought of the UK and Ireland

Collingwood and British Idealism Society 

Conferences

Recent Conference Papers

• 'Iris Murdoch- History Woman', Plenary Speaker, Iris Murdoch Society Conference, September 2017
• 'Oakeshott on History, Philosophy and Politics' Michael Oakeshott Society, July 2017
• 'Dylan and Influence' Oxford Brookes Humanities and Social Sciences Conference, June 2017
• 'Bob Dylan and the Question of Influence' International Bob Dylan Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, May 2017
• 'Hegel and Masculinity' Brookes Brunel Research Cluster Conference, January 2017 

Other experience

Education

• 1970‒1973 BA in Politics and History, University of Reading
• 1974‒1975 M.Sc History of Political Thought, London School of Economics and Political Science
• 1975‒1981 PhD: Plato and Hegel: Two Modes of Philosophising about Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science
• 1980‒1981 PGCE (Distinction), Institute of Education, London University
• 1988‒1990 MSc Social Sciences, University of Southampton

Gary is Professor in Political Thought and Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He joined the Department in September 1991. He lectures on political theory, teaching undergraduate courses on political thought, freedom and justice and and has lectured on global political theory on the Masters programme in International Politics. His duties as Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange include supervision of REF entries for a wide number of subjects in the Social Sciences and Humanities, including English Literature, History, Law, Politics, Geography and Education

Press, publicity and reviews

Editorships 

Journals

• General Editor, Contemporary Political Theory, (Palgrave) (2001-2010)
• Editor (with B Rosamond), Politics (Blackwell) An official journal of the Political Studies Association of the UK (1993-1999)

Monograph Series

• Editor of the Monograph Series: International Political Theory, Palgrave Macmillan, (2007-)

Encyclopedia

• Review Editor of the Encyclopedia of Political Thought, Wiley, 2011-2015

Other publicity

Gary has been invited to present papers at a number of Universities including LSE, Birmingham University, Oxford University, Durham University, Edinburgh University, Nottingham University, Nottingham Trent University, Warwick University, Sussex University, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Wales, University of the West of England