What does a seventeenth-century philosopher have to tell us about politics, development and everyday life today? Quite a lot, it turns out.
The Crisis, Politics and Law Academic Team is launching a new podcast, The Ontology Lab, hosted by ISS Associate Professor Karim Knio. Its pilot season brings together two important threads in Knio’s work: the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza and critical realism, a tradition of thought associated with philosopher Roy Bhaskar.
Both invite us to look beneath what we see on the surface. What structures and relationships shape the world around us? What gives people the power to act and change? And why do some systems transform while others persist?
These questions feel especially at home at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). As an international institute focused on development and inequality, we are interested in the connections between people and places, and in the forces that shape lives across borders.
Spinoza is usually placed within the history of European philosophy. But ideas do not develop in neat intellectual boxes. They travel, meet other ideas and change along the way. Knio approaches Spinoza as part of this wider history of thought and brings his philosophy into conversation with critical realism and contemporary social science.
Enter the Ontology Lab. Its pilot season, The Spinoza Series, begins with an experiment: start not with philosophy, but with the world.
Across four episodes, Knio brings together contributors to the Journal of Critical Realism’s special issue on Morphogenetic Régulation – Dr Juan David Parra, Daniel 'Zach' Sloman, Margaux Schulz and Andrew Dryhurst – to discuss a framework for understanding how complex systems change and how they persist within contemporary capitalism.
Ahead of the launch, we sat down with Knio to find out why.
Let’s start big: why ontology?
'In order to interpret and analyse events, you need to look into the theories that populate them,' Knio says. But if you want to understand where those theories come from and how they are made, you also need to think about the content and logic behind their claims.
'Then you need the field of ontology. So: no ontology, no social science.'
So, how does that shape this new podcast?
Most podcasts Knio listens to focus on what he calls concrete issues. What he often misses are the intellectual questions underneath them.
'Sometimes, under the pretext of relatability, we say: we don’t want jargon', he explains. 'But how can we have viable social science without jargon, without technical issues? The challenge is to explain it, not to shun it.'
That idea sits at the heart of the Ontology Lab. Instead of starting with abstract concepts, the podcast begins with concrete experiences, problems and questions. From there, it introduces the concepts that can help explain what is going on.
'We start from the concrete and then dive deeper into the abstract.'
'In order to interpret and analyse events, you need to look into the theories that populate them.'
Dr Karim Knio
Associate Professor
The podcast draws strongly on critical realism. How does that shape the way you approach these questions?
‘I’m a fan of Spinoza, but I’m a fan for a reason,’ Knio says.
For him, Spinoza is interesting not only because of the philosophers he influenced, but also because of the longer histories of thought that came before him, including what Knio describes as ‘Pre Enlightenment’ influences. This makes Spinoza an interesting meeting point between different traditions and ways of thinking.
Spinoza also plays an important role in Knio’s own work on Morphogenetic Régulation (MR). The framework brings Spinozian philosophy into conversation with Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism, Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic analysis in sociology and Robert Boyer’s French Régulation School in economics. Together, these ideas offer a way to explore how complex systems change, persist and persevere within contemporary capitalism.
These connections also shape the podcast. The five episodes bring together contributors to the Journal of Critical Realism’s special issue on Morphogenetic Régulation, taking listeners from concrete questions into the philosophical ideas beneath them.
What should listeners gain from the series?
First, Knio hopes listeners learn to appreciate complexity. Second, he wants them to see that jargon is not always an obstacle to understanding.
'We should not obfuscate things with jargon,' he says, but getting rid of it altogether is neither possible nor desirable.
And third, he hopes listeners learn to be patient. 'The process of learning is incremental. There is something sweet about this patience, about this building up. It’s not going to happen in one go.' The podcast, he says, should leave you a little puzzled, then curious, then ready to rethink what you thought you knew.
'Bit by bit, that builds the appetite and the perseverance to ask for more and for deeper answers to whatever puzzle you have.'
The first episode of The Ontology Lab drops today on Spotify and YouTube. The following episodes drop every Tuesday.
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