James Bernard Murphy

James Bernard Murphy is a political theorist and academic who co-authored, with Graeme Garrard, How to Think Politically: Sages, Scholars and Statesmen Whose Ideas Have Shaped the World, a survey of political philosophy that introduces readers to the central ideas of major political thinkers across history, from antiquity to the modern era.

The book is structured around individual thinkers — including figures such as Confucius, Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau — using their lives and arguments as entry points into broader questions about power, justice, freedom, and the state. Written for a general audience, it aims to make the history of political thought accessible without sacrificing the complexity of the ideas it covers.

Murphy's work reflects his academic interest in the history of political philosophy and its continued relevance to contemporary debates about governance, rights, and society.