John is joined by Professor John Gray, probably the world's foremost political philosopher. They discuss the state of the world today. Russia, Ukraine, Europe, China, America; Putin, Macron, Biden. His knowledge of history is deep and wide and so his perspective on current events is imposing. We learn about the history of ideas, geo-politics, trans-humanism and more. This is an episode not to be missed. John Gray is an English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. He retired as School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gray contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer. Gray has written several influential books, including False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998), Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2003), and Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (2007). False Dawn has been translated into sixteen languages. A singularly original thinker, his books are widely acclaimed as seminal, significant and even prophetic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Intro 00:30 Introducing (Guest) 01:49 What is political philosophy 04:28 Thatcher & Communism 06:57 Will China liberalise? 11:46 Putin's war 18:32 Does Ukraine war mark end of international order? 25:18 Will the Ukraine war be a long war? 30:38 Are Russia and China rational actors? 34:07 What role must Europe take in defending Ukraine? 40:00 Is there genocide in Ukraine? 44:00 Are meta-narratives really dead? 19:11 Is history cyclical? 01:02:53 What is trans-humanism? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conversations feature John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, interviewing the world's foremost thought leaders about today's pressing social, cultural and political issues. John believes proper, robust dialogue is necessary if we are to maintain our social strength and cohesion. As he puts it; "You cannot get good public policy out of a bad public debate." If you value this discussion and want to see more like it, make sure you subscribe to the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtnYSEGViOnb7k8ezUaWUww?sub_confirmation=1 And stay right up to date with all the conversations by subscribing to the newsletter here: https://johnanderson.net.au/contact/ Follow John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnAndersonAC Follow John on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnandersonac/ Support the channel: https://johnanderson.net.au/support/ Website: https://johnanderson.net.au/ Podcast: https://johnanderson.net.au/podcasts/