About

Timothy Brennan is a professor in the Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on intellectual history, cultural and political theory, the Marxist and phenomenological traditions, the avant-gardes, comparative and world literature, theories of colonialism and imperialism, problems of translation, and popular music. Brennan's work explores these areas through a multidisciplinary lens, contributing to a deeper understanding of cultural and political dynamics across different contexts.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Philosophy
• Epistemology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Law
• Neoclassical economics
• Economics
• Theology
• Law and economics

Selected publications

• Postcolonialism

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2025-01-23

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The term “postcolonialism” suggests a cohesive outlook as though it had a definite chronology and a clearly demarcated inside and outside. In fact, it has neither, and should not be confused with “postcolonial studies”—a broader, more non-denominational response to Eurocentrism. Postcolonialism, by contrast, presented itself as a unified theory of the postcolonial as such, drawing its inspirations from the more conservative strains of Continental European philosophy. To that degree, it was a selective tradition that disavowed its precursors in the interwar communist movements and the anticolonial liberation movements, whose intellectual resources were mainly left-Hegelian. The divisions within postcolonial studies, then, are evoked by the term, and they extend from political to teleological ones (is the goal to make modernity more widely accessible or to destroy it, for example?). These positions and counter-positions represent tensions between two kinds of constituencies: (1) an upwardly mobile diaspora of scholars allied with the liberal centers of the Anglo-American university; and (2) a non-denominational, multi-ethnic left interested in civic betterment, internationalism, and resistance to US foreign policy. These tensions are explored in an analysis of two contemporary schools of thought that bear on postcolonialism: “decoloniality” (which might more accurately be called “nativism” or “indigeneity”) and Actor Network Theory (or post-critique).

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• Does Liberalism Need Free Will? Augustinianism, Pelagianism, and the <i>Autobiography</i> of Benjamin Franklin

  Modern Intellectual History · 2025-03-01

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  The historiography of liberalism has taken a theological turn. Many scholars now trace the origins of liberal thought to Christian orthodoxy, with its emphasis on the radical equality of humanity under the absolute sovereignty of God. Others trace it to the heresy of Pelagianism, with its emphasis on the radical freedom of humans to choose between good and evil under the rationalistic judgment of God. Focusing on a classic expression of early-modern liberalism, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography , this article questions the theological turn: Franklin’s thought, I argue, rejects both Augustinianism and Pelagianism, along with their underlying metaphysical presuppositions concerning human liberty.

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• The Limits of Enlightened Self-Interest: Franklin’s Profession of Faith in the <i>Autobiography</i>

  American Political Thought · 2025-03-01

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  Notwithstanding its reputation for blithe optimism, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography repeatedly acknowledges the problematic character of its central claim that virtue conduces to earthly happiness. The religious credo presented in the book is thus a crucial supplement to the moral teaching. Franklin’s profession of faith serves not simply as a crutch for “weak minds” but also as a source of hope and consolation for those who have come up against the real limits of enlightened self-interest, perhaps including Franklin himself.

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• Rousseau, Franklin and Bourgeois Liberalism

  History of Political Thought · 2024 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  This article suggests that the anti-bourgeois, illiberal character of Rousseau’s political philosophy has been exaggerated. In order to illustrate this point, I juxtapose Rousseau’s thought with that of Benjamin Franklin, the acknowledged embodiment of bourgeois liberalism in the eighteenth century. Although Franklin and Rousseau are often cast as opposites today, in their own time they were commonly linked – with, I think, considerable justification. Without insisting that Rousseau had a direct influence on Franklin, I argue that Franklin’s moral-political thought was largely consonant with that of his supposed antithesis.

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• Teaching by Examples: Rousseau’s Lawgiver and the Case of Benjamin Franklin

  Political Theory · 2023-12-06

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  Rousseau’s account of the “legislator” or “lawgiver” is commonly regarded as one of the most far-fetched, ominous, and baffling parts of his teaching in the Social Contract. In brief, Rousseau’s lawgiver seems to be a proto-totalitarian figure whose self-appointed mission is to found a political community by “denaturing” people at a single stroke and who may be a mere figment of Rousseau’s overheated imagination. Accordingly, this part of the Social Contract threatens to make a mockery of Rousseau’s claim to be “taking men as they are and laws they can be,” as well as his claim that the combination of “ freedom and equality” is “the greatest good” in the civil state. Following and extending Rousseau’s own method of teaching by examples, however, this essay argues that Benjamin Franklin’s influence over the American republic—especially through his posthumous Autobiography—offers a prosaic example of the apparently fantastical phenomenon sketched by Rousseau. In fact, I argue that Franklin’s case corresponds more fully to Rousseau’s description than do any of Rousseau’s own examples (such as Moses, Lycurgus, and Numa) and that Franklin showed in practice what Rousseau suggested in theory: that a lawgiver can succeed without relying on coercion and without undercutting the equality that underlies a just society. Franklin’s denaturing influence, I suggest, has been crucial for the durability of republicanism in the United States, given the country’s size and diversity.

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• Teaching by Contradictions: Montesquieu's Subversion of Piety in <i>The Spirit of the Laws</i>

  The Review of Politics · 2022-01-01

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  Abstract Building on studies by Thomas L. Pangle and Robert C. Bartlett, this article contends that Montesquieu's rhetorical moderation with respect to religion in The Spirit of the Laws serves a substantively radical project, that is, the gradual diminution of religious devotion through the spread of liberal-commercial civilization. Taking up the major passages of praise for religion in general and for Christianity in particular, I examine the strategy that allows Montesquieu to claim the mantle of moderation in spite of his radicalism on this crucial issue: allowing his prominently advertised positions to be undercut by his own historical observations and comparisons, and thus teaching by contradictions. I also argue that, notwithstanding his claim to be treating faith merely from a practical point of view, Montesquieu offers a theoretical challenge to revealed religion.

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• <i>Georges Sorel’s ‘Study on Vico’: Translation, Edition, and Introduction</i> . By <scp>Eric Brandom</scp> and <scp>Tommaso Giordani</scp> <i>Georges Sorel’s ‘Study on Vico’: Translation, Edition, and Introduction</i> . By BrandomEric and GiordaniTommaso. (Radboud Studies in Humanities, 10.) Leiden: Brill, 2019. viii + 162 pp.

  French Studies · 2021-01-07

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  The editors of this fascinating book reveal an obscure work by Georges Sorel to be a vivid prefiguring of contemporary debates over science and the humanities. By bringing to life the intellectual controversies of France and Italy between the 1890s and the First World War, they also probe a transformative moment within a Marxism still in its infancy. On the one hand, prominent spokespeople, such as Karl Marx’s son-in-law Paul Lafargue, were busy defining the movement as the unsentimental chronicler of inflexible productive laws; vigorously antagonistic to that common view, the Italian philosopher Antonio Labriola (Sorel’s major inspiration) found its rationale instead in the cultural force of working-class consciousness. Like today’s clash between the macro data of world-systems theory and the fine-grained readings of immanent critique, this standoff (the editors imply) has not moved much beyond the terms of the 1890s. What seems, then, like a book for specialists, turns...

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• “The Strength and Vigor of the Soul”: The Broader Meaning of Virtue in Rousseau’s<i>First Discourse</i>

  The European Legacy · 2021 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Philosophy
  • Epistemology

  Rousseau insisted that his First Discourse, the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, was chronically misread. This essay suggests that readers have tended to interpret the Discourse too narrowly. While Rousseau did link popular enlightenment with the corruption of virtue, he defined virtue as the combination of two qualities that are both separable from moral integrity and good citizenship: strength and vigor of soul. Clarifying the definition of virtue in the Discourse helps clarify Rousseau’s philosophical “system that is true but distressing.” It also adds to the plausibility of Rousseau’s argument.

  PublisherDOI

• Review: <i>Jazz and Justice: racism and the political economy of the music</i> by Gerald Horne

  Race & Class · 2020-01-01

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• Montesquieu’s<i>Dur-Commerce</i>thesis

  History of European Ideas · 2020 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Philosophy
  • Epistemology
  • Theology

  This essay seeks to clarify a facet of Montesquieu’s doux-commerce thesis. On the one hand, I agree with the scholarly consensus that Montesquieu was a doux-commerce thinker. Indeed, I argue that from the Persian Letters to The Spirit of the Laws he consistently presented self-interest as a psychological spring of action superior in point of humanity to virtue (the spring of ancient republics like Rome and Sparta). On the other hand, I contend that he went out of his way to show that commercial regimes need not be characterized by ‘softness’ (mollesse), even if they are marked by ‘gentleness’ (douceur). Not only are these qualities conceptually distinct, but there is no reason (Montesquieu suggested) why they must go together in practice. Keeping in mind the distinction between douceur and mollesse helps to establish that Montesquieu made not only a doux-commerce argument but also a dur-commerce argument. In other words, he maintained that commerce went hand-in-hand with hardiness and vigour, as well as gentleness.

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Frequent coauthors

• Ken Hirschkop

  5 shared

• Thomas Mufti

  National Research University Higher School of Economics

  4 shared

• Кевин М. Ф. Платт

  4 shared

• Catherine Dille

  4 shared

• Luo Wang

  National Research University Higher School of Economics

  4 shared

• Александр Дмитриев

  4 shared

• Bill Todd

  National Research University Higher School of Economics

  4 shared

• Ilya Kalinin

  Princeton University

  4 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Cornell University

• M.A.

  University of Michigan

• M.A.

  University of Potsdam

• M.A.

  Rutgers University

• M.A.

  Humboldt University (Berlin)

• Other

  Duke University’s Franklin Humanities Institute

Awards & honors

• Samuel Russell Chair (2014-2020)
• Donald V. Hawkins Chair (2023-4)
• Palestine Prize (from the London-based “Middle East Monitor”…
• Elizabeth Longford Prize