Thomas Charrayre

Doctoral student @SciencesPo, I work on conservative thought in the 20th century with a focus on Strauss, Oakeshott and Aron. 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪

Formerly @ENS_ULM

[Synesis: History of Ideas Podcast @SynesisIdeas]

The episode can now be listened to on Substack and Spotify! Link below!

[The Paris Review @parisreview]

We’re hiring an assistant / associate editor. Applications are open until 6/18. https://t.co/TkQlxnn8lE

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@alex_usyd Do you deal with Aristotle's politics while doing some of Plato? Or through the transition towards the modern with Montesquieu?

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@alex_usyd I am looking forward to teaching a class on the political theory of tyranny and it would look a lot like yours! Great stuff! I can't really do it as part of the intro class in PT I am giving because we are expected to cover a bit of everything.

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@DrDuncanBell What a sad ending...

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

It is now done at least for the second of those essays.

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

I was waiting for someone to draw attention to Oakeshott's two essays called "The Tower of Babel"

[Frédéric Morgan @fredmor67160063]

https://t.co/ujyimtHYq2

[Frédéric Morgan @fredmor67160063]

https://t.co/ujyimtHYq2

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

Very human moment in the Archives.
Raymond Aron claimed he never received a letter, which I just read in the folder, in order to avoid an invitation.
And he isn't ashamed: "I am now convinced I never received your letter" (rough translation)

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

"I am used to french students who are inclined to see in the professor a judge and an adversary to wait for the moment where the magician will fail."

It was written in 1974, so with May 68 in mind, and I don't think it really reflects a cultural break anymore.

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

This one is for my American friends, straight out of the Raymond Aron Archives:

"I did not mean that the Americans are too shy, I really mean and you must tell it to them that they are too kind; they are too ready to agree, to admire."

Contrasting them with French students:

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@MateusMBruno @alex_usyd a coward) that doesn't fit the way we feel about morality.

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@MateusMBruno @alex_usyd It makes sense with the way he describes our society in terms of administrative social roles.
I think he speaks too highly of Greece probably, but he's right that we rest on a vocabulary we inherited and we still use in a web of meaning (to be courageous is the opposite of being

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@MateusMBruno @alex_usyd Over the summer then ! Holidays are the only cure to Good this macro-problem

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@MateusMBruno @alex_usyd It can be read in one afternoon or a long evening :)

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@MateusMBruno @alex_usyd After reading the novel he mentions, A Canticle for Leibowitz, it really made sense to me!
And the novel is a fantastic read too!

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@HorcherF It definitely works well with your own book on prudence!

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@HorcherF As you may know, Matthias Oppermann has some excellent stuff (2020 and 2024) if you read german. Truly an under-appreciated scholar!

[Thomas Charrayre @ThomasUnser]

@HorcherF An excellent book! It leaves the reader with the desire for people to dig even more on the liberal (or whig) reception of Burke before the end of the 19th century.
It also connects well with the liberal-conservative German tradition and the reception of Burke there.