History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 353 - The Good Place - Utopias in the Italian Renaissance

Tommaso Campanella’s “The City of the Sun” and other utopian works of the Italian Renaissance describe perfect cities as an ideal for real life politics.

HoP 347 - Bonfire of the Vanities - Savonarola

The prophetic preacher Girolamo Savonarola attacks pagan philosophy and puts forward his own political ideas, before coming to an untimely end.

HoP 342 - Denis Robichaud on Plato in the Renaissance

An interview with Denis Robichaud on how, and why, Plato was read in the Italian Renaissance.

HoP 340 - Footnotes to Plato - Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino’s revival of Platonism, with a focus on his proofs for the soul’s immortality in his magnum opus, the Platonic Theology.

HoP 327 - Michele Trizio on Byzantine and Latin Medieval Philosophy

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

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 324 - United We Fall - Latin Philosophy in Byzantium

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

Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.

HoP 321 - Judith Herrin on Byzantium and Islam

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

Intellectual exchange between Christians and Muslims, and the later flowering of Syriac literature including the philosopher Bar Hebraeus.

HoP 307 - Consul of the Philosophers - Michael Psellos

Michael Psellos and his attitude towards pagan philosophy and the political life.

HoP 306 - Collectors’ Items - Photius and Byzantine Compilations

Photius, “the inventor of the book review,” and other Byzantine scholars who preserved ancient learning.

HoP 305 - Andrew Louth on John of Damascus

Peter is joined by Andrew Louth for a discussion of John of Damascus and his theological use of philosophy.

HoP 304 - Behind Enemy Lines - John of Damascus

John of Damascus helps to shape the Byzantine understanding of humankind and the veneration of images, despite living in Islamic territory.

HoP 303 - Don’t Picture This - Iconoclasm

Is it idolatry to venerate an icon of a saint, or of Christ? The dispute leads the Byzantines to ponder the relation between an image and its object.

HoP 302 - On the Eastern Front - Philosophy in Syriac and Armenian

Eastern Christian philosophy outside of Constantinople, focusing on translation and exegesis in the languages of Syriac and Armenian.

HoP 300b - The Relevance of Medieval Philosophy Today

Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy, and its contemporary relevance.

HoP 299 - Robert Pasnau on Substance in Scholasticism

Bob Pasnau joins Peter to discuss ideas about substance from Aquinas down to the time of Locke, Leibniz and Descartes.

HoP 297 - The Prague Spring - Scholasticism Across Europe

New ideas and and new universities in Italy and greater Germany including Vienna and Prague, where Jan Hus carries on the radical ideas of Wyclif.

HoP 296 - Morning Star of the Reformation - John Wyclif

John Wyclif refutes nominalism and inspires the Lollard movement, which anticipated Reformation thought with its critique of the church.