155. Treason (extended)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit overthinkpod.substack.comHello folks! As we hit the 5-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, we thought it would be the perfect time to do an episode on treason. We’d love your thoughts on treason, January 6th, and anything else you’re overthinking about these days in our subscriber chat. Additionally, Ellie and David will be hosting a Substack livestream (maybe two!) this month and we’d love all your questions and comments about everything philosophy :) With love, here’s to the first Overthink episode of 2026 Do we ever have a duty to commit treason? In episode 155 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about “the crime of crimes.” They look at the emergence of this legal concept and its evolution over time, and discuss some of the most important historical cases involving treason:  Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, and John Brown. Can we say that treason is always bad when America's founding itself depended on an act of treason? Who is capable of committing a treasonous act? And is treason ever morally permissible? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss how treason is seen in Hobbes’ political philosophy and whether we need to recover insurrection as a political possibility.Works Discussed:Neil Cartlidge, “Treason,” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Law and LiteratureCécile Fabre, “The Morality of Treason”George P. Fletcher, “The Case for Treason”Michel Foucault, Discipline and PunishPhyllis Greenacre, “Treason and the Traitor”Leonard Harris, “Honor and Insurrection or A Short Story about why John Brown (with David Walker’s Spirit) was Right and Frederick Douglass (with Benjamin Banneker’s Spirit) was Wrong”Lee McBride, “Insurrectionary Ethics and Racism”Highlight: Treason as Betrayal* As David mentions, to approach treason from a philosophical angle, it is useful to define it as a subset of a general type of action or behavior, such as betrayal* Psychoanalyst Phyllis Greenacre distinguishes between subcategories of betrayal in her article '“Treason and the Traitor”* Betrayal is generally a violation of trust* She outlines two subterms of betrayal:* Treachery: personal betrayal amongst individuals* Treason: betrayal against the state* Ellie and David then jump into the question who exactly can betray the state?