History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 473 As Rational As You: Elisabeth of Bohemia

A royal scholar and philosopher sets aside the tribulations of her family to debate Descartes over the relation between mind and body and the nature of happiness.

HoP 457 - Take Your Medicine - Oliva Sabuco and Camilla Erculiani

Natural philosophy and medicine in the work of two unorthodox thinkers of the late sixteenth century, both of them women.

HoP 444 - The Dark Night Rises - Spanish Mysticism

Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross push the boundaries of individual spirituality and offer philosophically informed accounts of mystical experience.

HoP 429 - She Uttereth Piercing Eloquence - Women’s Spiritual Literature

How women’s writing in England changed from the early fifteenth century, the time of Margery Kempe, to the late sixteenth century, the time of Anne Lock.

HoP 428 - Weird Sisters - Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Witchcraft

How Macbeth reflects the anxieties and explanations surrounding witchcraft and witch-hunting in early modern Europe.

HoP 415 - The Tenth Muse - Marie de Gournay

Marie le Jars de Gourney, the “adoptive daughter” of Montaigne, lays claim to his legacy and argues for the equality of the sexes.

HoP 399 - Seriously Funny - Rabelais

In his outrageous novel about Pantagruel and Gargantua, Rabelais engages with scholasticism, humanism, medicine, the reformation, and the querelle des femmes.

HoP 398 - Pearls of Wisdom - Marguerite of Navarre

A Renaissance queen supports philosophical humanism and produces literary works on spirituality, love, and the soul.

HoP 386 - Perhaps Not Wrong - Cornelius Agrippa

Was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a dark magician, a pious skeptic, or both?

HoP 385 - I Too Can Ask Questions - Protestant Scholasticism

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.

HoP 379 - Lyndal Roper on Luther

How radical was Luther? We find out from Lyndal Roper, who also discusses Luther and the Peasants' War, sexuality, anti-semitism, and the visual arts.

HoP 364 - Guido Giglioni on Renaissance Medicine

An interview with Guido Giglioni, who speaks to us about the sources and philosophical implications of medical works of the Renaissance.

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 338 - All About Eve - the Defense of Women

Refutation of misogyny in Moderate Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella.

HoP 337 - More Rare Than the Phoenix - Italian Women Humanists

Cassandra Fedele, Isotta Nogarola, and Laura Cereta seek fame and glory through eloquence and learning.

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 315 - Wiser Than Men - Gender in Byzantium

The role of women in Byzantine society and the complex attitudes surrounding eunuchs: did they make up a “third gender”?