Professor David Stack

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” Thesis Eleven of Karl Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach (1845) is both a call to action and a demand that we situate philosophical thinking about the world within history. This sums up my interests as an intellectual historian.

My research and teaching explore the ideas, concepts, and ways of thinking about the world that dominated nineteenth and early twentieth century thought, and situates these ideas, concepts, and ways of thinking within their historical context.

My work ranges across both the history of the left, especially early nineteenth century radicalism, Chartism, and the life and writings of John Stuart Mill, and the history of science, especially phrenology, Darwinism, and eugenics. In each of these areas I seek to understand how ideas and concepts developed within the context of their own time - radicalism in dialogue with contemporary conservatism, Darwinism in interaction with capitalism and imperialism - in order to understand them historically.

This is a relevant and urgent activity because ideas and concepts formed in very different historical circumstances continue to frame our thinking today. History is the present interrogating the past in order to shape the future. The first step is to understand the past.