
Professor Thomas Osborne
B.A.(Oxon.), M.Sc.(Lond.), Ph.D.(Brun.)
Expertise
I am currently interested in the history and philosophy of the social and human sciences, and also in political theory (especially liberalism).
Current positions
Professor of Social and Political Theory
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Contact
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Biography
Research interests
I work at the interface of social and political theory. In terms of social theory my interests are in historical epistemology, neo-biological approaches to society, philosophical anthropology, cultural theory and aesthetics, and the philosophy of social science. In political theory my interests centre on liberalism (and anti-liberalism) and on populism. My books are Aspects of Enlightenment: social theory and the ethics of truth (1998), The Structure of Modern Cultural Theory (2008) and, with Nikolas Rose, Questioning Humanity; being human in a posthuman age (2024).
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Political Ethics and the Liberalism of Fear
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/09/2016 to 31/08/2018
THE FORMATION OF EMPIRICAL STYLES OF REASONING IN SOCIOLOGY 1840 - 1970
Principal Investigator
Dates
01/10/1996 to 01/10/1997
Thesis supervisions
Governing the knowledge economy : the World Bank as a gatekeeper for development
Supervisors
Humour, rhetoric and racism : a sociological critique of racist humour
Supervisors
Toads, Dome, and Lampposts
Supervisors
The Powers That Be
Supervisors
Socio-cultural Construction of Recognition: The Discursive Representation of Islam and Muslims in the British Christian News Media
Supervisors
BERT for discourse analysis
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
30/01/2024Against Posthumanism
Theory, Culture & Society
Questioning Humanity
Questioning Humanity
Moderation as Government
European Legacy
Power Degree Zero
Journal of Political Power
Tragedy, Modernity and Political Life
Society