Profile
Dr Simon Townsend
Associate Lecturer
My primary area of research is the political philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In particular, I am currently focusing on interpreting the underlying claims that Nietzsche makes about political states, including their formation and their periods of decadence and decline. I am investigating the complex relationship between political states and 'higher individuals', who are both a product of certain types of state but are also often the driving impetus behind the emergence of strong states.
I also write on the philosophies and political theories of several twentieth-century Nietzscheans, including Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault, both in respect to their interpretations of Nietzsche and their overall body of work. I am also interested in contemporary agonistic democracy, both the Nietzschean and non-Nietzschean strands, which focuses on the inevitability of conflict between social groups and the necessity of processing this conflict democratically.
I have convened several Masters level modules focused primarily on exploring the writings of Nietzsche and Foucault, including their views on politics, power, and ethics. I am also the convenor for a first-year module, Power and Democracy, which introduces students to many of the most significant strands of contemporary democratic theory, including competitive elitism, participatory democracy, deliberation democracy, and agonistic democracy. I have also taught on a wide range of undergraduate modules (see teaching tab for more information).
Open office hours:
Tuesday 14.30-16.30.
Research interests
See: https://exeter.academia.edu/SimonTownsend
Articles:
Nietzsche on the Rise of Strong Political States and Their Cultivation of Higher Individuals (2020). Review of Politics 82 (1).
Beyond the Myth of the Nietzschean Ideal-Type, European Journal of Philosophy 25 (3).
Reviews:
The Rise of Politics and Morality in Nietzsche's "Genealogy": From Chaos to Conscience (2020) by Jeffrey Metzger, The Review of Politics (firstonline).
Nietzsche's Great Politics (2017) by Hugo Drochon, Contemporary Political Theory 16 (4).
Modules taught
- POL1019 - Power and Democracy
- POL1026 - Early Modern Political Thought
- POL1029 - Introduction to Comparative Politics
- POL2027 - The Politics of the World Economy
- POL2047 - American Politics
- POL2057 - Security Studies
- POL3040 - Dissertation
- POLM803 - Sources in Modernity and Post-Modernity
- POLM877 - Dissertation