Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー

Seems very obvious, too, doesn't it?

Text that includes these figures

This is astonishing – the entire US economy is currently propped up by AI – 40% of US GDP growth this year is AI, and AI companies account for 80% of gains in US stocks in 2025. Will it pop?

To be fair, I do not think that is his point – or mine – also, Russell made an exception to his pacifism in the context of the Nazis.

Bertrand Russell's message from 1959 to future generations

This is the way

A portrait photo of JFS

The Iberconceptos logo from its website

@edjonesc.bsky.social (@uneduniv.bsky.social) offers a review article on the work of Javier Fernández Sebastián, past & recent, "The Bilbao School of Intellectual History: Origins and Futures of the Largest Global Network of Conceptual Historians (Iberconceptos)" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

After months of back-and-forth drafting, & over 10,000 words of dialogue, I am delighted that this discussion article co-authored with Quentin Skinner (@qmul.bsky.social) is now published @global-ih.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

I was just inside a busy Tokyo station. I observed 30,000¥ or so on the ground. So did 100 people across a minute or so. No one stole it, or went to do so. Two people picked it up and walked it to the station office. I have lived here months, and the norms and trust still amaze.

The Legacy of the Enlightenment: Rights, Constitutions, Equality Recent historiography often portrays the Enlightenment as the intellectual source of modern evils and projects contemporary biases on Enlightenment thinkers. Discussions on the legacy of the Enlighten...

So happy that "The Legacy of the Enlightenment", which I co-edited with colleagues in Turin and the wonderful Fondazione 1563, is now available open access. Inside, also my chapter on the Neapolitan Enlightenment's theory of rights and the making of liberalism.
en.olschki.it/libro/978882...

A giant Buddha statue made of bronze

Japanese food

I was kindly introduced to Kamakura and Yokohama by three exceptional Japanese colleagues – a day of walking and talking, cafes and kissaten, temples and shrines, dining and discussion. Reflections on history, in history, and the perils and possibilities of our unfolding future across the world.

@yalebooks.bsky.social have outdone themselves with the cover of my new book. Out in January for anyone interested.

Now on FirstView: Republican revivals? Anton Jäger reflects on the history of republicanism in his review essay of Quentin Skinner’s Liberty as Independence and Bruno Leipold’s @brunoleipold.com Citizen Marx

A wonderful workshop where I too contributed, this time on metaphors of the body politic in economic debates in colonial Virginia. Really enjoyed listening to the contributions of Tom, Rachel and others!

We were delighted to support this fascinating, interdisciplinary workshop last week. We look forward to seeing what the future holds!

A stone archway with a wooden door

A sports building with an East Asian style roof

Today on campus – writing on historiography

The programme including nine talks. The full title of the workshop is "Republican Bodies: Medicine, Natural Philosophy, and Politics"

The programme!

Detail from a medieval illustration of physical training. Various figures train in various ways.

Last week I spoke on athleticism in seventeenth-century English political thought at "Republican Bodies" @imems.bsky.social (albeit online). This was a stimulating coming together (programme below!) including @beccapalmer99.bsky.social and @rhammersley99.bsky.social. I look forward to its future!

Excited to see this in print with Cambridge University Press. A fantastic new volume on Anticolonialism and Social thought (Ed’s): Julian Go and Anaheed Al-Hardan. My contribution includes an intellectual history of Zweledinga Pallo Jordan drawing from archival work and an oral history interview.

I keep returning to this by the late Helen De Cruz

14/14 This was an educational baptism by fire into book editing. Many thanks to my co-editor, Christopher, and all our contributors for their work. I am also grateful to @laurelinm.bsky.social, Selçukhan Ünekbaş, @rosariolopez.bsky.social, Ann Thomson, among others, for their friendship and counsel.

A portrait image of Erhard

The German edition of Sidney's Discourses: "Algernon Sidneys Betrachtungen über die Regierungsformen"

13/14 The volume ends turning to early modern German lands with @thehistorywoman.bsky.social (@newcastleuni.bsky.social) tracing "The Reception of Algernon Sidney in the German Enlightenment", including editions of "Discourses" by Christian Daniel Erhard (pictured) and Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob.

The title page of Price's "Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution"

A painting of Richard Price

12/14 In the penultimate chapter, Christopher Hamel (@univrouen.bsky.social) looks at how Sidney and Locke informed the political thought of Richard Price, "'Locke and all the writers on civil liberty': Locke, Sidney et la pensée politique de Richard Price".

A print portrait of Sidney from his "Discours" (1702)

Detail from the title page of the French edition of Harrington's "Aphorismes"

11/14 Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq (@uparisnanterre.bsky.social) looks more broadly, and comparatively, at the reception of Sidney and James Harrington in eighteenth-century France in: "Les œuvres politiques de Harrington et de Sidney et leur réception dans la France des Lumières et de la Révolution".

Detail from the title page of the French edition of Sidney

Portrait of Montesquieu

10/14 Following this, Jean Terrel (@ubmontaigne.bsky.social) undertakes an analysis of references in "L’Esprit des lois" (1748) by Montesquieu to Sidney's "Discourses" (1698), a text that was first translated into French in 1702.

Detail from the title page of "Discourses"

9/14 In her chapter "Experiencing Political Texts", @rhammersley99.bsky.social (@newcastleuni.bsky.social) addresses the role of genre in shaping the arguments of Sidney's works as well as the importance of taking materiality seriously and what this reveals about his editors and printers.

Three kagura performers and two musicians on a stage

Over the last two days, I attended the annual festival at Nezu-jinja – my local Shinto shrine. This festival has been continuously held since the Edo era. This evening, I watched a sanza-no-mai (三社舞) performance, a kagura dance only performed at this shrine and at this time.

Detail from a sketch of Hercules with a club fighting a hydra

8/14 Next up is Cesare Cuttica (@univ-paris8.fr @helsinki.fi) with a chapter exploring Sidney and the notion of democracy, particularly in his "Discourses" (1698). Cuttica argues that Sidney is a Platonist and anti-democrat "Filmerianly" set against the many-headed hydra of the people.

Detail of the figure of justice from Lorenzetti's "Allegory of Good Government" in Siena

7/14 Luís Falcão (Universidade Federal Fluminense) looks into the connections, tensions, and relationship between the languages of natural law and classical virtue ethics across Sidney's works and the synthesis he proposes. Special focus is given to virtue and right in Aristotelian kingship.

A few more days to apply!

Detail from a painting of Charles I on horseback - a monarch associated with the exercise of prerogative powers

6/14 In his chapter "Sidney et les prérogatives royales", Alberto Ribeiro Gonçalves de Barros (@uspoficial.bsky.social), investigates Sidney's arguments against the legitimacy of prerogative powers - unlike John Locke, Sidney cautions how prerogative power, by its existence, subverts freedom.