HoP 334 - Chance Encounters - Reviving Hellenistic philosophy
October 20th, 2019
The rediscovery of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus spreads challenging ideas about chance, atomism, and skepticism.
HoP 333 - Difficult to Be Good - Humanist Ethics
October 6th, 2019
Humanists from Bruni and Valla to Pontano and Castiglione ask whether ancient ethical teachings can still help us learn how to live.
HoP 332 - Jill Kraye on Humanism
September 22nd, 2019
Jill Kraye returns to the podcast to discuss the nature of humanism, its relation to scholasticism, and its legacy.
HoP 331 - Literary Criticism - Lorenzo Valla
September 8th, 2019
Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.
HoP 330 - Republic of Letters - Italian Humanism
July 28th, 2019
Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni combine eloquence with philosophy, taking as their model the refined language and republican ideals found in Cicero.
HoP 329 - Greeks Bearing Gifts - Byzantine Scholars in Italy
July 14th, 2019
Bessarion and George Trapenzuntius, rival scholars from the Greek east who helped inspire the Italian Renaissance.
HoP 328 - Old News - Introduction to the Italian Renaissance
June 30th, 2019
A first look at the themes and figures of philosophy in the Italian Renaissance.
HoP 327 - Michele Trizio on Byzantine and Latin Medieval Philosophy
June 16th, 2019
The series on Byzantium concludes as Michele Trizio discusses the mutual influence of Byzantium and Latin Christendom.
HoP 326 - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - the Later Orthodox Tradition
June 2nd, 2019
When the Byzantine empire ended in 1453, philosophy in Greek did not end with it. In this episode we bring the story up to the 20th century.
HoP 325 - Platonic Love - Gemistos Plethon
May 19th, 2019
Was Gemistos Plethon, the last great thinker of the Byzantine tradition, a secret pagan or just a Christian with an unusual enthusiasm for Platonism?
HoP 324 - United We Fall - Latin Philosophy in Byzantium
May 5th, 2019
Thomas Aquinas finds avid readers among Byzantines at the twilight of empire, and is used by both sides of the Hesychast controversy.
HoP 323 - Through His Works You Shall Know Him - Palamas and Hesychasm
April 21st, 2019
Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.
HoP 322 - Do the Math - Science in the Palaiologan Renaissance
April 7th, 2019
Mathematics and the sciences in Byzantium, focusing on scholars of the Palaiologan period like Blemmydes and Metochites.
HoP 321 - Judith Herrin on Byzantium and Islam
March 24th, 2019
Historian Judith Herrin joins us to talk about competition and mutual influence between Islam and Byzantium.
HoP 320 - People of the South - Byzantium and Islam
March 10th, 2019
Intellectual exchange between Christians and Muslims, and the later flowering of Syriac literature including the philosopher Bar Hebraeus.
HoP 319 - Georgia on My Mind - Petritsi and the Proclus Revival
February 24th, 2019
The Neoplatonist Proclus gets mixed reviews from Christians, as Nicholas of Methone refutes him but the Georgian philosopher Ioane Petritsi helps to revive his thought.
HoP 318 - Oliver Primavesi on Greek Manuscripts
February 10th, 2019
Peter's Munich colleague Oliver Primavesi tells us how Greek manuscripts are used to establish the text of authors like Aristotle.
HoP 317 - Made by Hand - Byzantine Manuscripts
January 27th, 2019
Without handwritten copies produced by Byzantine scribes, we would know almost nothing about ancient philosophy. How and why were they made?
HoP 316 - Just Measures - Law, Money, and War in Byzantium
January 13th, 2019
Legal and economic thought in Byzantium: the sources of the law’s authority, the relation of church and civil law, just price, and just war.
HoP 315 - Wiser Than Men - Gender in Byzantium
December 30th, 2018
The role of women in Byzantine society and the complex attitudes surrounding eunuchs: did they make up a “third gender”?
