History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 471 Unclear and Indistinct Ideas: Debating the Meditations

Descartes’ Meditations caused controversy as soon as it appeared. In this episode we look at criticisms including the “Cartesian Circle,” and how Descartes answered them.

HoP 470 Gary Hatfield on Descartes' Meditations

We're joined in this episode by a leading expert on one of the most famous works of philosophy ever written: Descartes' Meditations.

HoP 469 Ghost in the Machine: Cartesian Dualism

The word “Cartesian” is synonymous with a radical contrast between mind and body. What led Descartes to his dualism, and how can he explain vital activities in humans and animals having rejected the Aristotelian theory of soul?

HoP 468 Perchance to Dream: Descartes’ Skeptical Method

How Descartes fashioned a “method” to repel even the strongest and most radical forms of doubt, with the cogito argument as its foundation.

HoP 467 Written in Mathematics: Descartes’ Physics

For Descartes body is purely geometrical. So how does he understand features we can perceive, like color, and causation between bodies?

HoP 466 Well Hidden: Descartes’ Life and Works

How René Descartes’ understanding of his own intellectual project evolved across his lifetime.

HoP 461 - Eileen Reeves on Galileo and the Telescope

We finish our look at philosophy in the Reformation era with an interview about Galileo's use of a revolutionary technology: the telescope.

HoP 449 - Anna Tropia on Jesuit Philosophy

We learn from Anna Tropia how Jesuit philosophy of mind broke new ground in the scholastic tradition.

HoP 448 - Secondary Schools - Iberian Scholasticism

The “School of Salamanca,” founded by Francisco Vitoria, and the commentators of Coimbra are at the center of a movement sometimes called the “Second Scholastic.”

HoP 444 - The Dark Night Rises - Spanish Mysticism

Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross push the boundaries of individual spirituality and offer philosophically informed accounts of mystical experience.

HoP 436 - Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores - Robert Fludd

Our last figure of the English Renaissance undertakes daring investigations of chemistry, medicine, agriculture, and cosmology – and gets accused of magic and Rosicrucianism.

HoP 435 - Metal More Attractive - William Gilbert and Magnetism

The cosmological and methodological implications of breakthroughs in the understanding of magnetism and electricity at the turn of the 17th century.

HoP 434 - The Eye Sees Not Itself But By Reflection - Theories of Vision

Changing ideas about eyesight, light, mirror images, and refraction – and the skeptical worries they may have inspired.

HoP 433 - Nature’s Mystery - Science in Renaissance England

How scientists of the Elizabethan age anticipated the discoveries and methods of the Enlightenment (without necessarily publishing them).

HoP 431 - Calvin Normore on Scholasticism

A discussion of the history and philosophical significance of scholasticism from medieval times to early modernity, and even today.

HoP 430 - I’ll Teach You Differences - British Scholasticism

The evolution of Aristotelian philosophy from John Mair in the late 15th century to John Case in the late 16th century.

HoP 428 - Weird Sisters - Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Witchcraft

How Macbeth reflects the anxieties and explanations surrounding witchcraft and witch-hunting in early modern Europe.

HoP 422 - The World’s Law - Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker defends the religious and political settlement of Elizabethan England using rational arguments and appeals to the natural law.

HoP 414 - Henrik Lagerlund on Renaissance Skepticism

No doubt that we're in good hands with interview guest Henrik Lagerlund, who brings his expertise in the history of skepticism to bear on the French Renaissance.

HoP 413 - Don’t Be So Sure - French Skepticism

The sources and scope of the skepticism of Montaigne, Charron, and Sanches.