Emeritus Professor Ian Hunter
Emeritus Professor
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Researcher biography
Professor Ian Hunter is currently pursuing two research themes, one concerns the history of early modern political and philosophical thought, and the other concerns the history of theory in the modern humanities academy.
Ian Hunter is a distinguished international scholar working on the history of early modern political and philosophical thought, and on the emergence of theory in the 1960s humanities academy. His Rival Enlightenments appeared in 2001 and his most recent monograph is The Secularisation of the Confessional State: The Political Thought of Christian Thomasius (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). In collaboration with Thomas Ahnert (Edinburgh) and Frank Grunert (Halle), he completed the first English translation of Thomasius’s works: Christian Thomasius: Essays on Church, State, and Politics (Liberty Fund, 2007). He has recently edited and introduced two volumes for the German edition of Thomasius's Selected Works.
Recently published articles include ‘Kant’s Religion and Prussian Religious Policy’, Modern Intellectual History, vol. 2, 2005, 1-27; ‘The History of Theory’, Critical Inquiry, vol. 33, 2006, 78-112; ‘The Time of Theory: The Return of Metaphysics to the Anglo-American Humanities Academy’, Journal of Postcolonial Studies, vol. 10, 2007, 5-22; and 'A Jus Gentium for America. The Rules of War and the Rule of Law in the Revolutionary United States', Journal of the History of International Law 14, 2012, pp. 173-206. Recent book chapters include 'Natural Law as Political Philosophy', in Desmond Clarke and Catherine Wilson (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 475-99; and 'Kant’s Political Thought in the Prussian Enlightenment', in Elizabeth Ellis (ed), Kant’s Political Theory: Interpretations and Applications, Pittsburg: Penn State Press, 2012, pp. 170-207.
He is currently working on the theme of the persona of the philosopher, and the intellectual history of 1960s humanities theory.
Publications
Books
Hunter, Ian (2007). The Secularisation of the Confessional State: The Political Thought of Christian Thomasius. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Thomasius, Christian, Hunter, Ian, Grunert, Frank and Ahnert, Thomas (2007). Essays on church, state, and politics. Indianapolis, IN, U.S.A.: Liberty Fund.
Book Chapters
Hunter, Ian (2019). The contested persona of the historian: on the origins of a permanent conflict. How to be a historian: scholarly personae in historical studies, 1800-2000. (pp. 15-35) edited by Herman Paul. Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press.
Hunter, Ian (2019). Theory and practice in the natural law of Christian Thomasius. Philosophy, rights and natural law: essays in honour of Knud Haakonssen. (pp. 169-195) edited by Ian Hunter and Richard Whatmore. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press.
Hunter, Ian (2014). The uses of natural law in early modern Germany: Christian Thomasius's reshaping of the legal persona. Reading and Writing History from Bruni to Windschuttle: Essays in Honour of Gary Ianziti. (pp. 125-140) edited by Christian Thorsten Callisen. Farnham, England: Ashgate.
Hunter, Ian (2014). The law of nature and nations. The Routledge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Philosophy. (pp. 559-592) edited by Aaron Garrett. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge.
Hunter, Ian (2014). The law of nature and nations. The Routledge companion to eighteenth century philosophy. (pp. 559-592) edited by Aaron Garrett. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315815558-36
Hunter, Ian (2013). Vattel in revolutionary America: from the rules of war to the rule of law. Between Indigenous and Settler Governance. (pp. 12-22) edited by Lisa Ford and Tim Rowse. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203085028
Hunter, Ian (2013). The Tolerationist Programs of Thomasius and Locke. Natural law and toleration in the early enlightenment. (pp. 107-137) edited by Jon Parkin and Timothy Stanton. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.5871/bacad/9780197265406.003.0005
Hunter, Ian (2013). Vattel in revolutionary America: from the rules of war to the rule of law. Between Indigenous and settler governance. (pp. 12-22) edited by Lisa Ford and Tim Rowse. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203085028-8
Hunter, Ian (2012). Kant's political thought in the Prussian Enlightenment. Kant's political theory: interpretations and applications. (pp. 170-207) edited by Elisabeth Ellis. University Park, PA USA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hunter, Ian (2012). Kant's political thought in the Prussian enlightenment. Kant's political theory: interpretations and applications. (pp. 170-207) edited by Elizabeth Ellis. University Park, PA, United States: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hunter, Ian (2012). Theory time: on the history of poststructuralism. Taking stock: the humanities in Australian life since 1968. (pp. 75-114) edited by Mark Finnane and Ian Donaldson. Nedlands, WA, Australia: University of Western Australia Press.
Hunter, Ian (2011). Libertad religiosa y coaccion racional. Thomasius y Locke sobre la tolerancia. Forjadores de la tolerancia. (pp. 116-140) edited by Ma José Villaverde and John Christian Laursen. Madrid, Spain: Editorial Tecnos.
Hunter, Ian (2011). Natural law as political philosophy. The Oxford handbook of philosophy in early modern Europe. (pp. 475-499) edited by Desmond M. Clarke and Catherine Wilson. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199556137.003.0023
Hunter, Ian (2010). Die geschichte der philosophie und die persona des philosophen. Die Cambridge School der Politischen Ideengeschichte. (pp. 241-283) edited by Martin Muslow and Andreas Mahler. Berlin, Germany: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Hunter, Ian (2010). Global justice and regional metaphysics: On the critical history of the law of nature and nations. Law and politics in British Colonial thought: Transpositions of empire. (pp. 11-30) edited by Shaunnagh Dorsett and Ian Hunter. New York, U.S.A.: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hunter, Ian (2010). The man and the citizen: The pluralization of civil personae in early modern German natural law. Security, state and subject formation. (pp. 16-35) edited by Anna Yeatman and Magdalena Żółkoś. New York, U.S.A.: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Hunter, Ian (2009). The shallow legitimacy of secular liberal orders: The case of early modern Brandenburg-Prussia. Secularism, religion and multicultural citizenship. (pp. 27-55) edited by Geoffrey Brahm Levey and Tariq Modood. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Hunter, Ian, Ahnert, Thomas and Grunert, Frank (2007). Introduction. Essays on church, state, and politics. (pp. ix-xxi) edited by Knud Haakonssen. Indianapolis, U.S.A.: Liberty Fund.
Hunter, Ian (2006). Sacrilege: From public crime to personal offence. Negotiating the sacred: Blasphemy and sacrilege in a multicultural society. (pp. 109-117) edited by Elizabeth Burns Coleman and Kevin White. Canberra, Australia: ANU ePress.
Hunter, Ian (2006). The university philosopher in early modern Germany. The philosopher in early modern Europe: The nature of a contested identity. (pp. 35-65) edited by Conal Condren, Stephen Gaukroger and Ian Hunter. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Gaukroger, S., Hunter, Ian and Condren, Conal (2006). Introduction. The philosopher in early modern Europe: The nature of a contested identity. (pp. 1-16) edited by Conal Condren, Stephen Gaukroger and Ian Hunter. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hunter, Ian (2005). Thomasius on the toleration of heresy. Heresy in Transition; Transforming ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. (pp. 155-167) edited by Ian Hunter, John Christian Laursen and Cary J. Nederman. Hants, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Hunter, Ian (2004). Christian Thomasius' treatise on the right of protestant princes regarding Heretics. Eighteenth Century Thought. (pp. 57-98) edited by J.G. Buickerood. New York: AMS Press Inc.
Hunter, Ian (2004). Multiple enlightenments: Rival Aufklarer at the University of Halle 1690 - 1730. The Enlightenment world. (pp. 576-595) edited by Martin Fitzpatrick, Peter Jones, Christa Knellwolf and Iain McCalman. New York, USA: Routledge.
Saunders, David and Hunter, Ian (2003). Introduction. Samuel Pufendorf: The whole duty of man, according to the law of nature. (pp. ix-xviii) edited by Ian Hunter and David Saunders. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Hunter, Ian (2003). The love of a sage or the command of a superior: The natural law doctrines of Leibniz and Pufendorf. Early modern natural law theories: Context and strategies in the early Enlightenment. (pp. 169-193) edited by T. J. Hochstrasser and P. Schroeder. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hunter, Ian and Saunders, David (2002). Introduction. Natural Law and Civil Sovereignty: Moral Right and State Authority in Early Modern Political Thought. (pp. 1-10) Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9781403919533
Journal Articles
Hunter, Ian (2022). The early Jewish reception of Kantian philosophy. Modern Intellectual History, 19 (1), 159-186. doi: 10.1017/S1479244320000359
Hunter, Ian (2019). The contest over context in intellectual history. History and Theory, 58 (2), 185-209. doi: 10.1111/hith.12109
Hunter, Ian (2019). The invention of human nature: the intention and reception of Pufendorf’s entia moralia doctrine. History of European Ideas, 45 (7), 1-20. doi: 10.1080/01916599.2019.1614813
Hunter, Ian (2018). Science as a Vocation, Philosophy as a Religion. Sociologica: International Journal for Sociological Debate, 12 (1), 137-153. doi: 10.6092/issn.1971-8853/8436
Hunter, Ian (2018). Public law and the limits of philosophy: German idealism and the religious constitution. Critical Inquiry, 44 (3), 528-553. doi: 10.1086/696922
Hunter, Ian (2018). Johann Jakob Moser and Immanuel Kant on Public Law and the German Religious Constitution. Kant and His German Contemporaries, Vol Ii: Aesthetics, History, Politics, and Religion, 150-169.
Hunter, Ian (2017). Giorgio Agamben's genealogy of office. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 4 (2), 166-199. doi: 10.1080/23254823.2017.1300541
Hunter, Ian (2017). Giorgio Agamben's Form of life. Politics, Religion and Ideology, 18 (2), 135-156. doi: 10.1080/21567689.2017.1327852
Hunter, Ian (2017). Pufendorf’s philosophy. Online Library of Liberty, 1-1.
Hunter, Ian (2017). Response to Haakonssen. Online Library of Liberty, 1-1.
Hunter, Ian (2016). Review of Justin E.H. Smith, The philosopher: a history in six types. Intellectual History Review, 26 (4), 566-569. doi: 10.1080/17496977.2016.1225373
Hunter, Ian (2016). Heideggerian mathematics: Badiou's Being and Event as spiritual pedagogy. Representations, 134 (Spring 2016), 116-156. doi: 10.1525/rep.2016.134.5.116
Hunter, Ian (2016). About the dialectical historiography of international law. Global Intellectual History, 1 (1), 1-32. doi: 10.1080/23801883.2016.1155863
Hunter, Ian (2014). Hayden White's philosophical history. New Literary History, 45 (3), 331-358. doi: 10.1353/nlh.2014.0023
Hunter, Ian (2014). Secularization: the birth of a modern combat concept. Modern Intellectual History, 12 (1), 1-32. doi: 10.1017/S1479244314000158
Hunter, Ian (2014). Religious freedom in early modern Germany: theology, philosophy, and legal casuistry. South Atlantic Quarterly, 113 (1), 37-62. doi: 10.1215/00382876-2390419
Hunter, Ian (2014). The mythos, ethos, and pathos of the humanities. History of European Ideas, 40 (1), 11-36. doi: 10.1080/01916599.2013.784030
Hunter, Ian (2013). The figure of man and the territorialisation of justice in enlightenment natural law: Pufendorf and vattel. Intellectual History Review, 23 (3), 289-307. doi: 10.1080/17496977.2012.723335
Hunter, Ian (2013). Kant and Vattel in context: cosmopolitan philosophy and diplomatic casuistry. History of European Ideas, 39 (4), 477-502. doi: 10.1080/01916599.2012.727145
Hunter, Ian (2013). English blasphemy. Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, 4 (3), 403-428. doi: 10.1353/hum.2013.0022
Schroeder, Peter, Asbach, Olaf, Breckman, Warren, Bourke, Richard, Busen, Andreas, D'Aprile, Iwan-Michelangelo and Hunter, Ian (2012). History of political thought. German History, 30 (1), 75-99. doi: 10.1093/gerhis/ghr126
Hunter, Ian (2012). 'A Jus gentium for America'. The rules of war and the rule of law in the revolutionary United States. Journal of the History of International Law, 14 (2), 173-206. doi: 10.1163/138819912X13333544461678
Hunter, Ian (2011). Annabel S. Brett, Changes of state: nature and the limits of the city in natural law. Ethics, 122 (1), 179-183. doi: 10.1086/662062
Hunter, Ian (2011). Charles Taylor's A Secular Age and secularization in early modern Germany. Modern Intellectual History, 8 (3), 621-646. doi: 10.1017/S1479244311000370
Hunter, Ian (2011). Terror, reason, and history. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 36 (1), 56-63. doi: 10.1177/0304375411402018
Hunter, Ian (2011). Law, war, and casuistry in Vattel's Jus Gentium. Parergon, 28 (2), 87-104. doi: 10.1353/pgn.2011.0070
Hunter, Ian (2010). Vattel's Law of Nations: Diplomatic Casuistry for the Protestant Nation. Grotiana, 31 (1), 108-140. doi: 10.1163/187607510X540240
Hunter, Ian (2010). Kant's regional cosmopolitanism. Journal of the History of International Law, 12 (2), 165-188. doi: 10.1163/157180510X530112
Hunter, Ian (2010). Scenes from the history of poststructuralism: Davos, Freiburg, Baltimore, Leipzig. New Literary History, 41 (3), 491-515.
Hunter, Ian (2009). Postmodernist histories. Intellectual History Review, 19 (2), 265-279. doi: 10.1080/17496970902981728
Hunter, Ian (2009). Spirituality and Philosophy in Post-Structuralist Theory. History of European Ideas, 35 (1), 265-275. doi: 10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2008.11.002
Hunter, I. R. (2008). The Desire for Deconstruction: Derrida's Metaphysics of Law. Communication, Politics & Culture, 41 (1), 6-29.
Condren, Conal and Hunter, Ian R. (2008). Introduction: The Persona of the Philosopher in the Eighteenth Century. Intellectual History Review, 18 (3), 315-317. doi: 10.1080/17496970802319185
Hunter, I. R. (2008). Talking about My Generation. Critical Inquiry, 34 (3), 583-600. doi: 10.1086/589481
Hunter, Ian (2008). The shallow legitimacy of secular liberal orders: the case of early modern Brandenburg-Prussia. Secularism, Religion and Multicultural Citizenship, 27-55.
Hunter, Ian (2007). The time of theory. Postcolonial Studies, 10 (1), 5-22. doi: 10.1080/13688790601153123
Hunter, Ian (2007). The history of philosophy and the persona of the philosopher. Modern Intellectual History, 4 (3), 571-600. doi: 10.1017/S1479244307001424
Hunter, Ian (2007). Natural law, historiography, and Aboriginal sovereignty. Legal History, 11 (2), 137-168.
Hunter, Ian (2006). Sacrilege: From public crime to personal offence. Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, 109-117.
Hunter, Ian (2006). The history of theory. Critical Inquiry, 33 (1), 78-112. doi: 10.1086/509747
Hunter, Ian (2005). The state of history and the empire of metaphysics [Review]. History and Theory, 44 (2), 289-303. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2303.2005.00324.x
Hunter, Ian (2005). The passions of the prince: Moral philosophy and Staatskirchenrecht in Thomasius's conception of sovereignty. Cultural and Social History, 2, 113-129.
Hunter, Ian (2005). Kant's religion and Prussian religious policy. Modern Intellectual History, 2 (1), 1-27. doi: 10.1017/S1479244304000307
Hunter, Ian (2004). Reading Thomasius on heresy. Eighteenth Century Thought, 2, 39-56.
Hunter, Ian (2004). Conflicting obligations: Pufendorf, Leibniz and Barbeyrac on civil authority. History of Political Thought, 25 (4), 670-699.
Saunders, David and Hunter, Ian (2003). Bringing the state to England: Andrew Tooke's translation of Samuel Pufendorf's 'De officio hominis et civis'. History of Political Thought, 24 (2), 218-234.
Hunter, Ian (2002). The morals of metaphysics: Kant's 'Groundwork' as intellectual paideia. Critical Inquiry, 28 (4), 908-929. doi: 10.1086/341237
Hunter, Ian (2000). Book review: The invention of autonomy: A history of modern moral philosophy. Philosophical Review, 109 (3), 444-447.
Hunter, Ian (2000). Christian Thomasius and the desacralization of philosophy. Journal of The History of Ideas, 61 (4), 595-616. doi: 10.2307/3654071
Hunter, Ian (1996). Literary theory in civic life. South Atlantic Quarterly, 95 (4), 1099-1134.
HUNTER, (1994). A SCHOOLING IN ENGLISH - CRITICAL EPISODES IN THE STRUGGLE TO SHAPE LITERARY AND CULTURAL-STUDIES - DIXON,J. Cultural Studies, 8 (1), 142-161. doi: 10.1080/09502389400490101
SAUNDERS, D and HUNTER, (1991). LESSONS FROM THE LITERATORY, HOW TO HISTORICISE AUTHORSHIP. Critical Inquiry, 17 (3), 479-509. doi: 10.1086/448594
HUNTER, (1988). ENGLISH IN AUSTRALIA. Meanjin, 47 (4), 723-738.
HUNTER, (1982). THE CONCEPT OF CONTEXT AND THE PROBLEM OF READING. Southern Review-Adelaide, 15 (1), 80-91.
Conference Papers
Hunter, Ian (2014). Law, war, and empire in early modern protestant Jus Gentium: the casuistries of Gentili and Vattel. Convegno XIV Giornata Gentiliana, Milan, Italy, 24-25 September 2010. Milan, Italy: Giuffrè.
Hunter, Ian (2009). Theory time: on the history of poststructuralism. The 40th Annual Symposium of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Canberra, Australia, 19-20 November 2009. Canberra, Australia: The Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Condren, Conal, Gaukroger, Stephen and Hunter, Ian (2006). Introduction. International Workshop on the Persona of the Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Brisbane Australia, Jul 07-08, 2004. CAMBRIDGE: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511490460.001
Hunter, Ian (2006). The university philosopher in early modern Germany. International Workshop on the Persona of the Philosopher in Early Modern Europe, Brisbane Australia, Jul 07-08, 2004. CAMBRIDGE: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511490460.003
Hunter, Ian (2003). Arguments over obligation: Teaching time and place in moral philosophy. Teaching the New Histories of Philosophy: A Conference, Princeton, NJ, United States of America, 4-6 April 2003. Princeton, NJ, United States of America: University Center for Human Values, Princeton University.
Generic Document
Working Papers
Hunter, Ian (2018). Spirituality and philosophy in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland.
Hunter, Ian (2015). Heideggerian mathematics: Badiou's Being and Event. Centre for the History of European Discourses, The University of Queensland.
Hunter, Ian (2014). Secularisation: the emergence of a modern combat concept. Centre for the History of European Discourses, University of Queensland.