Latest news with #Montesquieu
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Key people in Edinburgh University's slavery and colonialism inquiry
The legacies of some of Edinburgh's most celebrated professors and graduates have come under new scrutiny, after new evidence emerged about their roles in forming and perpetuating racist theories, or donating money gained from transatlantic slavery to the city's university. Edinburgh University will consider renaming buildings and repurposing some of its most famous events and prizes linked to these figures. The people named in the university's investigation into its own history and legacies of enslavement and colonialism include: A famous 18th-century moral philosopher and mathematician (1753-1828) who lectured Edinburgh students – including a future British prime minister – that black Africans were inferior to Europeans because they were 'savages'. He opposed slavery and said 'inferior' races could be perfected over time. Yet in common with predecessors such as Adam Ferguson at Edinburgh and the French philosophers Buffon and Montesquieu, he upheld the view that humans were ranked in six tiers, with white Europeans at the top. The university's slavery and decolonisation review said Stewart was the most popular lecturer of his day. Students, 'many of whom went on to elite careers in politics and imperial administration', crowded into his lectures. Some went on to build careers as race scientists. 'Through his pedagogy, he exerted great, if somewhat indirect, influence on the intellectual landscape of early 19th-century Britain,' the review found. The university's review has said renaming the Dugald Stewart building, a prominent modern block on its Edinburgh campus opened in 2008, would be a 'strong test case' for its new renaming policy. A former Edinburgh medical student, Dr Gunning (1818-1900) became extremely rich after settling in Brazil, where slavery was legal and endemic, to become a physician to the local elite, including Emperor Pedro II. He later served as a doctor and then commissioner for a major gold mining enterprise that exploited enslaved miners. Britain had outlawed slavery in 1833, making it illegal for Britons to enslave people, yet Gunning is widely believed to have held up to 40 enslaved people on his Palmeiras estate near Rio de Janeiro. He denied that, claiming they bought their freedom by working for him. Gunning invested in other colonial enterprises, including gold mines in India and shipping firms. He became a noted philanthropist, donating significant sums in Britain and Brazil, including funding numerous academic prizes, scholarships and academic posts at Edinburgh, particularly in theology and medicine, which are believed to have paid out millions in benefits to recipients. Those include three of Edinburgh's best-known current honours: the Gunning Victoria Jubilee prizes in medicine and in divinity and the Gunning lectures. The university's slavery and decolonisation review has found it holds £5.4m derived from his gifts. It has recommended that money be repurposed to fund anti-racist decolonisation projects and help pay for a new centre for the study of racisms, colonialism and anti-black violence. One of the most prominent advocates globally of the racist science of phrenology, which wrongly linked skull shape with intelligence, George Combe (1788-1858) co-founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society with his brother. It gathered a skull collection absorbed by the university and still held by it. He also backed other phrenologists, including in the US, and wrote one influential text that heavily outsold Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The Combe brothers studied medicine at Edinburgh. The Combe Trust was set up from the assets of George's estate (wealth partly derived from his writing and lecture tours advocating phrenology) and endowed the university's first professorship in psychology in 1906, known as the Combe professorship. The Combe Trust now funds a visiting fellowship in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities lasting two to three months. The fellow must deliver a lecture 'emerging from the interests of George Combe', on areas such as religion and religious education, physiology and health. The 'most distinguished' students in logic and metaphysics at Edinburgh each year are given prizes set up by Margaret Stuart Tyndall Bruce (1788-1869), an heiress whose mother was Indian and her father a Scots lieutenant in the Bengal artillery who had substantial estates in India, England and Scotland. Her brother John Bruce was Edinburgh's professor of logic and metaphysics, while her uncle John bought Falkland Palace, one of Scotland's best-known medieval houses, and its surrounding estate in Fife. She inherited her father's and uncle's wealth after they died, which was significantly derived from her father's Indian estates. In 1865, she left £10,000 to the university for scholarships named in memory of her uncle Prof Bruce. The school of philosophy, psychology and language sciences still awards 'Bruce of Grangehill prizes', which have a current accumulated value of £1.6m, funds which may be repurposed after the university review.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Key people in Edinburgh University's slavery and colonialism inquiry
The legacies of some of Edinburgh's most celebrated professors and graduates have come under new scrutiny, after new evidence emerged about their roles in forming and perpetuating racist theories, or donating money gained from transatlantic slavery to the city's university. Edinburgh University will consider renaming buildings and repurposing some of its most famous events and prizes linked to these figures. The people named in the university's investigation into its own history and legacies of enslavement and colonialism include: A famous 18th-century moral philosopher and mathematician (1753-1828) who lectured Edinburgh students – including a future British prime minister – that black Africans were inferior to Europeans because they were 'savages'. He opposed slavery and said 'inferior' races could be perfected over time. Yet in common with predecessors such as Adam Ferguson at Edinburgh and the French philosophers Buffon and Montesquieu, he upheld the view that humans were ranked in six tiers, with white Europeans at the top. The university's slavery and decolonisation review said Stewart was the most popular lecturer of his day. Students, 'many of whom went on to elite careers in politics and imperial administration', crowded into his lectures. Some went on to build careers as race scientists. 'Through his pedagogy, he exerted great, if somewhat indirect, influence on the intellectual landscape of early 19th-century Britain,' the review found. The university's review has said renaming the Dugald Stewart building, a prominent modern block on its Edinburgh campus opened in 2008, would be a 'strong test case' for its new renaming policy. A former Edinburgh medical student, Dr Gunning (1818-1900) became extremely rich after settling in Brazil, where slavery was legal and endemic, to become a physician to the local elite, including Emperor Pedro II. He later served as a doctor and then commissioner for a major gold mining enterprise that exploited enslaved miners. Britain had outlawed slavery in 1833, making it illegal for Britons to enslave people, yet Gunning is widely believed to have held up to 40 enslaved people on his Palmeiras estate near Rio de Janeiro. He denied that, claiming they bought their freedom by working for him. Gunning invested in other colonial enterprises, including gold mines in India and shipping firms. He became a noted philanthropist, donating significant sums in Britain and Brazil, including funding numerous academic prizes, scholarships and academic posts at Edinburgh, particularly in theology and medicine, which are believed to have paid out millions in benefits to recipients. Those include three of Edinburgh's best-known current honours: the Gunning Victoria Jubilee prizes in medicine and in divinity and the Gunning lectures. The university's slavery and decolonisation review has found it holds £5.4m derived from his gifts. It has recommended that money be repurposed to fund anti-racist decolonisation projects and help pay for a new centre for the study of racisms, colonialism and anti-black violence. One of the most prominent advocates globally of the racist science of phrenology, which wrongly linked skull shape with intelligence, George Combe (1788-1858) co-founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society with his brother. It gathered a skull collection absorbed by the university and still held by it. He also backed other phrenologists, including in the US, and wrote one influential text that heavily outsold Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The Combe brothers studied medicine at Edinburgh. The Combe Trust was set up from the assets of George's estate (wealth partly derived from his writing and lecture tours advocating phrenology) and endowed the university's first professorship in psychology in 1906, known as the Combe professorship. The Combe Trust now funds a visiting fellowship in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities lasting two to three months. The fellow must deliver a lecture 'emerging from the interests of George Combe', on areas such as religion and religious education, physiology and health. The 'most distinguished' students in logic and metaphysics at Edinburgh each year are given prizes set up by Margaret Stuart Tyndall Bruce (1788-1869), an heiress whose mother was Indian and her father a Scots lieutenant in the Bengal artillery who had substantial estates in India, England and Scotland. Her brother John Bruce was Edinburgh's professor of logic and metaphysics, while her uncle John bought Falkland Palace, one of Scotland's best-known medieval houses, and its surrounding estate in Fife. She inherited her father's and uncle's wealth after they died, which was significantly derived from her father's Indian estates. In 1865, she left £10,000 to the university for scholarships named in memory of her uncle Prof Bruce. The school of philosophy, psychology and language sciences still awards 'Bruce of Grangehill prizes', which have a current accumulated value of £1.6m, funds which may be repurposed after the university review.
AllAfrica
03-07-2025
- Politics
- AllAfrica
To some on this July Fourth, these truths aren't self-evident
'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' On the Fourth of July, we celebrate the passage in 1776 of the Declaration of Independence, whose second paragraph opens with these lofty words. Americans revere the Declaration both for its role in the nation's founding and as a summary of the nation's ideals. Our nation's founding took place during a historical period known as the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason. In that heady era philosophers like Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau were espousing new ideas that found expression in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It's no exaggeration to say that Enlightenment-era ideas fueled the American revolution, as well as the French Revolution a few years later. They include beliefs in: the power of human reason to understand the world and in mankind's ability to make continual progress; the importance of individual liberties and rights; the social contract, by which individuals gave their consent to be governed, and cannot legitimately be governed without that consent; the rule of law and the equality of individuals before the law; limitations on the powers of governments; religious freedom, but also the separation of church and state; the need to challenge traditional authority. Many Americans share those beliefs; for many of us they're almost conventional wisdom. But in the Enlightenment's heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries, when absolute monarchs ruled France, Austria and other European countries, they seemed radical. (Most of the Enlightenment philosophers, it should be said, were reformers, not revolutionaries.) Yet, as we celebrate this 249th anniversary of the Declaration, it's worth noting that these beliefs aren't shared unanimously even today. Recent years have seen the rise of an influential group of American intellectuals who are as skeptical of them as were many of the monarchs who ruled Europe during the Enlightenment. These 'post-liberal' intellectuals say liberal democracy has failed – and the failure began with the Enlightenment. As Vice President J.D. Vance counts himself among them, their ideas are worth taking seriously. US Vice President J.D. Vance. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Post-liberals think the Enlightenment ideas put too much emphasis on individual liberty, too little on the common good, on the welfare of the community. That's the short version. For the longer one, go back to the Enlightenment ideas I listed earlier. To a greater or lesser extent, and appreciating that not all post-liberals think exactly alike, the post-liberals have problems with many of them. To them: Mankind's ability to progress is far from unlimited; humans are inherently and irretrievably flawed. Besides, progress toward ever-increased individual freedom isn't really progress. Rather than individual liberties, we need to focus on social cohesion and healthy communities. Overemphasis on individual autonomy has 'atomized' us, breaking down important social bonds. 'Consent of the governed' is a meaningless abstraction. Rather than consenting to be governed, we inherit social traditions and structures at birth. Rule of law is important, equality before the law somewhat less so. Both need to reflect traditional values. We don't want an all-powerful state, but we need a government with the power to order a community and promote shared values and traditions. Religion can be an important part of social cohesion; government should promote it. The state should also work to nudge the culture in a socially conservative direction. Challenges to traditional authority are often rooted in concerns for individual rights and are thus problematic. These post-liberal ideas don't sound much like the truths the authors of the Declaration of Independence found self-evident. In self-defense, some post-liberals contend many of the founding fathers were more socially conservative than the Declaration implies. Others say the Declaration's ideals were fine but have been taken too far. These social liberals say they just want to restore some balance between concern for the individual and concern for the community. Still, it's hard to avoid thinking that Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, must be rolling over in his grave. Former longtime Wall Street Journal Asia correspondent and editor Urban Lehner is editor emeritus of DTN/The Progressive Farmer. This article, originally published on July 1 by the latter news organization and now republished by Asia Times with permission, is © Copyright 2025 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved. Follow Urban Lehner on X @urbanize
The Hill
30-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
How to restore public trust: Bring back federalism
Over the last century, federal power has concentrated steadily in the executive branch. Presidents now govern through executive orders, expansive regulatory frameworks, emergency declarations, and administrative actions that touch nearly every area of life. Meanwhile, Congress, the branch closest to the people, has grown more divided and less engaged in its constitutional responsibilities. This wasn't the vision of the Founders. In a time of deep division, a key principle of our nation's founding quietly stands out as a potentially unifying force: federalism. The word might sound like an idea pulled from a dusty civics textbook, but the sharing of power between national and state governments is one of the most practical, time-tested tools we have to restore trust, encourage innovation, and preserve our democratic institutions. Montesquieu, Locke, and America's founders were right: To prevent the abuse of power, power must be divided. This is done not only through separation of powers, but also by America's federal system of sovereign states. This isn't just political theory but a blueprint for balance. Federalism isn't something we should wait on Washington to restore; states must take the lead — and we're doing just that in Utah. The COVID-19 pandemic gave us a front-row seat to the benefits and challenges of federalism. While the federal government offered resources, it was governors and mayors who had to make the hard calls. States tried different approaches to everything from school closures to vaccine distribution. Some succeeded, some stumbled. But collectively, their actions demonstrated the value of letting local leaders respond to local needs. That is the beauty of federalism: it lets states serve as testing grounds for new ideas. Utah has taken done this through creative Medicaid reforms. Colorado and Oregon have led the way on drug policy and environmental efforts. Florida and Texas have focused on economic growth through deregulation. These experiments offer real-world lessons from which other states can learn and act accordingly. Just as important, federalism also reconnects people to the democratic process. When decisions are made closer to home, it's easier to engage and rebuild trust. In a time of fading confidence in national institutions, state and local governments offer a bridge to real, responsive leadership. Some worry federalism could lead to inequality or injustice — and that risk is real. But the answer isn't more centralization; it's better partnerships. Federalism means the federal government protects rights, promotes fairness, and upholds the Constitution, while states meet the unique needs of their communities. Utah is leading the way in restoring this balance. The 2025 legislative session brought the passage of HB488, a bold law that expands the state's Federalism Commission, builds public education programs around constitutional principles, and funds outreach efforts to rebalance state and federal roles and responsibilities. The new law ensures that Utah state agencies will now actively evaluate federal actions to identify when Washington has overstepped. Utah will also host an ongoing dialogue with other states to explore what more can be done to rebalance our federal system. This isn't just theory—it's action. Utah's efforts focus on restoring a structure that transcends politics. A robust, balanced, federalism not only limits federal overreach and protects individual liberty, but it also fosters local innovation and preserves democracy. By multiplying the number of representative governments that can resist unconstitutional excesses, federalism serves as an important means of preserving our democratic institutions. In discussing federalism, progressive scholar and dean of Yale Law School, Heather Gerken, stated: 'My main goal is to convince people that federalism, which most people associate with conservatism, doesn't have a political valence.' And California's governor Gavin Newsom recently argued: 'Federalism is the cornerstone of our democracy. It's the United STATES of America.' In NFIB v. Sebelius, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts reminded us that 'the states are separate and independent sovereigns. Sometimes they have to act like it.' That time is now. Restoring balance in the roles of state and federal government won't be easy. Washington must show restraint. States must build capacity. Citizens must be informed and engaged. But the building blocks are already in place. The Constitution gives us the framework. And increasingly, the people are demanding change. The Constitution's version of federalism is dynamic, which means the robust federalism we create today need not be a replica of what was, but it can be adapted to our modern circumstances, needs, and values. The next chapter on federalism cannot be written in Washington. It must be crafted in statehouses, classrooms, and our communities. Jason E. Thompson is an entrepreneur and public servant currently serving in the Utah House of Representatives and is a member of the Utah Federalism Commission. Troy E. Smith, Ph.D., is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Federalism, and Director of the Constitutional Federalism Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University.
Time of India
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Experts discuss dynamics of India's constitutional democracy
Prayagraj: Dr Rajendra Prasad National Law University, Prayagraj organised a national seminar on 'Constitutional Governance: Contemporary Challenges' on Saturday. During the seminar, leading voices in legal academia critically reflected on the structural tensions and evolving dynamics of India's constitutional democracy. The deliberations focused on urgent concerns — judicial corruption , the crisis of accountability, the contested process of appointment of judges, and the philosophical underpinnings of power and her introductory remarks, vice-chancellor, NLU Prayagraj, Sr Prof (Dr) Usha Tandon expressed heartfelt appreciation to all the speakers and participants. She highlighted that constitutional governance today faces significant hurdles, notably the pervasive issue of corruption within its institutions, which erodes public trust and undermines the rule of law. Operation Sindoor 'Our job is to hit target, not to count body bags': Air Marshal Bharti on Op Sindoor Precautionary blackout imposed across parts of Rajasthan, Punjab 'Indian Navy was in position to strike Karachi': Vice Admiral on Operation Sindoor The subtle or overt battle for supremacy among different branches of govt, she said, can disrupt the intended checks and balances, threatening the very foundation of constitutionalism. She also lauded the success of recent Operation Sindoor, citing it as a significant example of the country's commitment to constitutional governance, particularly in upholding national security and protecting its citizens. The chief guest of the seminar, VC, HNLU Raipur, prof V C Vivekanandan, took the discussion to a philosophical plane. Drawing from Montesquieu, Antonio Gramsci, Hiroshi Nishihara, and the Bhagavad Gita, he traced how the idea of separation of powers has traversed centuries and civilizations. His assertion that the Constitution is India's only shared 'religion' was a powerful reminder of its role in holding together a diverse and complex society. He invoked mythology to illustrate Montesquieu's idea that 'power must check power'. He elaborated that this principle is under threat in the contemporary political Devinder Singh of Panjab University, speaking virtually, brought the spotlight on the collegium system and the unresolved question of judicial appointments. His argument for re-opening the debate on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was grounded in a constitutional need for transparency and checks. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like They Lost Their Money - Learn From Their Lesson Expertinspector Click Here Undo He urged the audience to consider whether any institutional structure could ever be perfect — suggesting instead that our constitutional compass must remain the doctrine of basic structure and the rule of Uday Shankar from RGSIPL, IIT Kharagpur identified four dimensions of constitutional governance: the fragility of fundamental rights without redress, the distortion of markets by corrupt practices, the neglected model of horizontal federalism, and the creeping erosion of judicial integrity. He delved into the discussion of corruption in a constitutional democracy, emphasising not only its legal aspects but also socio-economic aspects. He called for accountable constitutional governance, pushing the audience to rethink how democratic institutions can serve people interactive session saw active engagement from students who raised thoughtful questions on the role of technology in ensuring access to justice, the need for codification of uncodified legal domains such as tort law, and the evolving nature of rights and remedies in a tech-driven society. Prof Uday Shankar responded by emphasising the transformative but cautious integration of technology in judicial processes, warning against over-mechanisation while encouraging innovation like digital filing and open court platforms. Prof Devinder Singh linked the demand for codification to legal certainty and clarity, particularly in areas like torts where ambiguity often results in inconsistent outcomes. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Mother's Day wishes , messages , and quotes !
