# The Nature of Freedom: On the Republican Tradition with Philip Pettit

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770/the-nature-of-freedom-on-the-republican-tradition-with-philip-pettit
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770/the-nature-of-freedom-on-the-republican-tradition-with-philip-pettit.md
Podcast: [New Books in Political Science](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770)
Published: 2026-09-23T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://newbooksnetwork.com
Audio file: https://injector.simplecastaudio.com/7743b695-b4cd-4c21-acde-c1a69915e314/episodes/d636f513-86d2-41c2-b31c-2ee4a6332dac/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=7743b695-b4cd-4c21-acde-c1a69915e314&awEpisodeId=d636f513-86d2-41c2-b31c-2ee4a6332dac&awSourceEpisodeId=594b6161-5aa1-4088-9739-6598a652187c&feed=6sq2TaYn
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-political-science-408770/episodes/the-nature-of-freedom-on-the-republican-tradition-with-philip-pettit
Duration seconds: 3456

## Resource

What is freedom? Benjamin Constant and Isaiah Berlin divided the answers to that question into two categories: the positive conception of the ancients (freedom to participate in political life) and the negative conception of the moderns (freedom from external constraints). But what if this dichotomy is a false one? My guest on Madison’s Notes thinks so. So in Episode 6 of Season 6, I interview the political philosopher, Philip Pettit. The L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Human Values at Princeton, the Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Professor Pettit is the author of many books, including Republicanism (1997) and The State (2023). Today, drawing upon Republicanism and The State, the nature of freedom as “non-domination,” the neo-republican tradition that began in the Italian Renaissance with Machiavelli, and how this account worked through the Enlightenment and into the American Founding. Also along the way, we talk about Henrik Ibsen, what Constant and Berlin got wrong, the intellectual historian Quentin Skinner, the relationship between technology and freedom, and how political freedom relates to spiritual freedom. Hosted by Ryan Shinkel, Madison’s Notes is the podcast of Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The transcript for this interview is available on the JMP substack page, “Madison’s Footnotes.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-political-science-408770/episodes/the-nature-of-freedom-on-the-republican-tradition-with-philip-pettit/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-political-science-408770/the-nature-of-freedom-on-the-republican-tradition-with-philip-pettit.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.