An Introduction to the Thought of Judith Shklar
Judith Nisse Shklar (1928-1992) was a singular political theorist that remains little-known these days. Having been born in Riga, Latvia, in between the two World Wars, Shklar belonged to the group of European Jewish emigree thinkers that fled the brutality that ensued in her homeland to seek refuge in America (first in Canada, and then in the USA). She then became a renowned Professor at the Department of Government of Harvard University, and a prolific thinker that devoted her life to political reflection, privileging the overlooked fringes of society and those that suffer the most with the abuses of power. Shklar balanced a careful attention to the history of philosophy with the normative debates surrounding justice, ideology and obligation that took front stage in the 20th century, resulting in a series of rich and provocative works that acutely expose the multi-layered duplicities of human nature, and that challenge the liberal priorities in favour of a cruelty conscious oriented undertaking.
Speaking directly to the us, and the political questions that we continue to tackle, Shklar’s thought has been revitalised and increasingly reassessed in the past few years, a debate that we seek to bring to the forefront with a full day dedicated to the introduction and analysis of her thought, with two special sessions led by Professor Robin Douglass (King’s College London).
The first will be a special session of EPLab’s Permanent Seminar, where Prof. Douglass presents us an analysis of Shklar’s reflections on injustice, revolving around Rousseau, and its repercussions for democratic institutions and the notion of citizenship, thereby opening the programme for the 2026/2027 academic year. The second is inserted in the EPLab Masterclass Series, where Prof. Douglass will guide us through the very work of a political theorist, building on Shklar’s methods in order to arrive at a more eclectic approach.
Both sessions are open to the public and will be conducted in English.
If you’d like to attend and receive the pre-circulated material, please contact the organisers: Inês Pinheiro (ines.pinheiro@campus.fcsh.unl.pt) and Devon Cass (devoncass@fcsh.unl.pt).
Bio
Robin Douglass is Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. He is the author of Rousseau and Hobbes: Nature, Free Will, and the Passions (2015), and Mandeville’s Fable: Pride, Hypocrisy, and Sociability (2023). He served as co-editor of the European Journal of Political Theory from 2017 to 2026. He is currently completing a book on Judith Shklar’s theory of injustice, which places her ideas in dialogue with those of John Rawls, F. A. Hayek, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His work on Shklar has recently appeared in Political Theory, The Review of Politics, and American Political Science Review.