Episodes

Sunday Dec 04, 2022
HoP 409 - One to Rule Them All - Jean Bodin
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
The polymath Jean Bodin produces a pioneering theory of political sovereignty along the way to defending the absolute power of the French king.

Sunday Nov 20, 2022
HoP 408 - Constitutional Conventions - the Huguenots
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Protestant French thinkers like François Hotman and Theodore Beza propose a radical political philosophy: the king rules at the pleasure of his subjects.

Sunday Nov 06, 2022
HoP 407 - Maria Rosa Antognazza on Early Modern Toleration
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
An interview on the nature of religious tolerance, and the forms it took during the Reformation and in the thought of early modern thinkers like Locke and Leibniz.

Sunday Oct 23, 2022
HoP 406 - Believe at Your Own Risk - Toleration in France
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Even as wars of religion in France prompt calls for toleration, hardly anyone makes a principled case for freedom of conscience… apart from Sebastian Castellio.

Sunday Jun 19, 2022
HoP 399 - Seriously Funny - Rabelais
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
In his outrageous novel about Pantagruel and Gargantua, Rabelais engages with scholasticism, humanism, medicine, the reformation, and the querelle des femmes.

Saturday Mar 12, 2022
HoP 392 - John Sellars on Lipsius and Early Modern Stoicism
Saturday Mar 12, 2022
Saturday Mar 12, 2022
John Sellars returns to the podcast to discuss Lipsius' work on Seneca and the early modern Neo-Stoic movement.

Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Justus Lipsius draws on Seneca and other Stoics to counsel peace of mind in the face of political chaos, but also writes a work on how such chaos can be avoided.

Sunday Feb 13, 2022
HoP 390 - Born to Be Contrary - Toleration in the Netherlands
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Amidst religious conflict in the Netherlands, Dirck Coornhert pleads for religious toleration and freedom of expression.

Sunday Dec 05, 2021
HoP 385 - I Too Can Ask Questions - Protestant Scholasticism
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
In a surprise twist, some Protestant thinkers embrace the methods of scholasticism, and even find something to admire in the work of Catholic authors like Aquinas.

Sunday Nov 21, 2021
HoP 384 - We Are Not Our Own - John Calvin
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
John Calvin's views on predestination and the limits of human reason.

Sunday Nov 07, 2021
HoP 383 - Slowly But Surely - Huldrych Zwingli
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.

Sunday Oct 24, 2021
HoP 382 - No Lord but God - the Peasants’ War and Radical Reformation
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.

Sunday Oct 10, 2021
HoP 381 - More Lutheran than Luther - Philip Melanchthon
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.

Sunday Sep 26, 2021
HoP 380 - Take Your Choice - Erasmus vs Luther on Free Will
Sunday Sep 26, 2021
Sunday Sep 26, 2021
Erasmus clashes with Martin Luther over the question whether our wills are free or enslaved to sin.

Sunday Aug 01, 2021
HoP 378 - Faith, No More - Martin Luther
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.

Sunday Jul 18, 2021
HoP 377 - One Way or Another - Northern Scholasticism
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 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.

Sunday Jun 06, 2021
HoP 374 - Opposites Attract - Nicholas of Cusa
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
The radical negative theology of Nicholas of Cusa, and his hope of establishing peace between the religions of the world.

Sunday Apr 25, 2021
HoP 371 - European Disunion - Introduction to the Reformation
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
How humanism and scholasticism came together with the Protestant Reformation to create the philosophy of 15-16th century Europe.

Sunday Feb 14, 2021
HoP 366 - The Men Who Saw Tomorrow - Renaissance Magic and Astrology
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Ficino, Pico, Cardano, and other Renaissance thinkers debate whether astrology and magic are legitimate sciences with a foundation in natural philosophy.

Sunday Jun 28, 2020
HoP 352 - The Teacher of Our Actions - Renaissance Historiography
Sunday Jun 28, 2020
Sunday Jun 28, 2020
Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.