HoP 381 - More Lutheran than Luther - Philip Melanchthon
October 10th, 2021
Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.
HoP 380 - Take Your Choice - Erasmus vs Luther on Free Will
September 26th, 2021
Erasmus clashes with Martin Luther over the question whether our wills are free or enslaved to sin.
HoP 378 - Faith, No More - Martin Luther
August 1st, 2021
How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.
HoP 377 - One Way or Another - Northern Scholasticism
July 18th, 2021
Trends in Aristotelian philosophy in northern and eastern Europe in the fifteenth century, featuring discussion of the “Wegestreit” and the nominalist theology of Gabriel Biel.
HoP 376 - Books That Last Forever - Erasmus
July 4th, 2021
The “learned piety” of Desiderius Erasmus, the greatest figure of northern humanism.
HoP 373 - Lords of Language - Northern Humanism
May 23rd, 2021
Rudolph Agricola, Juan Luis Vives and other humanist scholars spread the study of classical antiquity across Europe and mock the technicalities of scholastic philosophy.
HoP 371 - European Disunion - Introduction to the Reformation
April 25th, 2021
How humanism and scholasticism came together with the Protestant Reformation to create the philosophy of 15-16th century Europe.
HoP 358 - Of Two Minds - Pomponazzi and Nifo on the Intellect
October 25th, 2020
Pietro Pomponazzi and Agostino Nifo debate the immortality of the soul and the cogency of Averroes’ theory of intellect.
HoP 357 - David Lines on Aristotle’s Ethics in the Renaissance
October 11th, 2020
An interview with David Lines on the role of Aristotle in Renaissance ethics.
HoP 354 - Greed is Good - Economics in the Italian Renaissance
July 26th, 2020
Leon Battista Alberti, Benedetto Cotrugli, and Poggio Bracciolini grapple with the moral and conceptual problems raised by the prospect of people getting filthy rich.
HoP 352 - The Teacher of Our Actions - Renaissance Historiography
June 28th, 2020
Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.
HoP 351 - Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli
June 14th, 2020
Leading Machiavelli scholar Quentin Skinner joins Peter to discuss morality, history, and religion in the Prince and the Discourses.
HoP 349 - No More Mr Nice Guy - Machiavelli
May 17th, 2020
Machiavelli’s seminal work of political advice, "The Prince," tells the ruler how to be strong like a lion and cunning like a fox.
HoP 346 - Cecilia Muratori on Animals in the Renaissance
April 5th, 2020
An interview with Cecilia Muratori, an expert on the surprisingly modern ideas about non-human animals that emerged in the Renaissance.
HoP 342 - Denis Robichaud on Plato in the Renaissance
February 9th, 2020
An interview with Denis Robichaud on how, and why, Plato was read in the Italian Renaissance.
HoP 338 - All About Eve - the Defense of Women
December 15th, 2019
Refutation of misogyny in Moderate Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella.
HoP 336 - We Built This City - Christine de Pizan
November 17th, 2019
Christine de Pizan's political philosophy, epistemology, and the refutation of misogyny in her "City of Ladies".
HoP 335 - Sabrina Ebbersmeyer on Emotions in Renaissance Philosophy
November 3rd, 2019
An interview with Sabrina Ebbersmeyer about the relation of emotion to reason and the body, and panpsychism, in the Renaissance.
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.
