History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 380 - Take Your Choice - Erasmus vs Luther on Free Will

Erasmus clashes with Martin Luther over the question whether our wills are free or enslaved to sin.

HoP 378 - Faith, No More - Martin Luther

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

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

The “learned piety” of Desiderius Erasmus, the greatest figure of northern humanism.

HoP 373 - Lords of Language - Northern Humanism

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

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

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

An interview with David Lines on the role of Aristotle in Renaissance ethics.

HoP 354 - Greed is Good - Economics in the Italian Renaissance

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

Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.

HoP 351 - Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli

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

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

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

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

Refutation of misogyny in Moderate Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella.

HoP 336 - We Built This City - Christine de Pizan

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

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

The rediscovery of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus spreads challenging ideas about chance, atomism, and skepticism.

HoP 333 - Difficult to Be Good - Humanist Ethics

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

Jill Kraye returns to the podcast to discuss the nature of humanism, its relation to scholasticism, and its legacy.