Episodes
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.
Sunday May 31, 2020
HoP 350 - The Sentence - Machiavelli on Republicanism
Sunday May 31, 2020
Sunday May 31, 2020
Peter celebrates reaching 350 episodes by explaining a single sentence in Machiavelli's "Discourses."
Sunday May 03, 2020
HoP 348 - The Sweet Restraints of Liberty - Republicanism and Civic Humanism
Sunday May 03, 2020
Sunday May 03, 2020
Did “civic humanism” really make republicanism a newly dominant political theory in the Italian Renaissance?
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
HoP 345 - What a Piece of Work is Man - Manetti and Pico on Human Nature
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
Pico della Mirandola and Giannozzo Manetti praise humans as the centerpiece of the created world. But what about the other animals?
Sunday Oct 20, 2019
HoP 334 - Chance Encounters - Reviving Hellenistic philosophy
Sunday Oct 20, 2019
Sunday Oct 20, 2019
The rediscovery of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus spreads challenging ideas about chance, atomism, and skepticism.
Sunday Sep 08, 2019
HoP 331 - Literary Criticism - Lorenzo Valla
Sunday Sep 08, 2019
Sunday Sep 08, 2019
Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
HoP 329 - Greeks Bearing Gifts - Byzantine Scholars in Italy
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
Bessarion and George Trapenzuntius, rival scholars from the Greek east who helped inspire the Italian Renaissance.
Sunday May 19, 2019
HoP 325 - Platonic Love - Gemistos Plethon
Sunday May 19, 2019
Sunday May 19, 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?
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
HoP 292 - Say it With Poetry - Chaucer and Langland
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
Philosophical themes in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and “Troilus and Criseyde,” as well as Langland’s “Piers Plowman.”
Sunday Oct 22, 2017
HoP 287 - Down to the Ground - Meister Eckhart
Sunday Oct 22, 2017
Sunday Oct 22, 2017
The scholastic and mystic Meister Eckhart sets out his daring speculations about God and humankind in both Latin and German.
Sunday Jul 16, 2017
HoP 282 - Portrait of the Artist - John Buridan
Sunday Jul 16, 2017
Sunday Jul 16, 2017
The hipster’s choice for favorite scholastic, John Buridan, sets out a nominalist theory of knowledge and language, and explains the workings of free will.
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
HoP 276 - Back to the Future - Foreknowledge and Predestination
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
Scotus, Ockham, and Bradwardine ask how we can be free if God knows and chooses the things we will do in the future.
Sunday Feb 12, 2017
HoP 271 - Do As You’re Told - Ockham on Ethics and Political Philosophy
Sunday Feb 12, 2017
Sunday Feb 12, 2017
William of Ockham on freedom of action and freedom of thought.