Profile

Biography

Timothy Stanton (BA Leicester, MA with distinction York, PhD Leicester) is a historian of political thought and political theorist who studied at the Universities of Leicester and York before receiving his doctorate from the University of Leicester. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Dr. Ian Harris, examined the political, philosophical and theological views of John Locke and Edward Stillingfleet, as they related to the subject of toleration. It included the first complete and accurate transcription of the last major Locke manuscript which remains unpublished. He has held teaching positions at the Universities of Leicester and Birmingham and was Beinecke fellow at Yale University in 2008. He is a regular reviewer for publishers and academic journals in the UK and the United States, on topics in political philosophy and intellectual history. He reviews recent publications on Hobbes in the English language for the Bulletin Hobbes, published annually by Archives de philosophie. He is a member of the Network 'Freedom and the Construction of Europe: New perspectives on philosophical, religious and political controversies'

In 2012, Dr Stanton will give the third Balzan-Skinner Lecture in Modern Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge.

Departmental roles

• Director, Graduate Studies

Research

Overview

Dr. Stanton's research focuses on the thought of John Locke and its relation to (i) the thought of Thomas Hobbes, (ii) Nonconformity in seventeenth-century England, (iii) toleration and (iv) liberalism.; He is currently completing a critical edition of the Locke-Stillingfleet controversy over toleration and separation from the Church of England, 1680-1683. His recent articles on Hobbes and Locke reflect some of these interests, and gesture towards a wider interest still in the place and standing of authority within liberalism, to find expression in a monograph on Locke and understandings of authority in the liberal tradition.

Areas of interest

His research interests include (i) the development and character of Locke's theory of toleration and its connexions to his wider thought; (ii) its relations to the views of his contemporaries, especially Thomas Hobbes; (iii) its implications for contemporary theories of toleration and the views of politics to which they are connected; (iv) historiography and methodological questions arising out of the study of texts; (v) the role of assumptions in underwriting the varieties of moral and political reasoning that proliferate in modernity.

Supervision

• Chia-yu Chou
• Medhat Khattar (jointly supervised with Jon Parkin)
• Marko Simendic ((jointly supervised with Jon Parkin)

Publications

Selected publications

2011. 'Christian foundations; or some loose stones?  Toleration and the philosophy of Locke's politics', Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy 14, pp. 323-47.

2011. 'Hobbes and Schmitt', History of European Ideas 37, 2, pp. 160-67.

2011. 'Authority and Freedom in the Interpretation of Locke's Political Theory', Political Theory 39, pp. 6-30.

2011. 'Logic, Language and Legitimation in the History of Ideas: A Brief View and Survey of Bevir and Skinner', Intellectual History Review 21, pp. 71-84.

2010. 'Hobbes's Redefinition of the Commonwealth' in T. Stoneham, K. Allen (eds.) Causation and Modern Philosophy (London: Routledge), pp. 104-22.

2010. 'Locke's Letters concerning Toleration' in S-J Savonius, P. Schuurman, J.C. Walmsley (eds.) The Continuum Companion to Locke (London: Continuum), pp. 257-65.

2010. 'The Reception of Locke in England in the Early Eighteenth-Century: Metaphysics, Religion and the State' in Savionius et al. The Continuum Companion to Locke (London: Continuum), pp. 292-302.

2010. 'Natural Rights (MS Word , 29kb)' and 'Property (MS Word , 21kb)' in M. Bevir (ed.) The Sage Encyclopedia of Political Theory.

2009. 'Above the Battle', Times Literary Supplement, 23 October, no.5560. A review of Quentin Skinner, Hobbes and Republican Liberty.

2008. 'Locke the thinker', Locke Studies 8, pp. 23-58.

2008. 'Toleration, Past and Present' (with Jon Parkin), British Academy Review 11, pp. 12-14.

2008. 'Hobbes and Locke on Natural Law and Jesus Christ', History of Political Thought 29, pp. 65-88.

2006. 'Locke and the politics and theology of toleration', Political Studies 54, pp. 84-102.

2006. 'The Name and Nature of Locke's Defence of Nonconformity (PDF , 203kb)', Locke Studies 6, pp. 143-72.

Forthcoming publications

2011. 'Natural Law, Non-conformity and Toleration' in J. Parkin and T. Stanton (eds.) Natural Law and Toleration in the Early Enlightenment (Oxford : Oxford University Press; Proceedings of the British Academy).

2011.  'Liberty of conscience, authority, and the foundations of liberalism' in Q. Skinner and M. van Gelderen (eds.) Freedom and the Construction of Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Introduction to Political Theory
• Introduction to International Politics
• History of Political Thought
• Authority and the Liberal Tradition

Postgraduate

• History of the Idea of Toleration
• Personal and Professional Skills